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The ladies at EquiFUSE were nice enough to send along some samples of the Complete EquiFUSE Body Package for me to try on Champ after our feature on their company a few weeks ago (If you missed it, read up here). After a wonderful bath day on Halloween (before it got chilly here), I had a shiny, soft and happy horse. Here’s my review of two products from this package: CFS Concentrate + Paste Shampoo and Rehydrinse 1-Step Coat Protector + Conditioner (I will be reviewing Gleam at a later date).
Using these products was easy, especially since they had these in a sample pack perfectly proportioned to a one time use. It doesn’t take much of either product to do an amazing job.
The first step of the horsey spa day is the CFS Concentrate + Paste Shampoo. All you have to do is squeeze a tiny amount of CFS into a bucket and then fill the bucket with 1 – 2 gallons of water. Rinse the horse to wet the coat and then sponge and rub the shampoo dilute into the body, mane and tail. After you’ve scrubbed enough, rinse the horse completely. The shampoo smelled nice (very zen, fresh scent), but it’s not my favorite smell. I was a little worried it wouldn’t get the job done with so little product mixed in our bucket and was not sure the mane and tail had enough soap to get them super clean, but I went with it and followed directions.
I ended up quite impressed with the cleaning job. It lathered up nicely on the body (but less on the tail and mane). It got out all the built up gunk, dirt, oil and dander and left him with a nice clean base. I was surprised at how well it cleaned for such a tiny amount of product and it even helped tackle the dander in Champ’s mane and tail admirably. This shampoo is supposed to eliminate the need for a whitening shampoo and it did a nice job on the socks, however I think that for a show, I would still use whitening shampoo on the white to get it few extra shades of blinding. It rinsed off easily (almost too easily as I kept rinsing expect to get suds…and didn’t) and it was great to know their was no residue that might irritate Champ in a few days. According to the information sheet on CFS, it costs as little as $0.10 a bath! Now that’s a steal for a product that works so well.
The second step is the Rehydrinse (and the favorite product of both of the co-founders of EquiFUSE). I was excited to see what all the hoopla was about, and I was not disappointed. The Rehydrinse works in a similar way to the CFS because it is a concentrate. Hose out your soap bucket and mix the Rehydrinse with about a gallon of water (I used warm water). This product is a water-like consistency so make sure not to accidentally spill. Sponge the diluted Rehydrinse all over the horse’s body, mane and tail. Sweat scrape off the extra water, but DO NOT rinse off. Let the horse dry and see what you get!
What I got was something that I’ve never experienced using horse, human or dog products over the years. These products do a spectacular job cleaning and leave the coat with an amazing shine. His coat color got richer, and he became as soft as a bunny. Really. I’m not joking. You will never want to stop patting, hugging and running your fingers through that tail! Very impressive. Not only that, but it drastically reduced the need for grooming for a good week (which was a great time saver for me with everything else that was going on). No dirt stuck to his coat for more than a week until I started needing to add product (liniment) for an injury to his back. It also made clipping a breeze. The clippers went through the hair like a hot knife through butter. Awesome! I think all of this was due to the Rehydrinse, since the body was as soft as the tail even after we used the Gleam on the tail. I am buying a bottle of this stuff as soon as I can go down to get it.
Champ has very unpleasant mane and tail hair. It’s usually quite dull and grimy feeling (even shortly after a bath). Dirt attaches to it easily and it gets flat and dull and feels quite unappealing. After EquiFUSe, there was not a tangle one in his tail for a full week after this bath, and I didn’t need to start adding additional products for moisture and detangling until this week (yup over two weeks of awesomely shiny, tangle free and soft mane and tail). His tail was super fluffy, full and healthy looking. And even now well into the third week the tail is still much nicer than it usually is a day or two after a bath. Impressed! I did use the sample of Gleam on the tail (but not in the mane) after the bath was over, but haven’t used it since. The mane with no Gleam is just as soft and tangle free as the tail with Gleam (however the tail hair did look better).
My trainer/boss and the owner of Champ was so impressed from seeing the results from just one bath, she’s sold and wants to switch over from her current products for all 20 of her horses. It doesn’t take much to convince that these products are the real deal. She also offered to make a commercial or pretty much sell her soul to get her hands on some of this stuff (lol…I’m buying her some for Christmas…don’t tell).
I’ll be focusing another review on Gleam and its ability to improve the tail and mane after a while of being dirty and after another bath of using non-stellar products (aka using something besides EquiFUSE) to see how well it works on a dry, dirty, tangled tail/mane. Look for this in a few months.
As mentioned, I’ll be purchasing a bottle of Rehydrinse ASAP and know it will become a tack box staple. I’m actually ready to start finding new ways to use it other than what’s instructed (I’m thinking this would be a great spray leave on conditioner to replace the one I have now…and maybe I want to try this on my hair…). Once I’ve finished off less awesome bottles of shampoo, the CFS will be joining it in our stash. I am a little depressed it took me so long to try these products! Don’t make my mistake.
You can buy EquiFUSE at some local retailers and online here (CFS Shampoo) and here (Rehydrinse). They have a larger product line than just these three products, so don’t limit yourself to just trying these.