What’s in your Grooming Products?
Are you in the habit of reading the labels on your horse’s grooming products? If not, you might want to start paying attention.
Why should you worry about what you put on your horse’s skin? The skin is your horse's single largest organ. You might not be aware of the many protective functions the skin serves but consider that skin:
• Protects internal organs from injury and infection and is the primary and most important defense against infections.
• Helps eliminate wastes through perspiration.
• Assists immune system by providing a protective barrier to viruses and bad bacteria, thus preventing infections.
• Provides a friendly habitat for good bacteria.
• Helps maintain body temperature by controlling heat flow between body and environment.
• Seals in moisture, maintaining body's delicate fluid balance.
• Produces vitamin D, which is crucial to health.
• Sends sensory feedback to brain because it is rich in receptors, such as hard/soft and hot/cold, for reaction to dangerous conditions in the environment.
Skin is vital to health, yet many fail to take care of it. Skin has the ability to absorb much of what you put on it, therefore, informed choices are critical to optimize your horse’s health. You should give your horse’s skin the same thoughtful care you give their diet, because much of what goes ON them ends up going IN them.
Since most of our research has been done in the human skin care market, we looked at a study done in 2004 that took a six month look at personal care products. More than 10,000 body care product ingredients were evaluated with 2,300 participants.
One of the findings was that the average adult uses nine personal care products each day. And in those nine products they are exposing themselves to 126 different and potentially toxic chemicals. This study also revealed that more than 250,000 women and one out of every 100 men use an average of 15 products daily. Based on this human study, think of the number of chemicals your horse may be exposed to on a daily basis. If you’re like the typical horse owner you are likely using wound care salves, shampoos, conditioners, mane/tail detanglers, hoof polish, fly sprays and more. How many chemicals is you horse exposed to each day?
Have you paid attention to some of the warnings on your common grooming products? We pulled just a couple labels from common products in the market today. If the product is not safe for my child, it’s not safe for my horse. If it’s harmful if swallowed – remember the skin is also a major entry into the body. If it’s combustible, do I want it on my horse’s skin? If breathing it in can cause nausea and headaches in me, what’s it doing to my horse? If it can potentially cause skin, eye and gastric irritation, is that something I want to put on my horse’s skin? These are all questions to ask yourself before purchasing products.
From our perspective, if there needs to be a warning on any product you are going to be putting on our horse’s skin, it’s not something you want on your skin let alone your horse’s.
Take the time to look at the ingredient list on any product(s) you plan on using. A good rule of thumb is to stay away from products containing anything you have difficulty pronouncing. Methylchloroisothiazolinone – hum.
You’ll also want to look for Silicones, Alcohols, Parabens, Sodium Lauryl Sulfates, artificial colors, artificial fragrances and dyes. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate for example as been shown in many human studies to cause:
• Irritation of the skin and eyes
• Developmental/reproductive toxicity
• Neurotoxicity, endocrine disruption, ecotoxicology, biochemical and cellular changes
• Possible mutations and cancer
* Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep: Cosmetic Safety Reviews
From a Thoughtful Equestrian’s perspective, we believe in keeping it safe, natural and non-toxic by only using products that are 100% All Natural and don’t contain any dyes, salts, alcohols, petroleum, pyrethrins or parabens. Products that don’t require warning labels and are completely safe for us, our horses, and the environment. The only line of products we use on our own horses and use on ourselves for that matter, is: España SILK All Natural Grooming Products.
España SILK products are water-based, Ph balanced, biodegradable, soap and detergent free. They have no petroleum, pyrethrins or alcohol based chemicals. You can easily pronounce any of the ingredients on the list. There are so many ways you can utilize each of the 9 products in the España line. We’ll have to write another blog just on the many, many ways you can use each of the products.
The España SILK product line currently includes:
• An All Natural Shampoo and Conditioner
• An Antiseptic line with Shampoo, Conditioner and a topical spray
• A Whitening and Brightening shampoo
• A wonderful Detangler Spray
• And an All Natural Fly Spray
For more information on What’s in your grooming products, join our Thoughtful Equestrian community for FREE and listen to our EquiClass webinar by Trudy Midas, the founder of EspañaSILK. The EquiClass talks goes into detail on the above.
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