Hows it going, y’all?
It’s been like… weeks since I actually updated this thing, but I’ve been more excited about snagging every napping opportunity that I can, while I still can. Which means that the blog has been an epic fail… BUT here I am, with a review!
When we first moved to KY, Willow had a hard time dealing with the heat/bugs. I’ve talked about it before. She has sensitive skin, so the heavier duty fly spray would give her a reaction if I left it on too long. That required nightly baths to make sure that I got all the chemicals off her skin. Vetrolin bath was (and still is) my go to. When you have a horse with sensitive skin, you have to be careful when it comes to shampoo-ing every night. Vetrolin did the trick, and the smell… yum!
Then we started dealing with cellulitis and tendon issues and the Will-i-nator (I have way too many nicknames for this horse!) had to stay in 24/7 for a while. For whatever reason, she started developing weird little scurfy patches all over her body. Gross. Then her legs got all flakey. When it’s 100* and she had to stand in standing wraps the majority of the day (I took them off while I cold-hosed/grazed her for an hour or so in the AM and PM so that her legs could breathe) I wasn’t surprised, but the Vetrolin just wasn’t cutting it when it came to the battle of the creepy crud.
Enter E3 Antibacterial/Antifungal Shampoo!
Source: http://www.nationalbridle.com/product-p/1-7530.htm
When I hit up the tack store in search of an anti-gross shampoo to add to my arsenal, I originally skipped over it, since I haven’t been overly impressed with their other products in the past and it’s not really the yummiest smelling concoction. Usually when dealing with unknown crud, I like to pick up some Sore-No-More (The Sauce… but you have to say it with a superhero voice to make it effective), but they didn’t have any in stock. Finally the price sold me… $12.99 for the 32oz bottle (The Sauce is $14 for an 8oz bottle). I figured I’d give it a shot, and if it didn’t work… it wouldn’t be a huge loss. I would have waited for The Sauce to come in, but I don’t like to let skin issues go. Gross gets gross-er quick, especially when sweat is involved!
Anyways, home I went to give Homeslice a bath and test out the new goo.
The arsenal…
As I mentioned before, the smell is not my favorite and Willow gave it the side eye when I dumped it in the bucket. That’s not unusual though, since she gives everything that has to do with bath time the side eye. I’ve tried to convince her it’s not a good look for her, but she insists. The consistency is pretty similar to regular shampoo. It was just about perfect. Not too runny, but not too thick.
The instructions told me to apply, scrub, allow to sit for 5 minutes and then rinse. So I did. I noticed that while I was scrubbing, it made my arms itch a little bit. No hives or rashes, but they itched until I was able to rinse it off. I was a little worried about letting it sit on Willow’s skin, but kept my faith. She didn’t seem too agitated, but it could have been my soothing Pandora station doing it’s magic.
Doesn’t she look SO happy? She HAS to stand crooked like this…
We waited, took some blurry iPhone pictures, and I did some singing while Willow did some pouty wiggling.
Hi Charley! Everybody gets this nasty during bath time, right?
It rinsed out pretty easily and quickly, which was nice since Willow does the macarana the entire time. Apparently the wash stall manners lessons we have every. single. day. just don’t stick. She was happy to be done with the whole thing though and I set her to dry in front of her stall fan with a pile of hay as a reward.
I left for the night (since it was already 9pm). The next morning I skipped into the barn to check the crud status and it was GONE. Seriously. Overnight. Not a trace.
Can we just… #winning! (<-yup. That just happened).
Needless to say, I give E3 a HUGE thumbs up. It did everything that The Sauce has done for me, at a fraction of the cost and faster! It’s going to stay in the bath bucket for sure. I wouldn’t use it as an everyday shampoo, I’m sticking with Vetrolin for that (the E3 doesn’t compare in the shine factor). If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But for the odd stuff that crops up while Willow is adjusting to Southern living… it’s my new go-to.
It’s been a little while since I bought and tried E3, and since then I also used it to clear up a case of horrible scratches that cropped up. Two days and her legs were squeaky clean! It still makes my arms itch (or legs… pretty much wherever Willow flings the suds) but to me that isn’t the biggest deal, since it is so effective when it comes to getting rid of skin issues. I haven’t had any lasting ill effects, so I just rinse it off and carry on with life.
So there you have it. Got crud? Get yourself some E3!
