British Equine Sheath Cleaning

  • Home
  • British Equine Sheath Cleaning

British Equine Sheath Cleaning Equine sheath cleaning & mare hygiene. Covering all over the UK. Send us a DM with any questions 🐎
(1)

We work as a pair, fully insured, vet recommended and have been running this business for almost a decade.

I have had a number of people message us recently after using other equine hygienists, even though we spent our time goi...
02/11/2025

I have had a number of people message us recently after using other equine hygienists, even though we spent our time going back and forth answering questions and organising times and dates for them. The reason being the other hygienists were ÂŁ5 or ÂŁ10 cheaper than us.

Thats business and we aren’t mad about that.

You can use whoever you deem appropriate, but what we do find frustrating is to then get messages weeks later asking for advice because the horses sheath now seems to be so much worse.

After asking questions it turns out things such as baby oil or coconut oil or hibiscrub were used and these products have completely messed with the balance of the horses sheath, making it get really mucky, really quickly or even worse, led to infection.

Some horses do get mucky very quickly but it is important to ensure that the products used are not harmful to the PH balance of the sheath.

We do not mind helping or advising, it is simply not possible for our small business to get to everyone’s horse, thankfully there are a number of really lovely equine hygienists out there. But it is so important to do your research before you book anyone out - us included - we will not be offended if you are doing your research to make sure you have the right hygienist for you and your horse.

Check they don’t use harsh chemicals, that they wear gloves and that they are insured!

When you send us messages and ask for advice, we don’t get paid for it unless we attend your horse. We still want you to message us and ask questions but if it’s obvious we have extensive correspondence with you and then after that you went for the ‘cheaper’ option, for you then to message us and ask for our advice free of charge is a little unfair.

We are always, always happy to help - but please remember small businesses often spend so much time out of work hours trying their best to organise their schedules and we don’t get paid for our admin time đŸ€

02/11/2025

‌ Rant Alert ‌ - vlog version â˜ș

How lucky are we to work with some so many sweet GGs 🐎
02/11/2025

How lucky are we to work with some so many sweet GGs 🐎

⚠Weekly Rant ⚠The amount of times we hear, ‘well we never did our horses back in the day and they managed just fine, s...
01/11/2025

⚠Weekly Rant ⚠

The amount of times we hear, ‘well we never did our horses back in the day and they managed just fine, so I don’t see why we should bother now’.

It’s a remark often made by someone on the yard who isn’t getting their horse checked but still wants to impart their unsolicited opinion on to us - and sometimes it’s even said in quite a rude manner, as if all of us equine hygienists are silly fools!

I know statements like that shock some of you because many of you have known about sheath cleaning for your entire lives and can’t understand how others don’t know about it, but I’m very serious when I say, the majority of new clients we are getting at the moment have never heard of sheath cleaning or beans before.

As always, I must point out that this does not make them a bad horse owner, if you are not taught about it, then how are you supposed to know about it?

The problem is, statements like the above are NOT helpful. How could anyone even answer that question - We don’t have a clue if my mums childhood pony was a little terror because he was a pony, maybe he had a bean, who knows?! I certainly don’t know, he lived to a ripe old age but left this world before I entered it - so I never had the chance to check.

There are so many things equestrians did then that they wouldn’t dream of doing now - tack that was used or not used, saddles that were far too big or small - the lack of physios and chiropractors and dentists.

At the end of the day, we should not be making anyone feel silly for asking genuine questions or learning, we should be kind to one another. If someone wants to try something new in the hopes of bettering the health and comfort of their horse, then who are you to make them feel a fool.

We learn, we evolve and we educate ourselves for the better of the horses that we are lucky enough to enjoy.

01/11/2025

The cleanest W***y often harbours the biggest bean
vlog version đŸ«˜

01/11/2025

Have you had them checked? 👀

How can beans cause issue with how much your horse drinks? This is how the bean sits in the head of the p***s. The pink ...
31/10/2025

How can beans cause issue with how much your horse drinks?

This is how the bean sits in the head of the p***s. The pink line at the top.
It forms in a pocket called the urethral fossa, next to/around the urethra - NOT in the urethra.

What happens is the bit highlighted in pink is trying to push its way out of the pocket, because as the bean is getting larger, the pocket it’s forming in has no more room to hold it.

The indentation where the blue arrow is pointing is the area that is pushing up against the urethra. Over time when the horse is urinating it is wearing away that part of the bean - so actually this particular horse didn’t have any issues with uriation, not yet anyway.

If the bean is lodged awkwardly, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the size of the palm of my hand or smaller than a pea, it can cause issues with urination flow.

That being said lots of horses have beans and have zero issue with urination, so don’t expect that to be a symptom.

Some horses, if they have been struggling to urinate comfortably, will then lessen their intake of water, so that they don’t have to urinate as much. Which is why in some cases you will see your horse chug a load of water and do some big wees, post bean removal!

Funny thing is, this horse stood like an absolute champ whilst we removed this bean. The horse we did just before had a ...
30/10/2025

Funny thing is, this horse stood like an absolute champ whilst we removed this bean.
The horse we did just before had a much smaller bean but hated the removal process (can’t say I blame him, I would hate it too).
We did a horse after with a similar size bean to the one in the image, who also wasn’t a fan.

It just goes to show it’s all about tolerance, some horse are more stoic than others 🐎

I must stress that I don’t believe that every single horse with behavioural issues will have a bean, or painful build up...
30/10/2025

I must stress that I don’t believe that every single horse with behavioural issues will have a bean, or painful build up. Sometimes it is the answer, sometimes it isn’t.

It is important however to go through the pain checklist.
Has your horse had their teeth checked in the past year, what about regular farriery work? Have they been checked for a bean and had bodywork done by their physio or chiropractor? Is the saddle suitable? What bit are you using?
Sometimes it’s an amalgamation of all of these things. Sometimes it’s one of them, sometimes it’s none.

I do think some horses choose the sport they enjoy, my dad had a prolific hunter, Sadie, in the 80s, (so fantastic a pair they were a well known horse dealer wrote about them briefly in a book a few years back). Sadie, never put a hoof wrong for him in the years he had her but she flat out refused to do point to point, bizarre really, but he listened to her nonetheless.

Some young horses do like to test you that’s for certain, but real behavioural issues so often stem from real pain and we shouldn’t be ‘pushing’ them through it without doing the checks.

If I were told to run a race and had a tiny stone in my shoe, and I was told I could not stop, I would be so terribly dramatic, I would probably faint and the medics would have to blue light me in, in fear I had something really serious going on - it would turn out my pain tolerance is actually on the floor, that I am just a huge wimp and I would be sent home after being scalded by the medics for wasting peoples time - some horses are like this too, but if it hurts them it hurts them, no matter how minor the ailment.

Sometimes horses just need some time off, just like we do.

If we keep on top of the basic checks it will do our horses the world of good. Don’t let it fester until it’s too unbearable for the horse (or your bank balance)!đŸ«¶đŸ»

We meet people everyday and this is often the reaction we get - today is no different while awaiting an x-ray at the hos...
30/10/2025

We meet people everyday and this is often the reaction we get - today is no different while awaiting an x-ray at the hospital 😂

(We were supposed to be there yesterday but we were sent away and told to return this morning đŸ˜©)

This was most probably the face I pulled all those years ago when I learned about the topic of beans - What we do love though - once the shock and confusion has passed - is the Genuine interest about what it is we do and why it is so important for horses.

We have to have a laugh from time to time though, because let’s me honest it is a strange job!

Let’s hope we have no slipped pins in the collar bone and just a pulled muscle or tendon - please send positive vibes đŸ«¶đŸ»

29/10/2025

Symptom list - vlog version 🐎

A quote we say a lot - ‘the cleanest W***y, often harbours the biggest bean!’ We can completely understand why you would...
28/10/2025

A quote we say a lot - ‘the cleanest W***y, often harbours the biggest bean!’

We can completely understand why you would think that if your horse’s p***s is clean then they don’t need checking. Surely It’s logical, it looks clean..?!

But the thing is, beans form in the head of the p***s, so actually it’s not at all related to all the muck and crust you see on the outside of the p***s/in the sheath.

For example, we went to a lovely lady who was holding a horse for a friend, the horse had a huge bean, bigger than the one pictured.
We got into conversation with the client, and she mentioned she wasn’t getting her horse checked because ‘he always looks spotless’.

Now, we never want to push anyone to get their horse checked, it’s your horse and whilst we feel this is a very beneficial and terribly important process for your horse, you should never feel pressured, there is always a chance after all that the horse is actually spotless and no bean is present. We did however quote the phrase above.

A few minutes later we were approached and asked if we could check her horse, and look what we found! Other than that his p***s was as described, spotless!

We say it again and again, there is not enough education on this topic. People do not know what they do not know and had we not had a friendly conversation then the horse may never have been checked.

I must stress that this is through no fault of any owner - i haven’t met a person who would willingly leave a horse with a bean. But if they don’t know it’s a possibility, then they don’t know.

Educate kindly and we can help more and more horses đŸ«¶đŸ»

Address


Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when British Equine Sheath Cleaning posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

  • Want your business to be the top-listed Pet Store/pet Service?

Share