If you live in an area with rampant heat and high humidity, your horse is going to contend with skin issues at one point or another. Five-star eventer and Grand Prix dressage rider Laine Ashker has discovered a winning recipe for keeping her horses’ coats and skin healthy all year long, whether she’s training in Florida for the winter, facing humid weather at her home base in Virginia or dealing with chronic skin conditions.

To treat fungus and other leg grime, Laine Ashker applies Silver Honey® Rapid Skin Relief Medicated Shampoo directly to her horses’ legs, lathers it well and then leaves it on for five minutes before rinsing it off.

“When you have high humidity for a long time where that moisture constantly stays in the air and you’re using boots on your horse and training both in and out of the saddle, you’re going to get a lot skin funk—or ‘scurf’ is what we call it—and the hair starts to fall out,” Ashker explained. “But I’ve found a trifecta in Absorbine’s Silver Honey® line of skin-care products, which I use year-round.”

To treat fungus and other leg grime, she applies Silver Honey® Rapid Skin Relief Medicated Shampoo directly to her horses’ legs, lathers it well and then leaves it on for five minutes before rinsing it off. “After rinsing, it’s very important that you allow the skin to fully dry before applying anything else,” Ashker noted.

Once the legs have fully dried, she then applies either Silver Honey® Rapid Wound Repair Ointment or Silver Honey® Rapid Wound Repair Spray Gel depending on the skin issue she’s dealing with. “Both products are super moisturizing and give you options depending on the problem,” Ashker said.

If her horse has cut that’s slightly open, moist and sensitive to touch, she uses the spray. If she’s dealing with a wound or issue that’s resulted in dry, flaky skin, she applies the ointment.

“As competitors, riders and horsemen and women, we’re always going to be dealing with skin issues,” Ashker said. “These three Absorbine Silver Honey® products are pivotal and super important to your horse’s skin health whether you’re riding in the summer, wintering in Florida or have a horse with any sort of dermatitis.”

Click to watch the full video of Laine Ashker demonstrating her trifecta recipe for keeping her horses’ coats and skin healthy.

About Laine Ashker

Five-star eventer and dressage professional Lainey Ashker has competed in numerous FEI competitions at the five-star level, including the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials CC14* and the Defender Burghley Horse Trials CC15*. The horsewoman, who trains out of her Keystone Acres farm in Chesterfield, Virginia, also won the National Eventing Championship (Advanced Level) in 2013 aboard her long-time mount, Anthony Patch. More recently, she won her first CDI in May 2023 aboard her upper-level dressage horse, Zeppelin.  

This video is brought to you by Absorbine.

For More:

  • Learn how to beat the bugs with Laine Ashker’s top tips for fly control here.
  • Gallop a CCI3* cross-country course with Ashker in this high-velocity GoPro footage, where she shares her strategies for tackling each obstacle over the challenging track at Maryland’s Fair Hill here.
  • To watch Ashker demonstrate how cross country translates to upper-level dressage, click here.