Forget Vermeer and Rembrandt. For true horsemen, the classic masterpiece has four legs and a tail.

With fire in its eye and sunlight dancing over a dazzling coat, the Thoroughbred can surely be considered a work of art. While sound nutrition and proper health care are essential for a shiny, healthy coat, good grooming can literally make a horse glow.

A well-groomed horse is more than just pleasing to the eye. Regular, thorough grooming increases a horse's circulation and helps to improve its muscle tone. Clean skin is healthier skin because the pores are open and are able to breathe. In addition, the grooming routine provides an ideal way to monitor body condition and attitude. Injuries and irritations are found promptly and can be treated before they become more serious problems. Even subtle changes become obvious with daily, hands-on attention.

The good news is that it does not take a tack room full of expensive equipment to do a first-rate grooming job. While tack store shelves are stocked with an abundance of supplies, the truth is that all you really need are a few basic grooming tools and some old-fashioned elbow grease.

With Nick de Meric

Nick de Meric is consistently among the leading consignors at two-year-old sales. He and his wife, Jaqui, have owned and operated Manuden Farm for the past 15 years. At their 350-acre facility near Ocala, the de Merics sales prep some yearlings for other agents, but their main emphasis is the training, prepping, and sale of two-year-olds. They form pinhooking groups with outside investors, and they are also active as bloodstock agents. At the 2001 Keeneland April Sale, de Meric was the second-leading consignor, selling ten two-year-olds for a total of $1,737,000.

Nick de Meric's grooming staples

• Rubber curry comb with hand strap
• Rub rags, preferably burlap
• Natural bristle soft brush
• Natural bristle medium brush
• Plastic mane comb
• Hoof pick with attached hoof brush
• Lanolin-based hoof paint
• Sweat scraper
• Natural sea sponge
• Aloe-based shampoo
• Coat conditioner or baby oil

"There's nothing quite as gratifying as grooming a horse when you have the time to do it," de Meric said. "The demands of business take a lot of time, and I miss doing much of the grooming myself. That said, I do groom my pony horse every day." While de Meric has several ponies he rides during training, his favorite is Deets, a chestnut gelding who is well-known among those who frequent the two-year-old sales.

Horses will be horses. After exercise or a rainfall, nothing beats a good roll in the dirt, but horses are not just rolling to make their next grooming session more challenging. A roll in the sand helps a wet horse dry off. A nice coat of dried mud may not look wonderful, but it helps keep biting insects at bay.

When a horse is especially dirty and has mud or sand close to the skin, it can be difficult to thoroughly clean the coat without bathing the horse first.

"You sometimes cause more irritation if you try to groom this dirt or sand out without washing the horse," de Meric said. "There are different schools of thought, but I always start with a good bath. I like an aloe-based shampoo that is not detergent and won't strip the oil out of the hair. I'm also a great believer in putting a little conditioner or baby oil in the rinse water." If a horse has worked up a good sweat through exercise and is then thoroughly hosed down, shampoo is not always necessary.

Strapping technique

Once the skin is clean and dry, you can get to work bringing out the rich sheen that is the satisfying result of regular good grooming. "I use a rubber curry comb in one hand, and either a rub rag or brush in the other hand," said de Meric. "I really lean into that curry comb and curry in a circular motion.

You hold the brush or a rub rag gathered in your other hand and pound lightly on the horse's body. In England and Australia, we call this 'strapping.' " He explained that the technique is similar to massage. "As the horses get used to this, they will actually lean into you. When you look at a horse that has been groomed like this for a period of time, they just glow with health."

Indeed, this is a case where beauty is literally more than skin deep. With repeated use, such vigorous grooming techniques can improve muscle tone, increase circulation to the epidermis, and bring oil to the surface, resulting in a slick, shiny coat.

Do not expect to find a trunk full of grooming tools in de Meric's barn. His list of necessities is short and basic. "There are all kinds of gimmicky things, but these are the grooming staples that you can't do without," he said. "You really don't need anything else."

A good rubber curry comb (the type with a strap to hold your hand in place) is essential, as is a rub rag. Numerous fabrics are available, but de Meric prefers burlap rags because they are absorbent and hold up well with use.

For brushes, he chooses both a soft and a medium brush. Although synthetic bristles may last a bit longer, de Meric prefers natural bristle brushes. Either of these can be used on manes and tails, in addition to the body, but de Meric stays away from stiff brushes "because they tend to pull a lot of hair out of the tail." He likes a plastic comb for the mane, especially when the hair is wet. An aloe-based shampoo, coat conditioner or baby oil, sweat scraper, and natural sea sponge are used for bathing. A hoof pick with brush and a lanolin-based hoof paint round out the list.

At Lane's End

One of the world's leading breeding farms, Lane's End near Versailles, Kentucky, is home to an outstanding array of stallions, including six champions, five classic winners, 11 millionaires, and 16 Grade or Group 1 winners. The farm's list of sales graduates reads like a who's who of champions and Grade or Group 1 winners, including A.P. Indy, Kingmambo, Summer Squall, and Lemon Drop Kid. In 2000, Lane's End led all North American yearling consignors with sales of $58.7-million. Altogether in 2000, Lane's End sold 355 horses for more than $94-million.

Lane's End's grooming staples

• Rubber curry comb with handstrap
• Rub rags, preferably linen
• Natural bristle soft brush
• Natural bristle stiff brush
• Plastic mane comb
• Hoof pick
• Shampoo, preferably Corona
• Synthetic body sponge
• Sweat scraper
• Show Sheen (for tangles in tail)
• Fly repellent or Avon Skin So Soft (during summer)

Wayne Smith, assistant farm manager, shared the grooming routine used on all Lane's End stallions and sale yearlings.

"When they come in from spending the night outside, each horse gets a physical examination to make sure there's nothing wrong," Smith said. "Weather permitting, we hose them off, then groom them once they're dry. They get a shampoo bath just once or twice a week. I like Corona shampoo because it lathers well and rinses out well. If there are any fungal problems, we use an iodine-based shampoo."

"The first thing we do is pick their feet, and then curry the entire body," Smith said. Tails are brushed out with a stiff brush, while manes and forelocks are combed out. The stiff body brush is used next, followed by a soft brush.

"After brushing, we take a rub rag and go over them completely, just buff them up," he said. "This practice, done every day, will really bring out a good hair coat on the horse. There's no way of getting around hard work; there's absolutely no substitute. When you don't do it, it shows up."

When the Bluegrass temperatures dip below 40 degrees, Mother Nature is the only one who gives baths. Instead of hosing horses off, Smith relies on other grooming techniques. "If a horse comes in dusty and the weather doesn't permit us to hose them off, we'll curry all the hair up the wrong way fi