Hi all,

My lovely Welsh/Arab mare greeted me this morning with her forelock piled high on top of her head and that "don't even ask!" expresion on her face. She looked like she'd been to the prom then stayed out all night riding around in a convertable! I just stood there, feed bucket in hand with my mouth open.

Well, it turns out she isn't leading a secret life, she's been rubbing her head on a pine tree and boy is she gummed up with tar. I can cut the tree but how should I go about cleaning up the horse???

Any advice is much appreciated,

Pauline in NC

-- Pauline (tworoosters_farm@altavista.com), May 06, 2001

Answers

Try baby oil or mineral oil.

-- clod hopper (brushfarmer@hotmial.com), May 06, 2001.

I use Rain-X windshield treament to remove pine sap from cars. Pure grain alcahol works good also, pick it up at your local liquer store. WATCH THE EYES!!!

-- Mark in N.C. Florida (deadgoatman@webtv.net), May 06, 2001.

Hi, Pauline. I would recommend that you look at the thread that answers my question about how to remove pitch. My highland cattle were covered in it. I got a few excellent responses.

-- Cindy Clarke (rclarke@revelstoke.net), May 06, 2001.

CitraSolv works well at removing pine pitch from hands and hair. If you use it on your horse's forelock, avoid getting it on the horse's skin (since most horses are real brats about letting you wash their faces later), and use some of it on a paper towel to clean it off, usually just pulling down it repeatedly with the towel moistened with the CitraSolv. Wash it out with a mild shampoo and rinse afterward.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), May 06, 2001.

Hi! We have used rubbing alcohol on ourselves and our children to remove pitch in the past - with great success! I don't know about the safety of use on horses.

-- Trina (dolittle_ranch@hotmail.com), May 07, 2001.

Whenever I get pinesap on my hands, I simply go to the fridge and get the Mayonnaise. The oil in it breaks down the Pinesap and then you can wash off the Mayonnaise with regular soap and water. I don’t think Mayo will hurt a horse.

-- albert (albertm@psouth.net), May 13, 2001.

Goo Gone works great for tar of all kinds, it's made from orange oil and is non toxic, it's sold in most hardware stores and discount stores. I used it to remove axle grease from my mare's mane once, had to use the whole bottle as she had it everywhere! I just sponged off the excess with paper towels afterward.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), May 15, 2001.

My mom got my mama's car after she died and it had a lot of pine sap drops on it. it was parked under a pine tree. In her trunk was a little bottle of Oops!. It dissolved the sap almost instantly, does a real good job. Does anybody know if its still available. i went to Ace Hardware, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Magic Mart, Kroger, a couple gas stations. I live in west virgina. Also does that goo gone work good.

Bob

-- Bobby McGraw (bigbadbob@runbox.com), August 01, 2001.