The honest answer: a lot
If grooming time matters to you, know this before anything else about the breed: a Gypsy Cob is one of the most grooming-intensive horses you can own. The breed is defined by hair — a mane that can reach past the shoulder, a tail that trails toward the ground, and dense feather flowing from the knees and hocks down over the hooves. Every bit of that hair needs regular hands-on care, and skipping weeks shows quickly in tangles, broken strands, and skin problems hiding underneath.
Feather care is the core job
The feather is where Gypsy Cob grooming is won or lost. Mud packs into it in wet turnout, and the skin beneath stays damp, which sets up the scabby, sore pastern irritation cobs are prone to. Wash the feather with plain warm water and a mild shampoo when it is muddy, rinse thoroughly, and then dry it completely — toweling and time in a dry stable, because feather left damp against the skin defeats the whole wash. While the hair is parted, feel and look along the pasterns and heels for scabs, cracks, swelling, or the tiny crusts that suggest mites. Catching those early, at the grooming stand, is far easier than treating legs that have been quietly worsening under a curtain of hair for a month.
Mane and tail management
Work through the mane and tail with your fingers first, teasing tangles apart strand by strand, and only then follow with a wide brush from the ends upward. A brush ripped through from the top snaps the long hair this breed is valued for. Many owners keep the mane in loose braids between sessions to reduce tangling and rubbing, redoing them regularly so they never pull tight or mat at the roots. Wash the tail when it drags in mud or bedding stains build up, and keep the end trimmed just clear of the ground so the horse does not tread on it and tear chunks out.
The rest of the horse
The body coat itself is unremarkable — a normal curry and brush routine handles it — but it is often thick in winter and sheds heavily in spring, so expect extra currying then. Hooves still need daily picking, which on a Gypsy Cob means pushing feather aside and actually looking at the foot rather than guessing. Because the full routine is long, many owners split it: quick daily checks, feather wash on one set day, mane and tail work on another.
Planning the week around the hair
Because a full feather wash, dry, mane, and tail session can take the best part of an hour, most Gypsy Cob owners run the breed's grooming as a weekly rhythm rather than a daily event: feather and legs early in the week when the yard is quietest, mane and tail midweek, and a light brush and hoof pick on the days between. In persistently wet winters, when turnout mud never really dries, increase the pastern checks to daily even if the washing stays weekly, because the skin under that feather can change fast and the hair hides it completely.
That split is exactly what KinsLe Care Teams is built for, letting the people who share a Gypsy Cob divide its grooming jobs between them and see at a glance which parts were done and when.