Another Horse Question

[canadianchick]

Can someone talk to me about pulling a horse's mane. DD will be showing our horse, Jess, this summer and her mane is super long.... like about 8 inches long!! They will be doing dressage shows so her mane needs to be shorter. TIA.

[mamadelbosque]

The easiest way to do this, IME (which is limited, as I generally hated showing...) is to simply wrap the hair around one of those little metal combs... and jerk it, hard. Its not super fast, and I'm sure its not all that pleasant to the horse, but thats the only way I've seen it done with any success...

[ribbon]

You need one of those little silver metal combs. They have flat tops and are only a few inches long. I usually grab a little of hair with my first two fingers-you pinch the very longest part at the very bottom, and keep moving with what is longest to even it up. Don't grab a ton at once-it will be hard to rip, and the more you grab the less your horse will like it. With the hair in the one hand, comb upwards to expose the hair you're holding. Wrap the hair around the comb and pull down until it rips. For braids, it will have to be shorter then you'd think-only a few inches. Get it to what looks like a good length and then ask your trainer if you need to get shorter. If the horse has a thin mane to begin with you may also want to ask the trainer, as if you pull thin manes too short you'll be left with nothing to braid. I'm talking appaloosa's here, and some thoroughbreds.

Some horses don't care about this at all. Some really hate it. Many are fine until you get up to about the right length, then they start to really feel it. If they hate it, and you're going to have to trank them anyway, make sure they're okay with clipping. It they're not you can do them at the same time with one vet visit. However, most horses don't really care that much. And I love how neat they look all spruced up.