I do like the look of a roached mane. My 2yo is an Irish Draught and I’ll probably shave him up like a British Heavy Hunter after he goes for his inspection. Of hours, you could braid tin cans into his mane and he’d be a sport. 🙄
1 Like
H/j A’s We’re doing the Adult Amateur 3ft.
If she tolerates jumper braids then I think you just need to have the braider do less tight hunter type braids. It’s doable. Let them know she is fussy and needs them a little looser. Ask them to use water not quick braid. Also make sure the mane is perfectly clean so she’s not itchy from dandruff or reside from shampoo
6 Likes
Are they using thread or yarn?
Yarn.
Hmmm. Everyone at my daughter’s barn uses yarn. They don’t really sew the braids in the old fashioned way, though. At least, not in the way I think of it. They fold the length of yarn in half, braid it into the last 1/3 of the braid. Then, tie the braid off, double the braid under itself, and tie off with the loose ends of yarn. IMO, it’s the little flyaway hairs in between that make a braid job look messy. Not the tightness of the braids or lack thereof. We use a slinky on the pony if we braid the night before.
I also wonder if the pros are using a product that she finds irritating. Or, if they’re wetting the mane down, if the braids shrink and tighten when they dry. I can often mane pull with no issues horses that others have huge problems with. Only thing I do different is that I tend to pull fewer hairs at a time. And if the horse seems uncomfortable, I play around with the angle I’m pulling at. Maybe switching the braiding angle would help? (As weird as that sounds.) Maybe she feels the braids pulling on her crest when she changes her headset in motion. I know you say you don’t know how to do hunter braids but I would play around at home with the angle the braiding is done at and see if that helps. When you do traditional draft horse braids you either sit on the horse’s back or use a braiding bench that’s essentially a 3’ wooden platform because you need to almost stand over the horse for it to look tidy. We all perch on tiny, too-short folding stools when we hunter braid!
I agree with those suggesting alternative hairdos. The mom of the horse I lease is genius at flawless but natural grooming. (Ears, chin, etc always clipped) She pulls his mane shorter than I normally would on our pony. It looks great and very appropriate on him. If we rode hunters I bet we could get away without braiding, no problem. Or roach it. Or maybe the one long side braid Fresian style?
2 Likes
My daughter’s pony was like this. She had to stay tied in her stall after she was braided. We put a water bucket and Haynet within in reach before she was due to be tacked up. You had to be careful, because she would take her hind hoof and try and itch the braids even with someone on her. As soon as her classes were done, the braids came out. She got better with time, but she could never be let loose in her stall with the braids in. The braider always did her last, so she did not suffer longer than she needed to
I think at A levels you would stick out with jumper braids but I don’t think a judge would count it against you unless you were literally tied with someone who had nicer turnout. That being said, if she can tolerate jumper braids, I bet she can tolerate some version of hunter braids. I would bet money it’s the tightness. When you do jumper braids you don’t usually plaid down as tightly as when you do the bigger braids for the jumper type. I bet if you ask the braiders to just do looser hunter braids, she’ll react the same as she does with jumper braids.
3 Likes
I have a gelding that was a pro at scratching out his braids. Even tied, he would use a hind leg and rub them out with his hoof. I can braid adequately, so in the off season, I would braid about half his mane and leave it overnight and take it out the next day. About 5 days later, I would braid it again. It took about 3 weeks, but eventually he started leaving the braids alone. I think some horses just take longer to get used to them. His mane was pretty trashed after this whole process but was fine by the time show season rolled around. I would advise against a roached mane. There are very few horses that can pull that off and personally, I think it looks terrible.
Is it poosible that she has overwelming dandrif? Sometimes if they have to much it can be really uncomfurable for them to be braided because it rubbs all of the dry skin. Try washing her main with dandrif shampoo once a week. It might help.
If she appears to have Arab in her maybe she has a nice enough neck for a roached mane?
I think smaller horses look better with roached manes than larger horses, especially if the little horse has a shorter neck.
@jonem004 – did you say her braids bother her most at the top of the neck from behind the ears and then down her neck for the first few braids? Is the rest of her neck non the sponsor doesn’t bug her? I am a braider, there are some good suggestions here including using a dandruff shampoo. A lot of horses are super sensitive from behind the ears for about a foot down the neck. You might actually try and use another braider, often times we will have one horse who rubs a certain person’s braids out because of the way that person tightens the braids or ties them down, whereas the other person uses a different technique or maybe doesn’t make them as tight. Also, when braiding down, and the braid has to get tied off with a piece of yarn, some braiders will just use one piece of yarn to create the knot at the end of the braids, whereas other braiders will use both pieces of yarn to create the knot. Then when the braid gets pulled through, the knot is actually pulled up into the braid, and presses on the scalp / crest of the horse. So those braiders who use both pieces of yarn, to tie off the braids create a larger knot and that can be more bothersome to some horses. So you might ask your braider how they are tying off the braided down braid previous to pulling it through. And one more thought, if I have a horse who is notoriously bad about rubbing I will either do them last and tie them up, or braid them down but only pull through and tie the last half of the neck, and then come back late in the morning and finish the top half of the neck, either just before the horse goes out to show, or just as I’m leaving the show grounds. Scheduling that is a pain in the ass for the braider, but if you have a true professional braider who cares they should be able to work it out! Please forgive any talk-to-text errors in spelling! Thanks.
1 Like
Thank you so much! That is all very helpful. She is definitely more sensitive closer to her ears. I’ve always seen braiders start at the poll, saving that bit for the morning sounds a lot less stressful.
I’ve used throat numbing spray to pull a mane before. I wonder if that would help for braiding? I’ll ask around for braider alternatives, though I’m pretty out of the loop.
Spam reported
OP I know you said you don’t want to roach (and I feel you, I came from hunter-land myself), but another vote for it here from me as it seriously has made showing 1000% more enjoyable. I leave the forelock long and just braid that and the whole thing looks really sharp. It has taken my show prep time and stress down from hours to like 30 minutes, which was totally worth the trade off of “fitting in” with everyone else.
