Curious about braided tails these days in eventing. I just watched the live stream and one horse had a gorgeously braided tail, but seems like they hold them so stiffly, unlike the horse who went before with a well pulled (or trimmed) tail. When did they become a thing in eventing? I suppose if you might ultimately sell the horse to the h/j world it would be better not to pull / trim?
I donāt know why, but I HATE braided tails. Especially in eventing. It is such a hunter thing.
4 Likes
Opposite of @Larksmom! I love a beautifully braided tail! We never did the dock clipping or pulling like many do --understand itās a choice, but not one we thought made our horses look better --personally, I thought a pulled/clipped tail bone looked āskinned.ā Instead, for many (but not all) HT we braided mane (always) and tail (when possible). I have myself and kiddos showing in H/J and 3-Day since 1980s āI can ROCK a braided tail --if I have at least 30 min and my tools with me. For our OTTBS with their long tail bones and long legs --it was a good look! Does it add points? Nope. Does it give a show mom something to do other than worry about the really big fences that donāt fall down? Yep!
Now-a-days I only braid once a year for The Blessing of the Hounds āI will practice the day before --now that I only do two horses a year, I get a little rusty. At one point I was doing FOUR every weekend.
7 Likes
Iām with you. I donāt like the look of a pulled tail. It gets so scrubby looking up close. I like a neatly and conservatively braided tail (i.e., I donāt like the spiral stuck on top or anything, just neatly tucked in end) and then their natural tail looks so much healthier to me outside competition.
5 Likes
I donāt like the look of a āfullyā pulled OR braided tail.
I trim the top 3" of the dock on the sides. I think it gives a cleaner outline.
3 Likes
I love a braided tail.
If you want to not do pulled but donāt want to braid, check out the SmartGrooming tail rakes. It now takes me 5 minutes to streamline the top of the dock area, making it look natural but also tidy. I use it on manes too to give a natural look. Love that thing! I have a medium and a coarse.
2 Likes
Hey! I have one of those rakes for my dog - brilliant! Looks like a great balance between pulling and clipping. Love a pulled tail once itās grown just enough to not look naked, but the time to manage it is always a challenge. Thanks for the tip.
As for braiding, I love the look but hate the way most horses carry them: they just look uncomfortable.
They are the best tools! I comb the mane to the off side and just rake it a bit. Flip back over and it looks good. I bought one for my super sensitive mare, and just keep using it on everything.
1 Like
There were lots of braided tails in the trot up at the Maryland 5 Star before show jumping this morning. Busy grooms!
1 Like
At a long format FEI competition, the groom is likely to have one horse to concentrate on for five days so, probably, not busy but slightly bored!
I mostly meant they are busy in the time between the end of cross country & the 2nd trot up- all the icing, walking, etc that the grooms do late into the evening & early in the morning to make sure the horses are feeling as good as possible after coming off cross country & before they are judged on whether or not they are allowed to show jump.
1 Like
If the horse is sound, sufficiently fit, jumps clean, then post run care is substantially routine and quiet rest to allow the horse to recover. It can, obviously, get far more dramatic if the horse has knocked itself, pulled a shoe etc.
When foxhunting, a horse might be moving, galloping, trotting, jumping, over varied terrain, for hours. That tradition is one probable reason why we Brits are good at fittening horses. Harry Meade, a case in point: two top ten 5* finishes on the same horse in April and October. He runs āGet Ready To Huntā courses and follows the Beaufort.
But to be fair, we Brits donāt fuss with legs to anything like the degree Americans do. I asked in my local tack shop when anyone last purchased clay or poltice and everyone thought hard and said ācanāt rememberā.
Yes, also there is typically better ground to run on (& condition on) in Britain than in the US. I was at Barbury a few years ago during a dry spell & heat wave, and there was much concern about how hard the ground was, with a good number of withdrawals before XC. Walking around on XC, the ground was firmer than Iāve felt other times in Wiltshire/Gloucestershire, but it was still far better than what weād have at any event any time of the year in several of the Areas where Iāve been in the US. Not surprising that Great Britain is where everyone wants to be for eventing!
1 Like
True.
The hardest legs Iāve seen on horses are the Iberian ones, who gallop along cheerfully on ground like concrete. I think the worst problem for horses is very changeable ground, hard concrete to deep bog after overnight rain.
Iād guess most of them could do a quick tail braid while the horse was standing to be iced. If you can do one, they donāt take long.
I donāt mind braided or well pulled tail, but not to the point where they look like polo ponies.
