Half Lessee Hacked Off My Horse's Forelock - How do I fix it?

[weixiao]

My horse has been half-leased in barn while I recovered from knee surgery. Horse is genetically gifted in the hair department and his forelock is long and thick. I keep it trimmed up so it doesn’t get too long (left untended it’ll grow all the way down his face, I usually keep it at a normal length for a jumper, about eye level, and braid it under a bonnet at shows), but just trim a tiny bit at a time and keep the sides tapered so it looks natural. I’m away on a work trip and got a photo from someone else at the barn showing me that his forelock has been hacked straight across, 3"+ shorter, and very uneven. It looks like it was braided and then they cut the end off the braid. I know it will grow back, but it looks awful and I’m upset they did it, especially without asking, so I’d like to fix it as much as I can for my own sake. He is a sport horse, and not any kind of breed that needs to have long hair to compete, but I do take issue with someone hacking his forelock off and not talking to me about it. Anyway, not the point of the post. The point:

I’m not back for another week and a bit, but when I get back, how do I fix it? Obviously it needs to be evened up and the sides shortened so it is tapered and looks more natural, but with it being so short now already, and so, so uneven, I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas or tips on how to do it without making it any worse? Well, it can’t really be worse, but how can I do it with some modicum of success? Thinning shears? Any techniques?

[Mango20]

You could cut upwards into it with scissors to soften the blunt edge of their cut. Mostly, I think you’ll just have to wait for it to grow back. Luckily it’s going into winter.

[poltroon]

Ugh. I hear both your philosophical acceptance and your totally understandable rage.

But! It will not be that hard to fix back to a natural look. The easiest thing to do is to get some scissors, and you will cut only straight up, IE in the direction of the hair. Work in layers so you go after the bottom first and just kind of snip at it with a bit of randomness and a bit of intent. Because the scissors are mostly aligned with the hair, you’ll cut only a few hairs and what you cut will be all different lengths. If you go slowly, you’ll get a feel for what you’re doing and be able to take care of the bristle look while taking away as little hair as possible.

Another way to do this is with a bottom clipper blade - people shorten manes this way when the mane is long but thin. You comb the hair with the blade, grab just a few hairs at a time, and rub it and cut the hairs, again pretty randomly. To get something that’s natural and nice to braid your shortest hairs want to be two inches or so from the eventual bottom.

With either method, if you work slowly, you won’t make it worse, and you’ll get a feel for how to get to a look you are happier with.

[Hayburner]

Even easier method is twist the hair and snip,the end, that’s how I trim my bands so they look a bit layered rather than straight across’. Or buy a pair of thinning scissors at Sally Beauty Supply and just trim small thin sections, that will give it a natural look.

BTW I’d strangle someone who took scissors to my horses hair!

[Palm_Beach]

@weixiao - you don’t have kids, I’m guessing. It’s so crazy the things people do, and you would never think to tell them NOT to do. Unless you have kids who one day thought it was fun to cut each other’s hair.

[Bogie]

I suggest taking the scissors to the half-leasor’s hair. That would make an impression! Someone once “helpfully” cut about eight inches off the tail of a horse that I leased. It fell just above his hocks. I’m not usually an angry person, but that sure set me on fire.

[weixiao]

@Bogie

I suggest taking the scissors to the half-leasor’s hair. That would make an impression! Someone once “helpfully” cut about eight inches off the tail of a horse that I leased. It fell just above his hocks. I’m not usually an angry person, but that sure set me on fire.

That’s horrible! I’d be so upset if it was his tail. The forelock is just an annoying eyesore but should grow out pretty quickly, I hope. But the tail… wow. I don’t know what I’d do.

Palm Beach- no kids, but lots of younger siblings (youngest is 10 years younger) and I do know that with kids! I just expected better from the people in this situation. ESPECIALLY, since we have had specific conversations about his forelock in the past.

Oh well. Thankfully, the lease is ending at the end of the month. Had way too many issues with it and I’ll be ecstatic when it’s over. Moving to a new barn and I don’t want my poor boy to look like a dweeb in front of all his new friends though!

Thanks for the tips, guys. I’ve done the vertical scissoring on jumper manes before and that’s usually how I do the tiny trimming of his forelock but there is just so much to fix and so much less forelock to work with I was wondering if I should do something else. Will try the clipper blades and see how that goes!

[SonnysMom]

I boarded at one barn where the trainer got a horse in on trial for a client. The horse was a QH and had a really long mane-like down to bottom of neck. Client and trainer were hunter riders. Trainer pulled the horses mane during the trial and never checked with HO or client before doing it. Client didn’t buy horse. I can’t imagine how pissed the HO was when he got his horse back.

[endlessclimb]

photos or it didn’t happen

[endlessclimb]

But seriously…

I’d start with thinning shears, go nuts on the bottom inch or so. Once it’s thinned, you can use the “scissor straight up” on the sides to taper in a more specific area.

[2DogsFarm]

:eek: OhEmGee!
The dreaded 3 Stooges trim :no:

Since you mention discussing the forelock with lessee, please let them know (as nicely as you can without tooth breakage from gritting) how unacceptable this was.
Then - IIWM - I’d request (DEMAND, really) lessee meet me when I came to fix the mess, so they can see how to do it correctly.

[beowulf]

Oh no!! We must be twins somehow, because I am dealing with this too!! Too funny… but kind of not. :no: The gal that’s been riding one of my TBs since I had my ACL surgery thinned/cut one of our TBs manes last month… I tried to ignore it but boy it’s bad… She meant well and I didn’t have the heart to yell at her but thank goodness hair grows back :lol:

I’m guilty of giving my Retirees what my family fondly calls “Moe Bangs” - but I’ve gotten better at it over the years. I brush the forelock upwards, and then snip off about 1/4 inch. Let the forelock down, brush out to settle – and it’ll be layered much better. Then you just go through left and right sides, holding scissors at an angle, and lightly snipping away the edges. It’ll obviously be cut – but it beats whatever your pony’s current “stylist” gave him :lol:

[ThreeFigs]

I gave my gelding “Little Dutch Boy” bangs routinely – yeah, Moe Bangs. Drove my trainer friend crazy. She hated it. I thought the bangs were cute and he’s also gifted with lots of forelock hair. in a couple of weeks, he’s back to a normal-looking forelock.

Fortunately, it’s hair – it grows back!

[malriis]

Ooooof. I just added not cutting any part of my horse’s hair to my lease contract draft. I don’t think I would’ve thought of that one on my own. :eek:

At least it will grow back!

[DinkyDonk]

@Bogie

I suggest taking the scissors to the half-leasor’s hair. That would make an impression! Someone once “helpfully” cut about eight inches off the tail of a horse that I leased. It fell just above his hocks. I’m not usually an angry person, but that sure set me on fire.

I was going to suggest the exact same thing, but you beat me to it!