I already shorten with scissors, but lord it is one thick mane. I think unbraidable with the amount he has.
Mines a friesian sport horse, so not only is the hairiest beast you saw, its flippin curly too!
I have great results with the rake and thinning comb, and my braids after actually look so much better than expected (all things considered)
I only bother with it right before a comp or if its grown so long its annoying me
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Have you tried braiding it and leaving the braids in for a few days? That usually will get some hair to fall out. Put in like 15 braids with elastics every other week for a bit.
I still say, if you can, get a braider to look at the mane and see what they think. Some are really good at getting mane pulls done also (and others won’t). I’ve been friends with braiders and learned how to braid myself, and some manes are ok thick. You may be able to just shorten it — if the hair texture is “squishy” then a thicker mane is ok, maybe preferred even; if the crest is wide it’s ok to leave the mane longer and bigger; if the horse is big they can carry a larger braid (and a good braider can make it look good). It’s more of an issue if the hair texture is very straight and doesn’t bend/squish. Or if there is so much hair that hunter braids end up stacking on top of each other. Or if the horse models.
I’ve met several horses that were how you describe to pull, and they all eventually learn to give in or get less sensitive to it, with combination of good braider and mane-pull-holder (best one I’ve seen was a groom who was magic with the horses). Usually these horses just turn up at a show so they can’t give drugs. I’ve never used anything topical to numb the mane but it might work.
You can also thin the mane with scissors. It takes practice to make it look good and there are several different techniques, many mentioned on this thread. It can be done. I wish I knew how to do it when I was showing a lot in the southeast and the horses would get scabby, infected scalps from too much pulling on top of the strain of braiding nearly every week. It was gross.
In any event, even if you take the time to really teach him to tolerate pulling (with the few hairs a day techniques, etc), unless you are not planning on showing this year, you may need to try the scissor Ron razor route to get by while you play the long game with teaching pulling.
When I did hunters I always had hairy beasts with thick manes! Some things I found: Once a horse objects strenuously to mane pulling it can take quite a while to get over objecting to even painless procedures on the mane.
I ended up using a thinning blade or old clipper blade on the underside as others described. It also helped to comb vigorously. Eventually I could tease the hair as if I was going to pull and then just comb through the tangles.(this took a while to tolerate as the horses anticipated pulling when I teased)
I also used training braids which helped break off and pull out some hair.
It helped to make mane thinning a long term project. I would thin, braid, take the braids out after a couple of days and evaluate. If necessary repeat the next week. I also kept the mane a little bit long at the start of the season. I didn’t get tiny braids but they were certainly presentable.
Perhaps the toughest part was not letting everything revert over the winter!
This thread inspired me to go out and do all three horses’ manes yesterday. My gelding has enough mane for 3 horses but I have given up trying to pull it. I use a combination of scissors and a thinning blade.
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I use this too and love it. My gelding still shakes his head when I get closer to his head but mostly when the blade gets dull and I have to yank a little harder to get the blade to cut. But they get incredibly dull very quickly. I can only do my mini’s mane once with it before dull because his mane is so thick.
Before I found this blade I used scissors and just cut at an angle. But I don’t show so I wasn’t super worried about a professional look.
If you’re pulling correctly, even the most sensitive horse should barely bat an eyelash. There is no yanking needed, ever.
Hold 3-4 hairs straight out towards you and keep them taught with your left hand, put your wide-toothed plastic comb with a handle (I use a human comb from WalMart) snug against the crest, and push straight down with said right hand. The hair pops right out using the leverage. Warm muscles make it even easier, so pull after you ride.
Do a little bit all the time to keep up with it. Shows and sales worth attending don’t pop up unexpectedly, so there is never an excuse to pull an entire mane in one session.
Why couldn’t this thread come out two weeks ago?!
I tried the tooth numbing gel on my mare; she still hated me pulling out one or two hairs at a time. I just gave up. Instead of pulling - I just used old clipper blades. I agree with everyone who says that thinning without pulling doesn’t work for hunter braids when a horse has a truly thick mane. I would love to get more details of how people get those methods to work if anyone wants to share?
@Training Cupid thanks for linking to the threads about Nair! I did a fair number of Google searches for alternative options to drugging and twitching and found a couple of old threads, but not the ones you linked to.
Pulling is a hard no for me. It hurts the horse! Even if they are saintly enough to grin and bear it, there is no way in hell I am hurting my horse for the sake of her mane.
Were I in OP’s situation, I would try many of the alternatives offered here, and if the braider refused to work with it I would learn to braid my own. As it is, I do big ol’ hooded dressage braids that actually look better with more mane to work with.
I use scissors and a thinning knife (sparingly) for mane care.
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Apparently because pulling manes is now as cruel as 3rd world torture…
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Ask your vet about a lidocaine cream - same as the anbesol but with more kick. I also try to pull right after a workout, maybe an inch or 2 of mane at a time if they are pissy. I much prefer to braid a property pulled mane than one that has been razored or cut.
I’d start with just a few pulls after you are done riding but before he cools out to much, give a treat and then repeat every day.
Have you tried pulling in his stall? put some hay in the hay rack (unless they are fed low) or grain in his bucket - distractions could help. we had one that was fine in the stall but a complete disaster in the cross ties.
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If you are truly desperate, you can use the “pony solution”. You flip the mane over to the wrong side. Then section off a thin row of the mane onto the near side. (would be underside) Then you carefully use clippers to shave that section off! When the mane is back on the near side you wont see it, but the mane is now thinner without that hair and you can address the rest with other methods.
Of course there are a couple of caveats. You have to be very careful with the clippers. And you have to keep up with shaving it very regularly or it looks horrible!
I’m one of those terrible people that insists on pulling manes for hunters and also for many other horses that have thicker manes or unevenly thick manes. I even pull jumper manes to even them out before cutting. I have many of those mane thinning/shortening devices but none are a replacement for pulling. They can make a TB with a relatively thin mane look presentable without any pulling, but that’s about it, at least IME. There certainly may be others that have better skills with those tools than I have, but I’ve been doing manes for years on multiple horses and I’ve given it a good college try.
I don’t have any groundbreaking secrets to share. I try to get as much done as I can in shorter sessions every time I groom a horse. For some horses that particularly hate it, this is about zero. For those horses that hate it, I don’t torture them, I simply use sedatives–enough sedatives. Since I’m not a vet, I’m not going to give advice over the internet as to what or how much to give, but suffice it to say, some horses need a little more help than others. Then I use a twitch and a helper and get it done quickly. I also often take the opportunity to get the sheath clean/get the bean out and get the ears clipped while the horse is sedated. I keep my tools handy and I’m not ashamed to say that if the vet tranquilizes a horse for something unrelated, that horse is likely to also get it’s mane pulled or ears trimmed.
For the clippers, I clip noses very frequently. Every time I clip the nose, I also touch up the bridle path and hold the clippers against the ears for a few seconds so the horse can acclimatize to the feeling. I imagine it can be a very funny feeling for a horse, sort of like an electric toothbrush in their ear, even if it doesn’t hurt. Most horses get to the point where they get more comfortable with the ear clipping.
Okay so BRAIDING might be required but pulling the mane isn’t required. You can produce beautiful braids without having to pull. And what if they are a little think or fatter? Unless you are showing model, braids doesn’t matter THAT much.
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So here’s a thought with the talk of topical pain relievers, I wonder if giving some bute or banamine before pulling would also help. I have not done this for mane pulls but am now wondering if it helped for some horses at shows that were supposedly too difficult to pull at home. Maybe it had more of an effect than tq, which I don’t love because horses seemed to fight against it and the pulling. Would it work like a person taking ibuprofen before waxing?
Fwiw, when I braided I intensely disliked manes that had been thinned with razors or mane thinning combs. You often ended up with a super thick hair for the first inch or two that thinned to nothing, and on wide crests, the mane would be too short. Really really hard to braid (killed fingers and wrists) and impossible to make look good. And non-braiders seemed to focus too much on mane length (which is generally the easiest thing for a braider to fix) and didn’t seem to know about or care if the mane was even, both lengthwise and down the crest, or account for hair texture or how the topline and crest width affected the braids. But then every braider I’ve met was highly particular about their manes, because they had slightly different braiding techniques even for the same type of braid, and most vastly preferred pulling and shortening their own manes (as long as horse wasn’t dangerously bad — and if they were, a heads up was greatly appreciated).
Also found for horses that are that bad, the only way I managed to get them pulled is when they’ve been relaxed, immediately put a lip chain and/or twitch before attempting any type of pulling or even mane combing so they don’t start out resistant and fighting you, then WAIT for the twitch to take effect (cannot skip or hurry this step), then pull in small sections for as long as twitch is effective — some horses are better if you pull fast, some slow. Some are better also if you let them move their feet a bit; it’s slower to pull because you keep moving around with them every time you pull a section (or strand) and you cannot do it with a ladder next to horse so harder on human shoulders also. And you have to be more persistent than the horse. Some get worse if you let them move so you may have to try different things. One notable horse liked to back himself up against a wall, would fling himself around if he wasn’t allowed to move but once he backed himself into a wall or corner stood fine. Some were better with neck twitch than nose.
Apologies if you already tried this but from what I’ve seen a lot of people don’t wait for the endorphins to kick in before attempting to pull. Horse has to drop his head and “give in” before you start. Or they try to give the horse a chance to be good — for ones that you know will be bad, I would not attempt pulling without twitch and good horse holder. And then you have to finish pulling before twitch wears off, maybe 10 minutes max.
This is a great idea. Make sure you do lidocaine far enough out that is does not test.
I think that some commentators on this thread are not experienced with having horses be braided for the rated hunters. Thinning in a manner other than pulling simply doesn’t work for horses with thick manes, and those techniques can make it very difficult or impossible to have show ring appropriate braids.
No, there are no rules about braiding. In fact, I could walk in the ring with a dirty, shaggy horse if I wanted to. But after spending $$$ to get to the show, I’m going to give myself the best chance to pin well by having a beautifully turned out horse that meets or exceeds current show ring standards.
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I never understood why braiders were adamant about pulling the manes themselves, aside from it being something else they could charge for, until I did some braiding myself… Now, I am of the opinion that non-braider-people who pull/shorten/razor and otherwise destroy their own manes give up the right to complain about what their braids look like (not that it ever stopped them) :lol:. Pulling manes was actually my least favorite part of braiding, but a correct pull was necessary for a good braid job. And, more importantly (having been knocked off a ladder more than a few times), a horse that stands and isn’t ear/head-shy.
I still say, if you (general) can’t get a mane pulled, leave it bigger/longer so the braider can fix/pull it themselves, rather than attempt to use a razor or mane thinning comb. Or call your braider and have them come out and pull it themselves, if possible, or at least warn them at the show that horse is bad for mane pulling. Bigger braids (to an extent. I mean, not humungous like jumper braids) that are even all the way down the neck will look better than braids in an uneven/bad/overly thinned mane pull (which also makes for FUZZY braids, because you end up with so many broken hairs). Eg, I think these braids are stunning even though they are not that small; I wish I could braid like that. Current trend is for shorter/smaller braids, but this size, when done well, are model-worthy, imo.
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one other thing to try - drape a warm wash cloth over the mane before you pull. it will help relax the neck. not soaking wet just damp (or try one of those eye or neck pillows that you toss in the microwave).
