My boy has always had a thickish mane that I have to pull, never get away with cutting because pulling out from the roots also thins it. He also has a cowlick 1/3 of the way up that makes his hair go to the wrong side of his neck so I often keep the top section braided over. Lately he has all this hair sticking straight up and looks goofy. Ideas?
Did you do a big mane pulling sesh about…hmmmm…2 months ago? It looks like something big happened and it’s all growing back at once. Or the hair might be breaking when you pull rather than coming out at the root.
Unless you want to take out all that short growth & lather rinse repeat in another couple months, all you can really do is wait it out.
This is def one reason why thinning & shortening the mane over time is often preferred, although sometimes not as convenient!
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Or was that section braided down a few months ago and he rubbed it a lot?
My mare’s hair changed direction halfway up her neck so her mane never lay neatly on one side, but those little hairs sticking up don’t appear to have anything to do with the natural hair growth in your horse’s case - rather, they appear to have been either broken off or pulled out and regrown.
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For unruly manes, I like to band them instead of plait them down. By that I mean, make a little section (about the width of an index finger) and put an elastic band on it. Once the elastic band is on, make a gap at the very top above the elastic band, then flip the elastic down and throw the hole twisting a ‘braid’ down into the neck. You can then tighten up the section, leaving the twist right at the base of the neck pushing it into the crest of the mane. I find having that little bit of tension/twist at the top really corrals the unruly hairs… and if they horse rubs, the single elastic easily breaks and releases (preventing additional damage)!
I hope that makes sense or I’m going to try to find a video explaining what I mean!
Facebook for the win, found this showing what I am trying to describe.
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As far as pulling goes, I haven’t pulled a mane in our barn in at least ten years and I do most of the braiding for shows. I use thinning shears and cut them every 4-8 weeks depending on the horse. My thoroughbred has mane like a Shetland but pulling was just not worth the agony for both of us.
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Nope, nothing weird happens that I know of. Other than the occasional three braids at the top like you see in the picture. I haven’t done anything. No giant mane pulling session either. I generally pull a few strands here and there rather than a lot at once. It almost looks like maybe he rubbed it on something but don’t remember ever noticing rubbed out hairs. He does have one of those wug blankets that goes halfway up the neck so I thought that might be the culprit, but it looks like the weird hair goes all the way up the entire neck. He’s become quite the lazy boy in his old age, so maybe this is his just one way to express his wildness 
That does look like some new growth for whatever reason. Not much to be done about that until it’s a little longer.
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