another mane braid idea
Over on the dressage forum, there is a thread about “dressage hair, horse”. Caddym shows how to do thick braids for longer maned horses. They look a lot like the British ones that I saw the MFH use in the 1970’s. You only have a few thick braids, maybe 10.
I have hunted with a number of Virginia packs over the years and this thick braid was always acceptable. The last hunt I suscribed to was very encouraging to newbies. We had been loaned a super retired endurance arabian for my son. He wanted to hunt, so we had a private meeting with the Master about what to do about the long mane. She was most kind and said to leave the mane as is (well groomed) and just braid for high holy days. She was much more interested in having another generation of foxhunters.
My son loved hunting. The arab had some trouble understanding that he wasn’t doing endurance, but after a number of times out, decided it was ok, if quite odd. The arab was 20 at the time and never bottomed out. We usually came in early after 2 1/2 hours because I was tired on my green DWB.
I have a number of endurance friends who hunt, too. Most of them do the shorter mane for the more traditional hunts.
The single blade does a nice job “feathering” the ends of the mane when you take small handfuls of mane at a time to shorten using a teasing action. Then after shortening the mane you “finish” it by hand pulling anything that is left dangling. Hand pulling the stragglers gives a very natural look to the mane without unduly thinning or shortening the mane too much.
I went back to the old 1930’s hunting photos and copied how they had done their braids with the correct number for a gelding. Had to look perfect for Opening Meet.
