Mane and Tail Care, Western style: Best practices?

[mvp]

Give me a clue.

What do you do at home, day in, day out?

Before a show?

For a long mane? For one you’d band?

Is banding rocket science?

For the “straight edge” look y’all achieve in the banded mane: Do you do something different than what you’d do if you wanted to create the straight-edge “flap” you’d see on a jumper or race horse?

Best tail care for a long 'un?

When you guys keep tails braided in those 3-pronged lycra, uh, tail condoms, how do you keep the hair from breaking up top?

And the folks who just braid the tail “raw” (unsheathed in a bag), aren’t you worried about the hair breaking while the horse is using the tail as a fly swatter?

Thanks for your help.

[VaqueroToro]

You want downward pull on the bands from the backside to get them to lay against the neck. Its hard to describe, but the tauntest part is the bit against the neck.

I get the band in then reach around to the back of the band up against the neck. Grab the back third, split in half, and pull apart to cinch the band up. Not having the bands right flush to the neck to start with helps too. Bob the mane to length (width of hand usually) once bands are in – wetting it down works nicely.

You’ll want to do a bridle path too which is different from h/j I think. Flatten the ear against the neck and trim that whole length flush to the coat.

I’ve never bagged a tail, just kept them bobbed an inch above the fetlock. If the tail is really ratty near the tail head, I trim with scissors the real bushy bits and hair gel the rest.

[VaqueroToro]

Daily stuff is to use your favorite detangler for both mane and tail – I’ve noticed that if I detangle one day, the next day or two is easier to finger pick, so I do that.

The bridle path grows like wildfire, and playing with the poll is generally relaxing for the horse, so I take the cuticle scissors to that nearly every time I groom. I don’t bother to keep up with mane length – it’ll get chopped the next time I band.

[UrbanHennery]

Day-to-day I don’t touch the mane or tail on my reiner. He doesn’t have a super long mane, so no need to braid it for maintenance. I wash and apply detangler the day before a show and bang his tail as needed to even it out - I keep it just at fetlock length.

I don’t pull or trim his mane, he gets to go au natural as that’s the way we reiners roll…

[SouthernYankee]

I have a reiner so I don’t pull, cut, or band the mane, I do keep his tail banged (cut square at his pasterns). I do nothing day to day other then to make sure it isn’t tangled/knotted or dirty. When I wash his mane and tail I use suave shampoo and conditioner with liberal use. Then put a little cowboy magic in to detangle and let it be… I very rarely comb or brush it. in the summers or when I know I’m going to do a lot of riding I’ll put it into 5-6 braids to help keep him cooler. But he’s got a lot of hair…

http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee499/mstout2/Salsa1004.jpg

[TFF]

I am proud to say that since getting my mare in January, her tail has grown 3in longer!!! One of my greatest grooming accomplishments haha.

I use a tail bag (not the three section kind) and check it every day. She seems to do a decent job of swatting flies still, and lives outside 24/7.

Here’s my process:

1-detangle tail with Cowboy Magic using only my fingers (you may have to use a comb to begin with, but use your fingers after you’ve gotten the major knots out)
2-massage MTG into the tip of the tail bone
3-don’t wipe your hands off yet, and braid the tail. Start your braid 3in from the tip of the tail bone so that you have room for the bag to slip through.
4-slide tail into bag

Check it everyday to make sure it’s not getting ratty at the top. And take it completely down every two weeks and repeat the process.

I don’t touch her mane very much because I’m just doing ranch sorting and stock horse shows.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=VaqueroToro;7126681]
Bob the mane to length (width of hand usually) once bands are in – wetting it down works nicely. [/QUOTE]

Yabbut, how do you do that for a season? Don’t you have to re-trim every time you do a new set of bands… with the bangs getting shorter and shorter like when yo’ momma cut yer hair when you were 2 and things turned out… not well?

[sk_pacer]

Sure glad that my stint in showing was during the time of roached and short manes and tails kept at hock length. Back in the age of dinosaurs, a western horse had to look like it was also a working animal, not a great mass of hair on either end of the horse.

[VaqueroToro]

[QUOTE=mvp;7127163]
Yabbut, how do you do that for a season? Don’t you have to re-trim every time you do a new set of bands… with the bangs getting shorter and shorter like when yo’ momma cut yer hair when you were 2 and things turned out… not well?[/QUOTE]

I think the trick is more to get that initial nice straight line at your preferred length, so if you cut it well the first time you band, you can keep banding on that first cut and not have to re-bob… if that makes any sense.

If you’re doing oodles of shows back to back, you can probably band on that first cut for at least a month before the mane grows out and/or the tips start getting uneven in length.

The most I’ve ever done was two in one month – I got a nice, clean, straight cut I was happy with on the first banding and just went with that same length for the second. I either pulled or cut the very few stragglers that didn’t line up with its buddies. If the mane bulks up in different spots, thinning it all to the same density helps too.

[Flash44]

I braid the mane over a few days before I need to band. That way, the hair is already laying down nicely, and the bands lay down better. My mare’s mane is quite unruly.

[Fillabeana]

My mare’s mane is quite unruly.

…and my mare’s nickname is Kerfuffle Muppethair.
Good thing she is never expected to be well turned out in public!

[Cindyg]

[QUOTE=sk_pacer;7127224]
Sure glad that my stint in showing was during the time of roached and short manes and tails kept at hock length. Back in the age of dinosaurs, a western horse had to look like it was also a working animal, not a great mass of hair on either end of the horse.[/QUOTE]

I know! When I was a kid, my lovely little mare had a lovely long (thin, but long and silky smooth) flaxen mane. I could not bear to cut it or pull it. I was so embarrassed by it at shows. But it was unthinkable to me to mar it in any way.

It chaps me a bit now to see western riders buying fake tails and all when I was so embarrassed by my mare’s lovely mane. LOL.

[Tee]

I have Morgans, so no worries about the mane. One has a pitifully sad mane, the other a nice, thick mane. I daily condition (Infusium 23) manes and tails. I leave tails down during the spring/summer when the bugs start coming out. The rest of the year they get drenched in conditioner and go in a 3 tube bag. I generally take them out once a week depending on how well the braid is staying in. Recondition, brush and put back up. In the summer for the long tails, I do figure 8 ‘knots’ to get the tail off the ground. Both of them tend to step on their tails either laying down or getting back up. No fake tails for my guys, so we live with what they were born with.