Mares Tail Tangles in Lines-What Would You Use to Prevent?

[Cielo_Azure]

[QUOTE=Yip;4505236]
Sithly, that’s a great idea! I have her long tail banged, but didn’t know how it would look short banged. I like your farrier’s method of rounding the poof out…

Jill, you had mentioned raking before, maybe in my post about this on the Horse Care board, but I didn’t understand. I have rakes for my collie’s and sheltie’s coats, but they don’t cut. Seeing the tool, now I get it. I’m definitely going to order one. I have never pulled a mane or tail and sure didn’t want to begin now. And I think this is just the tool I need for thinning dogbellies every summer.

Thanks for the trimming ideas and the heads/hands up about the tails over lines!

Yip[/QUOTE]

I have a Perch with a REALLY long dock, tail down to his fetlocks. Last Dec, I thought about taking him to auction (Gordyville), so the tail had to come off.

Here it is after ten minutes with a rake:
http://www.cieloazure.com/corbeau.html

Just remember, what comes off in ten minutes can takes two years to grow back! His tail still isn’t near as long as it once was (I decided to geld him and pair him with his full sister -so he is a “keeper.”) My first gelding to fool around with in seven years of mares and stallions!

[Yip]

Very nice work! Do you do farm calls, lol?!

And gorgeous boy! I’m glad you decided to keep him. He looks like he belongs in those pictures.

Since it would be such a big change, I think I would start long and work my way shorter as I feel comfortable.

Yip

[Drive_NJ]

Yip,

Keep two things in mind if you are shortening the tail this drastically -

1. If you are from a buggy area you will drastically reduce his ability to deal with bugs with his tail. Our docked Hackney was both sensitive and allergic to bugs and it was a bear trying to keep him comfortable in the summer in NJ. I’d rather have had the tail and dealt with the tail clamp by learning to manage keeping the reins away from it.

2. If you show in pleasure classes, a full tail is considered more appropriate than a tail that has been docked, banged short or raked short unless the horse is of a breed that is still commonly docked. Then appropriate to the breed is good.

[rugbygirl]

My filly chewed my Arabian’s tail most of the way off (he has a tail bag now), and we’re in a very buggy area. If you like the shorter tail for driving, you can always use a short, loose braid to fix some long pieces of baling twine into the tail, which the horse can use as a fly swish. Commercially available tail bags also work as a substitute.

I find the baling twine sort of frays into strands roughly similar in texture to tail hairs, so my horse didn’t seem to mind. Accidental tail loss happens, and you can solve the fly swish problem. The solutions work just as well for planned tail loss