I’m going to plait my horse’s mane for our first recognized event together. I’ve never done it so could really use some suggestions-
what products do you use?
how long does it usually take you?
do you do it the night before or the morning of?
any tips?
Mane about 4" long, Quick braid, nice new elastics. Takes me 20 minutes to do decent dressage braids. If I sew them in, or do fancy cobra braids, more like 40 minutes.
whether I do them the day of or the night before depends on the horse. Some will rub them out, some don’t care.
Practice makes perfect. Really, don’t try to do it for real the first time you do it,
I usually use yarn, but some people prefer waxed thread. Some types of braids.work best with waxed thread.
I have a spray bottle of water - some people like QuicBraid.
How long it takes anyone else is irrelevant. You need to do a full braid practice session to find out how long it’s going to take you. Practice really speeds up the process. 
I frequently braid the night before, but tend to braid the morning of when doing my own. I have even braided at the show if I’m travelling with a group and have later ride times.
Mane prep is key. If you start with an even (thickness and length and edge taper) mane your braids will be much better. An experienced braider can hide a.multitude of mane prep sins.
Braid all the way to the end of the hair on every braid. Grab the same amount of hair for each braid rather than trying for perfect spacing - with the exception of a mane that gets very thin in front of the withers. For that shape the braids will get smaller towards the withers and probably more widely spaced.
I use rubber bands and don’t usually put any product in-- but I do wet the mane down very thoroughly with water first. I like to start at the withers and braid up to the ears, but that’s just personal preference. Ideally I pull the mane pretty short, too. It takes me about 20 minutes to do a horse with an average mane.
If you haven’t done it before I would recommend practicing. If the mane is relatively thick and healthy, I like to braid but not put the braids up, and leave it like that for a day or two-- that way the mane gets a little bit trained, and you get an idea of how many braids you will need to do.
Lots of great tips on you tube videos
