I will be showing over fences for 3d at a large QH show. Braided tail is expected for this one. What do you do to protect them for the time they need to be in so I don’t have to rebraid every morning?
Or do I have to suck it up & just redo each day?
I never leave in a tail braid overnight. Too much risk of them rubbing it and doing a lot of tail damage, even if you keep it wrapped. To me it’s not worth the risk. Every day is new braids.
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I agree with the above poster.
A tail braid should come out as soon as you are done with it for the day. Redo it as necessary the next day.
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I don’t see any scenario where you leave the tail appropriately braided for three whole days and don’t either end up with some serious tail damage (from rubbing, or just the passive tension on the hair) or end up redoing it anyways because it doesn’t look very nice after the first day. Most likely, you’d end up with both issues.
I’d just practice until it only takes you 10-15 minutes.
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Absolutely unbraid the tail as soon as the horse is done showing every day to prevent damage to the hair.
I also unbraid the mane every day so the horse is more comfortable at night. Who would want to sleep in their fancy updo? I would not.
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I agree with the others, take it out and rebraid every day. Learn how to do it yourself, I find tails much easier to braid then manes. I can easily do a tail in under 20 minutes.
Between braiding and showing you can wrap the tail (vet wrap or an ACE bandage), this will keep the tail from getting caught on anything, and will keep shavings and hay out of the braid if they lie down.
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Google tail damage from braids being left in (or bandages being left on to protect the tail while it’s left in too long) if you need to scare yourself into redoing it each day. Horses lose hair at best due to breakage, or worse, will looks chunks of hair out of the dock or even tissue itself. I prefer to put tails in as late as possible and pull them as soon as I can to save tails. 
Or even worse, the tail (dock) itself. A little bit too tight causes lack of circulation which kills things and the horse loses it’s tail.
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One clueless guy bought a nice jumping horse and thought it would be a good idea to just wrap the tail, no braiding, with an Ace bandage. He put it on too tight and luckily didn’t lose the tail itself, but all the hair on the tail bone fell out. He never did that again.
While I was taught braids need to be taken out daily, friend has minis with showstopping tails - longer than body length! - that he leaves in simple 3-plait braids for weeks, vetwrapped over that.
He takes out braids, brushes through for shows, then rebraids & no loss of hair.
I have helped him put braids in & take them out & did talk him into cutting out about 1’ off the stud’s tail where sloppy braiding had it tangled beyond redemption.
Of course, I’d think a tightly french-braided tail would be more prone to hair breakage & better cut down & redone.
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@2DogsFarm, do the braids on the minis include the hair on the dock or do they start under the dock?
I have seen lots of breed horses with tails that are crazy long, but their tail braid that stays in is all below the dock. There is nothing left in part of the tail that has bone in it.
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Looks like I will be just sucking it up.
I also was taught to pull tail braids asap when you were done showing, but I see so many w/ wrapped tails I thought I would ask if there was something I was missing. Certainly wasn’t comfortable wrapping the tail for any length of time, but there are always new things out there.
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Tails are so easy to braid and they don’t take much time, learn to do it yourself if you want to save money. I would never consider leaving a tail braided overnight, much less for three days.
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The wrap is put on after the tail is braided to protect the braid until it shows. It is not to keep the tail braided for multiple days.
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Sorry for the late reply (out of town guest this week 
)
Braids include hair from the dock, but loosely braided. Not the pulled-tight French braid.
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