ok, so if I understand this - I part the hair and pull it over to the side. Then I am trimming the hair on the side of the dock very short - like to the skin, and at the same time I am shortening the hair on top so it can’t stick out to the side?
sound right? I am going to go and try this…I can’t horrify my trainer any more than I already did by banging the tail.
BarbB
charter member BEQS Clique & Invisible Poster Clique
Bensmom, that horse has a gorgeous tail! So thick and long. I agree that the sides need to be pulled a little shorter and a little further down. Also, I NEVER pull anything from the center, no matter what color the hairs are. (If they really bother you, use a bit of hair dye to cover up the bleached-out look). I made a very primative attempt to draw in the lines I’d pull along, and circled the offending portion at the top center.
By the way, for a horse just in from the pasture, he’s awfully clean! --Jess
I like pulled tails even for horses with skimpy tails or big butts. I just don’t think having long stringy hairs hanging down from the dock improves the appearance of ANY tail. For thin tails, it’s important to bang them above the point where they get really scrawny. The only time I’ve deliberately left a tail unpulled was on a mare who kicked dangerously. Even though we could have drugged her and used scissors, we would have had to use drugs every time we needed to touch up the tail, and it wasn’t worthwhile! --Jess
My favorite technique for pulling manes or tails is to put on disposable latex gloves. They give extra grip and keep you from tearing up you fingers. 
I’ll try to find a tail picture. If worse comes to worse, I could always take one this weekend 
--Jess
You want the center of the tail (the untrimmed part) to remain long.
Some people say to hold the tail out, and any short pieces that fall down are the ones to pull/clip.
Robby
You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
OH, Jess, now that really helped. I think it’s clicking now!!!
Thanks!
Superheroes of the universe, unite! http://www.allmightysenators.com/super.html
I will bang a tail shorter if it is particularly scrawny looking – on the right horse, banging it just below the hocks can look stunning and polished. Also, even if your horse’s tail or arse isn’t the greatest, pulling it and putting some care into it will, IMHO make it look better than if it’s just hanging back and kind of neglected looking.
(I’m not saying anyone’s tail is neglected looking, just a general statement. Heck, the Spotted One’s tail is green right now).
And Edgar’s tail is one of the most gorgeous fly-swatting appendages I’ve ever seen. Worth seeing at a medium trot to fully appreciate.
my horse has a great tail, thick and shiny and long - a little draft blood maybe? 
I bang it and it looks great - but it needs to be trimmed at the top.
I am in a hunter barn and NOBODY does this to a hunter, the eventers here are converted hunters and can’t bring themselves to do this either.
I don’t have anyone to help me…my horse would look so nice with his tail trimmed.
I am scared to death to touch it.
Somebody tell me exactly how to start, where, how much etc etc. I can use scissors or clippers - I’m just scared of that first attempt.
Help???
BarbB
charter member BEQS Clique & Invisible Poster Clique
Here are a couple of pictures. These come from USEventhorse.
on my way to the barn…if he ends up looking like a poodle you will hear me screaming all the way from Denver. 
thanks… 
…I think
BarbB 
charter member BEQS Clique & Invisible Poster Clique
What a cool tool!! I’ll print this redone pic at home and take it to the barn and go to fixing it.
I’ve tried the hair dye – in fact, I usually dye his whole tail every two months or so when we are showing, since he has to stay on day turnout year round and it turns red from sun damage. I’d rather dye it periodically than bag it. What happens with the dye at the top is that it makes it look obviously dyed. The hairs that are dramatically different colors are actually a continuation of his hair coat color, rather than bleached. Buzzy is a bay as well, and his tail doesn’t have this and come to think of it, I’ve noticed that most bay horses tails are just simply black from where they leave the body. His looks really funny if I use the hair dye to change it there too.
We won’t event until the fall, so I may just leave it alone at the top, pull the sides and see where we end up by our first event.
And thanks for the compliments on his tail! When I first got him, he’d been in a wire fence for long enough to have pulled a lot of it out, and then, some kids from nearby one of our barns came into the pasture and cut two great big hunks of it off. You could tell it had been cut with scissors, and at two different lengths. I was so bummed. But, there is an event horse here in town that is a warmblood x and he has the most gorgeous tail I’ve ever seen on a horse. I told my trainer that someday Ben would have a tail like Figgy’s.
That was a couple of years ago, and she laughed at me. Now she says that we’re almost there His will never be that full – genetics have a lot to do with it after all! – but care and good nutrition have really helped.
And, to be perfectly honest, he had been brushed in this picture, but his tail had not been touched – I don’t brush it when it is dirty, as I find that it breaks the most then, so it stays like this until we have to appear in public and then it gets washed, conditioned, detangled and brushed out.
Thanks for the help!!
Libby (who really does want to grow up to be a good groom!)
<BLOCKQUOTE class=“ip-ubbcode-quote”><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Holst:
Is there anything I can do to help those hairs grow out, or do I just have to grin and bear it until they’re long enough to incorporate into a braid. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Holst, you might check the Horse Care forum… someone there has posted a thread about getting a tail to grow that might be useful.
the tail in question…
is on the right…
charter member BEQS Clique & Invisible Poster Clique
Another pulled tail in action.
I’m a bit of a lurker, but I have a problem with Maddie’s tail! The barn she was at before I got her shaved her tail, but I want to grow it out to braid it, and right now it’s in an awful in-between stage. The bottom part of her tail is lovely and full, but about where her dock starts there are all these short hairs sticking straight out to the side and make her tail look like a bit of a tree (it’s horrid!). Is there anything I can do to help those hairs grow out, or do I just have to grin and bear it until they’re long enough to incorporate into a braid. I’m tempted to just pull/trim it again but I also do hunters so I’d love to be able to braid it. HELP!
Love me: Love my HOLSTEINER
did you pull or clip? His tail looks similar to what happens when you have a horse with a GREAT thick tail and try to make the appearance of a pulled tail with clippers. It gets bushy. With a thin tail you might be able to get away with clippers, but if you can’t pull, I would go with scissors on a really thick tail.
The thing that makes pulling look so nice is that if you have a gorgeous tail(which you do) you can get that really nice “broomstick” effect. Sleek at the top and FULL FULL FULL at the bottom, because you have taken out the thickness at the top.
Also, a tail bandage is key. It keeps all the hairs laying the way they should. I throw one in a water bucket when I start grooming, wet the tail and put it on while I ride. Just enough time to train the hair. (And of course be careful not to wrap the bandage too tight.)
Here’s a pic of Edgar’s tail. His is really thick and if I only pull about 20 hairs from each side, he doesn’t mind. Also, I will put some astringent on when I am finished and then some moisturizer before I put him away for the night. (Keeps him from itching.)
I just bought my horse from NZ and he HAD the nicest pulled and banged tail. No it’s all gone to s#*t! I’ve tried to pull it where it looks like they did but it doesnt look right. You said earlier not to pull the center. Do you mean just the center at the top or all the way down where you are pulling? If I don’t pull the center of it, it sticks out in all these crazy angles. So, I’ve been pulling the sides real short and pulling the center just enough that it will lie flat. Any Ideas?
I’m terrified to do his tail, although its banged to a lovely length. He has a very thick tail at the top, and I cant use clippers, he HATES them, too old to fight about it. And he has a coon tail, Hereditary. So I would try the scissor thing, but I have no clue as to how much to trim, Just so it lays neatly in his butt??? See no clue!
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