I purchased a nice fake tail for my App who only has a tail that goes right above his hocks. It’s actually pretty thick compared to some appy tails I’ve seen:
What would be the best way to put it in?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pY1qhSwfCI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyFeLGZSs7U
Hopefully these videos will give you some ideas.
Keeping the tail, tail hair moisturized, can help horse grow in more, stronger, hair. Seems there is an Appy genetic thing going with making hair brittle, so it can break off easier.
“Way back in the day” we purchased an Appy horse with about 10 hairs in his tail, spots worn on his rump sides from swishing for flies. Actually gone into bloody sores in his fly-ridden barn situation. Seems like I remember the longest hairs were black and about 4 inches long. Some grey, white hairs were more furry on top of the bone, only 1/2 inch or so in length or totally rubbed off.
We started with just putting Vasaline on his tailbone, holes in his rump to cover skin from flies. This was going into Fall, so we ended up just keeping him greased to let skin be soft, protected from weather, the odd bug surviving cold days. I kept up the Vasaline on thru winter.
By spring, he had regrown the bald spots of hair, actually had a bit of hair length to that poor tailbone! We kept him clean, flies are less attracted to clean, non-poopy smelling horses, and used fly spray liberally. Kept up the grease on his tail. It did add a bit of work to his daily upkeep, making sure his tail bone and hair on it, was kept greasy. We did add soybean meal to his diet, at a 10% rate in his grain.
The combination of care, better hay, pasture and grain, constant attention for almost a year to his tail being kept greasy with Vasaline, created a pretty nice looking tail!! He had gained length to the hairs, MORE hair that didn’t break off so badly, and he was not in distress from flies to wear off the tail hairs with constant swishing.
He ended up with a thin, but NICE tail, below his hocks in a couple years.
Relating this to encourage you to give horse a bit of extra attention, maybe some Vasaline treatments, to get his tail growing better for you. Hairs are not brittle with the extra moisture treatment, lets you gain ground to get thicker and longer hair growth going. Feed additives, especially protein like soybean meal, help from the inside. Good luck with him and his tail!
