I essentially did Willa’s like the link today! It looks great!
I can’t stand the look of a pulled tail. I do bang my hirses tail but I do it at the ankles because he does not hold his tail down so it makes it look shorter. Pulled tails…to me…remind me of a horse who has been rubbing it. Yuck.
I also do my horse’s tails like DinkDunks link. I think it does neaten the appearance of the top of the tail. I have used clippers with a blade guide (is that what it is called?) that prevents you from accidently gouging a piece out of the tail.
I bang the bottom at fetlock height. If my horse has a sparse tail, I would bang it shorter.
I also use a solo comb. Since I only show the lower levels, I don’t think it matters all that much and my horses tolerate it so much better than if I were pulling their manes instead.
I won’t pretend a solocomb does as good a job or better than a pulled mane. I would rather make a trade off in that department than annoy my horse unnecessarily. If I were showing the A rated hunters, their manes would be pulled.
[QUOTE=Robby Johnson;7022516]
I like pulled and banged … especially the (gasp) extreme British style. Which, of course, is the proper way since that’s where it originated. 
I have used clippers as well. I am a stickler for tails, actually, and can tell you that horses who are braided semi-often have bottlebrush tails, as braiding tends to break the hair at the top and sides.
I also feel like most people who swear their horse has a glorious natural tail are delusional, as well as lazy, and probably use a Solo Comb to do manes. Yeah, I said it. If it’s fuzzy at the top, and tapers to the fetlocks (with taper beginning at the hock), your nappy-headed horse’s weave is busted and it needs to be fixed. Pull and bang, that’s the answer! 
Seriously, pulling is an ongoing process. I do a few hairs on either side several times a week, usually after I’ve ridden. Same with manes. Don’t view it as an occasional chore. Integrate it in your daily grooming routine.[/QUOTE]
I don’t know I think my guy’s natural tail looks just fine and his SoloComb pulled mane still looks pretty good with button braids. I’m not lazy, I would just rather put my horse’s comfort level above aesthetics in most scenarios. (Although, I have met the lazy people, like the ones who won’t even bathe their horse before a show…)
Here’s his tail (it hasn’t been banged in a while and needs it):
http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/jfcx333/media/Ben%20mane%20and%20tail/IMG_2085.jpg.html
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee488/jfcx333/Ben%20mane%20and%20tail/IMG_2087.jpg
And here he is braided:
http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/jfcx333/media/Ben%20mane%20and%20tail/550636_4040607023837_411264165_n.jpg.html
http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/jfcx333/media/Ben%20mane%20and%20tail/IMG_1833.jpg.html
Oh yes, oh yes!
Agreed. I HATE braided tails. :dead: Seriously, I loathe braided tails. I think nothing shows off the hindquarters as nicely as a pulled and banged tail.
I will always do it. 
That said, I do admit that I clip mine, not pull, but I do a better clip job than pull job (I do pull manes) on a tail. Whatevehs. It still looks really neat and tidy and really shows off a full tail much better, imo. And banging at a little above the fetlock, again, really shows off a full tail, good confirmation, etc. etc.
Ahhh. I love the look. :yes:
[QUOTE=FLeventer;7019624]
I personally pull all my horses tails. My older guy was going training and about to bump to prelim when he was injured and is currently on rest. Young horse does novice and happily rocks a pulled tail. I personally pull them over the horrid clipped tail, which never looks right. I also bang their tails mid cannon bone.
At the lower levels I honestly see many natural tails and some even at the upper levels. Trainers 2* horse rocks the natural look as pulling his tail or his mane is a lesson in dodging hooves. he just gets a tail wrap before dressage to neaten the look.
I would rather see a natural tail over a badly pulled, cut, clipped, or braided tail. So distracting if not done right for me, but really it is the other competitor that you are doing it for as I personally have never heard a judge comment on it when scribing. You do really have to keep up the upkeep on the tail or it looks ratty. For me its five minutes a week and a easy show prep with an ace bandage. personally I’ve been pulling tails so long it isn’t a big deal, but if you don’t want the commitment then pass on a pulled tail.[/QUOTE]
A properly pulled tail should not look pulled. It is a skill to pull one correctly and to maintain it, but the end result should be nice and tidy without hairs springing out all over the place and no hedghoggy hairs on the sides.
The tail is carried and the nice neat top of the tail looks so smart and sets off the butt.
It is not supposed to scream “pulled” or shaved, bristly, etc. Subtle is the style. Properly trained grooms know how. Once it has been pulled, it cannot be braided for a very long time.
And yet there’s no accounting for taste. Hard to believe, if one is not a part of that world, that people like the “set” tails, shaved manes, and unconventional headgear sported by 3-gaited Saddlebreds, too. Or the long, flowing Gypsy Vanner look. Or the obese show hunter. Etc. etc. We all think our personal preferred style is the nicest, no?
That is a VERY nicely done pulled tail. I admire the skilled job and it flatters the horse. But I don’t care for it, personally. shrug
I personally wouldn’t pull. Not for lower levels anyway. Is painful to my horse. He’s made it abundantly clear that he hates it even when it’s only 3 hairs taken out per day. So I see no reasons to let style dictate what I do.
They entire reason that I got into eventing in the early 80’s was because eventers were non-judge mental about fashion and style…and we were not the shiney fashionable hunter princesses. Of course that’s changed radically over the decades.
If and when I start truly eventing and not just bebopping around I will go for the pulled and banged look. I feel it looks very workmanlike and I like it - though perhaps not quite to the extreme the brits go to because I have a half arab and het high tail carriage makes a shorter tail look weird. The pulled tail started because foxhunters didn’t want to bother with braiding the tails constantly and the braids would just get caught in the brush and pulled out anyways - thus, a pulled tail.
I do not care for the heavily shaved tails. They don’t look quite as nice as the properly pulled tails. I like the look of the braided tails on certain horses, but not so much on others and am not fond of spending 20 minutes on another thing to braid.
If you don’t want to remove or cut any hair along the dock, you can still get a tidy look by wetting the tail and applying a tail bandage for a bit, before your rides. It is an option Particularly useful if you have a horse with a bushy tail, which to me, looks very unfinished with a braided horse.
Winters in IL were pretty awful too…I remember the poopsicles well! I usually put my horse’s tail up during the winter, and it would grow a lot. But even on the horses that lived out their tails wouldn’t be mid-cannon, and generally weren’t poopsicles very often.
shrugs I just like the look, personally. I prefer the tail to be closer to the fetlocks, I think it looks more balanced.
I loathe long tails - I always feel that they add more length to the hind end… as though the horse’s hind legs are trailing.
I like tails to end in line with the chestnuts when the horse is moving.
But even on the horses that lived out their tails wouldn’t be mid-cannon
I bang 'em to just below the hock in the late fall, (they don’t need them to swat flies and we don’t show in the winter) and when spring rolls around they’re just about ready to be banged again at low-cannon level, and I haven’t had to touch their tails for 4 months. I’m a lazy bugger and looks don’t mean anything to me when a horse is on its winter down time, covered with mud, blanketed and fuzzy.
I pull the sides bald in the summer. Well, my horse’s hair is sparse enough that you can easily see the skin anyway, and it gets flaky and itchy. So I pull it and it makes dealing with the dry skin easier. She also seems to like it. She lifts her tail and moves it to the side for me. But then, she also lifts her tail out of the way when I use a medium stiff brush on her vulva. She’s weird like that.
ETA: The rest of the time I clip it. My biggest pet peeve is when the short hairs are not angled into the long at the bottom so the short hair line ends in a squared off thing. Taper it people.
[QUOTE=useventers;7024279]
[/QUOTE]
I LOVE this look - course, in general, I like a British style turn out better than the common american ones.
I won’t pull a tail, ever, bc I saw my daughter’s YR horse cry when he had his done! I have always said Prelim means the tails get done but then I took mine to a T3D and did his for that. I have always done tails with scissors (more cautiously than Sue in the video!) but am now learning to do them with clippers. Always clip with the hair growth and always leave the hair on the middle of the dock growing long. I like the tails banged about mid-cannon but won’t do that during fly season.
