Mane care
Mane Care and Grooming Techniques
Whether your horse has a long, flowing mane or a short tight one, it's important that you keep your horse's mane tidy and healthy. Regular grooming and care creates bloom and shine, and lets your horse wow the judges, your barn mates, and you!
Mane Taming - Tips for a Tidy Mane
Generally speaking, a thinner mane is easier to tame that a thick one. If you need to, you can pull the manebefore you start the taming process to assist you. Pulling the mane creates a mane that has even thickness, from poll to wither. You may find that only the middle portion of your horse's mane needs to be thinned by pulling.
You have some options to help tame your horse's mane!
The easy ways are to use a damp towel as a "hat" while you groom the rest of your horse. Moisten, and just lay over the mane. Some horses will shake off the towel so this may not be worth it.
You can also use a stiff nylon brush dunked in water to brush the mane down. You can wet the mane down and then add use a nylon hood to hold the mane down as it dries. Doing this day after day will help, but you may need to break out the big guns.
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The sure fire way to tame a mane is to but in some braids. Tiny braids work best for short manes that will soon see the show ring. For longer, thicker manes, use bigger braids.
To make tiny braids for short manes, use the smallest section that you can handle, and pull down tight and hard. Throw in a few crossovers of plait, and then secure with a band. You don't need to braid all the way down. If you are lucky, your horse will not rub them out overnight. Leave them in as long as you can - you may need to redo them daily. Some horses need them in for weeks at a time. Be patient and diligent and work at it every day.
You may also find that wider, looser braids do the trick for your particular horse if his mane is thick or long. I personally like the little ones, but your horse may object. Sometimes you need to play around to see what works best. You may have to do a combo of lots of little things - wet the mane, braid it, use a neck cover.
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Shapley's Mane Mousse is a great mane taming helper. Used before braiding or even on a daily basis to help the mane lay flat, it's non-sticky formula does the job without attracting piles of dust and creating a sticky mane.
Removing burrs and stickers from your horse's mane and tail
You have many choices when your horse comes back to the barn covered in sticker burrs
- without causing any damage.
So, you need to create some sleek and slick hair.
Your best bet is to use conditioner or a grooming oil.
High Gloss, No. 1 Light Oil, and M-T-G are all great options. Now the fun part. Rather than dousing your horse with the conditioner or oil, apply a little bit at a time. You may need to work it in, or let your conditioner soak in a bit.
Applying too much too soon may lead to drips.
Start at the bottom or edge of the mat and slowly work the burrs and stickers out. As you work into the mass, or up the mane, or uncover more dry hair and burrs, add a bit more conditioner or oil. The bonus of using a horse conditioner or horse grooming oil is that you likely won’t need to wash it out. If you do find your horse with way too much oil in his hair, a quick shampoo will do the trick.
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Sometimes a wide tooth comb can help you separate matted hair into manageable sections.
Keeping the mane and tail brushed or picked daily helps prevent massive burr balls. If you are able to keep mane and tail dry, conditioned, and sleek, you will find that burrs have a harder time getting a grip and removal is easier.
Mane Braiding Tips!
Having a nicely turned out horse at a show is a great way to catch the judge’s eye.
All of that shine and bright white highlights, and hopefully an equally lovely braided mane. Don’t be overwhelmed by braiding - practice at home, and over time you will find it easier.
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Some handy tips on mane braiding:
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Short manes are seemingly easier to braid - unless you accidentally made the mane too short. So, let’s start from the “prep” part. For some of the western disciplines, like western pleasure, that use bands in the mane, to the tiny and numerous hunter/jumper braids, to the few and far between dressage button braids, you will start with a short mane.
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Now, most folks tell you that 4 fingers long is about ideal mane length for any of the above disciplines. And, for the most part, that’s great!! Unless you have a horse with a super wavy and curly mane, in which case you want more. Some tend to like 5 to 6 fingers, just in case…. You can always go shorter, but it's gonna take a while for mane to grow out. Start on the longer side, do some test braiding, and see if you need to go shorter.
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For any mane, thick or thin, I like the entire mane to be consistently dense. By that, I mean that the mane is the same thickness from ears to middle to withers. Most horses are thicker in the middle, which makes braids uneven.
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To create even density in the mane, you will need to thin the mane by pulling the thicker sections. Many horses tolerate and even like this process, if you horse doesn’t, you can use a thinning comb. Because thinning combs cut the mane, you might have a row of super short stragglers, but some creative product application can smooth them down.
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For long manes, which are seen in some of the western disciplines, some saddlebred disciplines, and the baroque breeds, you can get away with a little more variation in the thickness and still be OK. Most western horses with longer manes are fairly thin from ears to withers, and most baroque breeds are thicker all over.
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Now we are just getting to the practice braiding part. So now you want to think about a few more things before you bust out the yarn and elastics. I like to braid a mane that’s a bit dirty - not crazy dirty where you can see it from space, but just enough stick that your fingers, yarn, and elastics are not going to ice skate away from you and the mane. One or two days (or more) after a shampoo is usually good. If you are one day away from a show and you must shampoo the mane because someone slept in the dirtiest spot possible, use some Mane Mousse for texture.
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See what width of braid works for your horse. Experiment with wider braids and thinner braids to see what’s most flattering for my horse’s neck.