[gummiponys]

My horse has a long mane, about as long as his neck, hanging down. But I do not want to make it shorter, but maybe a inch and a half. Thats it. I refuse to make it any shorter than that. I have a horse show coming up, and I was wanting to do a regular braid, you know, for hunter shows. So would it be possible for a mane like his to braid?


Pictures of his mane are below.

[Moostang]

When I used to show Kristay with long mane, I would braid a piece of yarn into each braid. (Take a piece of yarn 3x the length of the mane, fold it in half then take then folded end and put that against the root of the mane, then take then I grab a side of the yarn and hold it with the outside strands of the braid and start braiding it, it would leave you several inches on the end). Then take the end of first braid (near ears) and tie it to the root of the 3rd braid and so on, the would make loops, and since she had a black mane we would braid in a color like light blue. Sometimes we would just tie it to itself and use the excess yard to tie in half. I wish I had pics but I can't find any from that far back.
The other thing we did was to french braid the whole mane, however if they put their head down a lot it tends to come undone and it has to be done the morning of the show.
if you were riding western and wanted to braid there is a cool pattern type braid that is easy to do.

[Sandra-A1]

If you are talking about the individual braids, I think it can be done, although they might be a bit larger than the ones made with a pulled mane. As long as they are even and neat though I think they would be fine.
I have braided a horse in that manner with a mane that length before. The trick is to wet the mane...at least that is what worked best for me.
I think I would practice several time in advance of when you need it done though.
Also you might want to see if there are groomers you can hire at the show who will braid your horse for you...sometimes it is worth the added expense of paying someone to do it for you because you get a neater, more professional look!

[CJ]

Raps has a long, thick mane, and when I showed him English I put it in a French braid. French is relatively quick and easy as braids go, and Raps was plenty active and his braids never came out. The way i got him to stand long & still enough for braiding was to tie him up short within reach of his haynet. Use one of those 4-prong braid separator combs for nice even locks, and I braided the mid length of the hair, not too close to the ends; that might be why it didn't come apart. That or c/s liquid-plastic hairspray..

[AutumnAttic]

I think CJs idea is good. But if you dont want to do that, i know another neat hair style you can do. It takes a while, but is well worth it. P.M. me if you do

[gummiponys]

Thanks everyone!
I am getting bored of the Continental Braid...... *yawn* so I wanted something more english style.

ill take pictures...... and post them here sometime..... if I can get the computer to do that.

[naughtygirl]

Moostang: hav u got a pic of how u sed your did your horses mane, im really interested...

[Magzinator]

Do you know how to do scalops? or a braid down the whole mane?

[Libby_Lover]

I'm not sure what is it called, but I kinda french braid my horses manes all the way from the top to bottom and tie the very end with a white rubber band (I have a palomino and a flea-bitten grey, so their manes are both white).

[Moostang]

OK as requested here is what I was talking about with braiding yarn into the mane. Once you get the yarn in, you can be very creative about how to tie it up.

Ok.. take in mind I did this very quick and started in the middle of the mane and didn't even braid all the way down.. Normally I take my time, keep the yarn on top so you can see it the whole braid and I start at the bridle path, but it was COLD and dark outside so it was a quickie, just enough to get the point. So it does look better when you take you time..


Also I would like to thank my lovely model Miss Valiant Star known to her close friends as Kristay.. currently she is enjoying an early retirement at age 17, and loves all this pampering.

1. Shows how long her mane is..
2. This shows how I have the mane divided in to my 3 sections of a braid then folded the yarn in half at the top so half the yarn is in the right section, the other half in the left section, then I start braiding. Take your time and you can manage to keep the yarn on top the whole time.
3. Show serveral braids done.
4. This shows the start of a scallop, I took the end of the first braid and tied it to the end of the 3rd braid. The longer the mane the more braids you want to skip. I think I ended up skipping two, or basically tieing the first to the root of the 4th. When you get near the withers can no longer skip braids you can loop them under, or do it in reverse, taking the last braid and going foward.
5. Shows some more scallops.
6. Shows if you loop the end of the braid up to itself
7. Shows if you loop it to itself then use the extra yarn to flatten the braid. - middle braid again
8. Shows if you loop it to itself 2x - middle braid
9. More scallops.

If you are really creative you can tie them in different ways.. with bows, bright colors or find a color that matches the mane so it doesn't stick out. Also if you have a large plastic needle like the kind used for yarn then you can loop the extra yarn through the braid when you are folding it up to make it real tight and flat. The possiblities are endless.