July 18, 2011 - The mane event



Scraggly mane before tidying up.

  Rory has such a thick mane that I have to pull it on a schedule.  Normally I don't do much pulling of manes, but Rory's is so thick that I'd never be able to braid it in small hunter style yarn braids if I didn't thin it out.  Last year I shortened it all in the spring and discovered that all the hair grew back at roughly the same time and I ended up with a 2" long bush growing through the longer hairs by the end of the summer.  Fortunately I didn't have to braid his mane last year.

I decided the best way to manage this mop would be to do a partial pull on a regular basis so the hairs would be different lengths as they grew back.  I planned on pulling it an inch or so shorter every month, but somehow it ended up being six weeks the first time and I've stuck with that ever since.  It seems to be working fairly well.  If Rory's ridden work has progressed far enough we will be going to a local breed show in about six weeks and he will need to be braided.  It's been about six weeks since the last time I pulled his mane, so I brought him in to look after it today.  Rory is completely indifferent to having his mane pulled (good thing for both of us - I'd choose to do something else if he objected) and stood nicely as I worked.  At the end of the session his mane was my preferred braiding length for the first time this year.  I started the six week cycle at the end of February.  It won't take much work to get back to this length the next time it's due for pulling.  He looked pretty cute with a short mane.  The middle section still stick straight up when it doesn't have the longer hair to weight it down, but it should braid up nicely.


Afterwards somewhat less scraggly looking