Braiding for the show- and the woes begin.

Hi, I have a show coming up!
A little background on my horse- he recently decided it would be a nice idea to rub off his mane on tree, so the entire wither area where part of his mane used to fall was one of two strands of hair, that I pulled out.

Well, his entire mane began looking like a mess, so I cut it into a medium length arched Mohawk [Short where he rubbed, increasing in height towards the middle, then decreasing again towards the bridle path]

I though it looked pretty cool, but my mom nearly flipped a cow when she saw it [she's into long flowing manes..] and told me not to cut it anymore. So it's been growing out for around a month.

Problem. Part of it's long, part of it's short, part of it falls down to the side some, part of it stands up. I know some parts are long enough to braid for the upcoming show, but where he rubbed at the withers, it's only about an inch long.

So my questions are what can I do with it? Should I braid the parts I can and leave the withers area alone? Should I chop it back into a Mohawk? I wish I had a great picture but I don't, this is all I have:

Maybe try banding it? I know that isn't very popular in english disciplines, but at least it would look neater than leaving it all uneven.

Another option would be to cut it all short--either roach it or keep it like a mohawk. I think he looks kinda cute with a short mane. :)

You're going to need to do like 50 braids, but you can do it with yarn. Just make sure your spacing stays very even to make up for the difference in length of hair (ie size of the braid). Good luck!

Please do not band if you are going to a hunter type show!


Braid. Do what you can. Like anebel suggested, use yarn to make things right. In the areas where the hair is thin just add a few extra pieces of yarn.

My gelding is folliclely challenged so we always have to add extra yarn to make his braids look even.

If it's uneven, I would just roach it all the way to the base and let it grown in evenly. But that's just me. If your mom won't let you roach it, then go with small hunter braids like anabel said

Just a thought but is everyone at the show braiding? If it's just a schooling, local or even small "A" show, I wouldn't worry about braiding, as most folks don't bother with braiding then anyways. I would just work on getting it to lay flat by braiding it over and leaving the braids in for several days if possible. Once the mane is laying flat, just try to make the longer bits of the mane even by pulling and don't even worry about the short bits, just leave them alone and let them grow.