Making a tail (look?) thicker (NO fake tails)

The biggest mistake people make with grooming the tail is to brush it or use the rubber curry on it as it breaks the hair. It needs to be finger picked. Finger picking will make it look thicker. Always start at the bottom and work your way up. Something like Show Sheen worked in will make the job easier.

On the fake tail issue, you could always get one with a naturally tapered bottom instead of a blunt look. This will make the tail look more natural. I do use a fake tail, but I do put a lot of work into my horses tail so it looks fuller. What I do is I put mtg in it...like...a ton. And then I braid it up and put it in a tail bag. I ride with the tail braided. I take the braid out once a week or every other week and wash the tail. If you don't wash it, the mtg will just build up in the tail and make the tail fall out in large clumps. I rise out all the mtg and then put in conditioner. I use eqyss mega-tek equine rebuilder. I swear by the stuff. It works miracles. I leave that in the tail for about ten minutes, and then wash it out. And then I put more mtg in the tail and braid it up again. I did this with my other horse and he looks like he has a fake tail in.

If you want to keep tail and manes nice? Never ever brush them. It pulls out too much hair. Great if you want to thin it.

As for thickening?

Use White Mink, found in human hair sections, above hair dye usually, get darkest color if you need black, but if others, can match somewhat.

Wash tail, then use this.

To dry, take electric hair dryer, and dry tail, while you finger pick it, one small section at a time. And raise each piece up and let it float back down, over and over to make sure hairs separate. To bobble, take end of tails, maybe 6 inches from ends, and take it and bobble it to hair at end of tailbone very gently. Make sure it stays fluffed out and don't smooth it down.

Unbobble and then fluff by taking end and shaking it lightly to get it aired apart.

With my daughter's mare, who has a thin, but reasonably long tail, we blunted the ends and it looks much fulller now. We had been letting the long, whispy ends touch the ground, but it always looked thin, until we decided to trim it evenly. Now the tail looks more even and full.

When we got the mare she had a very short tail. We had it in a braid in tail sock for months. When we take it out, we use a good conditioner, brush it out (yes, but it's so soft you don't hear breaking), and rebraid it. The weight of the braid helps it grow, and keeps it from getting too icky. We undo the braid every couple of weeks, and recondition it, and rebraid it.

I have had very bad experience with MTG. I used it on a gelding who had rubbed his tail. It burned him and made his rubbing way worse. My cousin used it on her horse and it did the same thing. He lost almost all of the hair on his neck and face.

Braid it really tight in several braids the nicht before. Take it out right before your show and brush it lightly. The waves will make it appear thicker.

I feed a product called BioMane and it seriously has thickened up my horses manes and tails. (And they grow like crazy!) I haven't found it in feed stores but I order it off the website (Home page) and I get it within just a couple days. It's a great product. I wouldn't brush very often, and when you do make sure and use a detangler spray and brush that you would use on the horses body (NOT A CURY COMB!) but a soft bristled brush. I takes longer but I promise you won't pull out as much hair because the soft bristles don't cut or pull through knots and tangles. Hope this helps