Mane Pulling

It's been at least 15 years since I had to pull a mane. I have 2 fillies that need their manes pulled for showing this year. In the last 15 years has any new tricks popped up?

The one filly has a very thick long mane, all I can think about is my poor hands cramping. I have 2 months to work on it so she wont be overwhelmed with it all at once.

Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated!

Well my mare had a super long mane, like 4-5 inches below the bottom of her neck. Hers was medium to thick hair so I cut a crap load of it off with scissors and then pulled it. I also did it over a couple days. It helps with the hand cramps and if your horse is figity, as is mine.

If your horse doesn't like having their mane pulled, you can tie up a hay bag to munch on while you work.

And yes, working over a couple of days/weeks is always good :)

Wear gloves!

Doing it after exercise is also a good idea as the pores are open and the hair pulls more easily.

I'm sure you probably know all of these tricks, anyway!

I have only owned her for 3 weeks, she is 2 years old this June. She ties and stands quietly for grooming. They never gave her a bridle path either LOL

I will have to cut off several inches and start pulling and see what happens. I have my non cramped fingers crossed for easy pulling sessions.

The second filly is a yearling and has a thinner mane and at the right length to pull, so she should go quickly.

I hate pulling manes I'm no go at it. So when I got my TB his was long so I cut it a little bit longer than where I wanted it then used this sissors vertically, to make it look natural. I learned this from a video on Utube and it looks just like a pulled mane.
About 2 min into this video it shows what I'm talking about. Although I didn't wet my horses mane and it worked fine too

Always start from the poll and go down towards the withers. That way, if your horse gets really fed up and starts throwing his head around, you'll still be able to reach the base of his mane rather than the top (my horse taught me this lesson and must I must have been a great source of amusement for him ).