Shorten without thinning?

My horse's mane is really thin, so I can't pull his mane.
It needs to be shorter so I can braid it for shows, so what do I do?

People have suggested cutting it (vertically, of course!!), but others say not to.
What do you think?

If it is too thin to pull ( which I don't believe in anyways ) I would cut it . I cut my mares mane now and you would never even guess that it gets cut :) Specially with a thin mane youll be able to keep it even , even better .

With my horses I use an old clipper blade, held at a angle. I take a small piece of mane and draw the clipper blade through it and down. This results in hairs of different lengths and the too obvious cut look.

Back when Lacey had a mane, I trimmed it with scissors once or twice. The way I managed to make it look not so silly was by not brushing or conditioning it before I cut it, then brushing it out and such after I trimmed it. All the little tangles kept the hair different lengths like Maura said and helped it look way less "cut."

I am also a fan of the razor blaze trick. It works well for the horses. On humans too. I use it with my hair for layers.

I use a cut throat razor' you can pick them up from a hairdressing supplies for not very much and I use this to shorten the mane.. same as your haridresser does when having a razor cut style.

Its very easy and pain free assuming you don't cut yourself in the process lol good luck

You can get a natural look with scissors if you want to take the time. My mare had no mane, so we had to cut hers. You go through the same motions as pulling, hold the longer hair, tease the shorter hair up out of the way, but instead of pulling out what's left, you trim it to the length you want. If you just do a few hair at a time, it looks totally natural once you comb the other hair back into place.

Well, pulling is done not only to shorten but to thin, so if it's already as thin as you'd like it, cutting done vertically to give a "natural" look would be the best route I would say. I agree with the others about razoring too - that will also give you a "natural" effect.

I vote razoring too. They do sell razors with a handle, (got mine at the local co-op, it was really cheap and you can replace the razor easily) it looks much like a comb it has a safety shield on it. You do the same as pulling tease up the hair and razor the long strands. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy to do. Some advice from experience, don't wet the hair if you do it this way, you can't grip it! I know I tried last night.

My horse's mane was damaged at the ends when I bought him. I didn't like cutting it with scissors, and I didn't wanna pull the new growth out.

So I went to the pet store and got "thinning shears" They trim the hair like scissors, but they don't trim EVERY hair. So it looks more natural.