Grooming question for Hafflinger owners & English riders

Most of you know, I'm a QH girl & my showing experience comes from that side of things, so I have a couple questions on show turnout.

I have a beginner student who rides an older Haffie mare. She is 4-H age this year & will be going to her first fair, she's very excited & I am for her. She will be showing her in everything from WP, barrels, trail to Hunter classes.

My question - what's the proper clip? Do I leave her legs/feathers alone? We have had a very wet year and they are very stained & I feel compelled to clip her, but know by breed standard that is probably not correct. I also wondered about pulling her mane, not talking WP short & thin, but enough to be manageable and allow for nice button braids on Hunter day. I don't want to make her untrue to her breed, just curious how much I can "clean her up".

I think you're right about the breed strandard and what not. Even though I am all about short manes and a full clip. I would say get her mane an even length like you said dor the button braids or even french braid it down her neck, and leave the feathers. I would clip her muzzle and ears for sure.

I found some pics of some with trimmed feather and others with out... personal preferance maybe?

I looked all over the American Haflinger Registry website for standards for such things and I did not find them (because I now own a Haflinger).

I did notice that some of the photos that show horses at shows have the horses clipped to the nines and others do not.

I think you will be fine trimming her up.

Heres another,

Thanks to you both.

AB, I'm jealous. Adore haffies, but can't justify having one for myself. It's my secret plan to hit up the hubby when my daughter gets bigger under the guise of being her pony ;)

I think I'll probably try to get the stains out of her & leave her feathers but clean up around her coronary band a bit. Thin her mane a bit & button braid her. Clip face, ears, bp like any other.
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My Haffie is my mid life crisis (with out the crisis) pony. I figure I needed a new horse (my old man is now retired) and I am not showing anymore so I would get something I can ride and drive and when I fall off the ground is much closer to me.

I love the diamond braids for Haffies, but I'm not so good at getting them to look great.

Haflinger Braids and Grooming Techniques

The next time I take one of mine out I want to try scallop braids





I think they are really pretty and should allow plenty of neck movement without tearing out a french braid, or deforming your diamonds.

I think you have the right idea for her feathers, tidy up but don't remove

Ooh Golden, how pretty! I can't ride right now so mine might be guinea pigs to practice that. Thank you for sharing!
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How do you do scallop braids? I'm in a similar situation as the OP, i'm taking my morgan mare to a hunter show, but she's got SO much mane! I decided on a french braid, but those scallop braids look really nice, and would allow more flexing of the neck...

I haven't actually practiced them yet, but they should be dead simple.

Start by making your normal long braids all down the mane, when they are all done,then start at the poll, loop that braid up and under the next braid and secure it on place. Go all the way down just looping one in behind the other.

Alternatively, loop the first braid under the third, then the second under the fourth etc etc.

I would post links to threads showing clear descriptions, but they all seem to be on other forums, and those links are not allowed.

I suggest just putting this in a Google search

Scalloped braids horse instructions

And you will find links to lots of places

If you go for scalloped horse braids, and an image search, you'll see lots of pics