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Mane care

4K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  StormvaleQHStud 
#1 ·
i have a question....which is better clipping a horses mane or pulling their mane? people say that pulling a horses mane hurts them.
 
#9 ·
I have only ever seen one horse act uncomfortable when te mane is being pulled, I'm guessing some are more sensitive than others. I roach my horses mane, lol, but I would just trim it with scissors if she had a mane, its easiest and quickest for me.
 
#12 ·
Personally, I prefer the look of a nicely maintained, natural mane. No tangles or snarls, but long and healthy. I've never enjoyed pulling manes and I can't imagine that horses enjoy having it done either. I can understand the reasons behind it... it's just not something I find necessary.
 
#13 ·
to the people who say pulling a horses mane is painful... ITS NOT horses do NOT have any nerve endings there! and if you lets say comb thru their mane and it knotty and pull hard and the horse kinda side steps that doesnt mean it hurts them it means your putting them off balance. and for english ridng they prefer that the horses mane is short long manes dont pin well
 
#20 ·
I'm glad I mainly have Haffies, and an an Arab, no pulling needed, but Mr G does need pulling. I was recently introduced to this way of pulling



basically the same way we all know, but instead of yanking out the hair you just put tension on it and it kind of releases and comes away. It is a very weird feeling, but they don't appear to feel any stress ay all. I've even started tidying up Berts mane while she is eating her supper, and believe me if it hurt she would let you know
 
#21 ·
I actually just last week tried this "nicer" way of pulling by putting tension upwards instead of yanking down. My horse completely ignored me when I did it, it was more effective (I have a habit of cutting the hairs when I yank down) and it was easy. I didn't get as close to the neck as she did in the video though. I just teased, wrapped and steadily pulled upwards. The hairs came out pretty easily and she could have cared less. Granted, she only did a little head shaking with the regular method.

I used to be very anti-pulling but my previous trainer pulled my horses mane for me one day and it looked so sharp I just had to keep up with it. I only spend a couple minutes every couple weeks to keep it looking nice. Not as big of a pain (for me or her) as I thought it would be. That said, if you life the "natural" look, more power to ya! But, it's definitely not cruel.
 
#22 ·
For those people who said they knew a whole barn full of horses that hated having their manes pulled, and that some needed to be tranq'ed - maybe it was the technique used? If you were to pull a 'chunk' of hair out of your own head it would hurt, but you could pull a couple of hairs without much discomfort...

Maybe try pulling only a few hairs at a time, and spread the mane pulling out over several weeks, just doing 5-10mins a day. (This is what I'm doing with my mare - she has thin mane near her ears, and it gradually gets thicker as it goes down her neck, so I'm trying to even it out!)
 
#23 ·
For my experience, it was all different people using all different techniques. It was also several barns, and the horses inluded my own horse, who would get very agitated and violently shake her head if even a few hairs were pulled at a time. Most of the horses at these barns (and including my horses) were hot blooded breeds like TBs, arabs, etc, so this may make a difference as they are usually more sensitive. I was able to get a technique down with the scissors for my TB mare, and her mane would come out really good. To me it's just not worth it to pull.
 
#24 ·
Thankyou golden horse I was going to suggest that method if no one did and hey- you beat me to it haha!!! It's a much nicer way and I wasn't and still am not much of a mane puller kinda gal but seeing as I now do dressage and competing it's kinda nessecary lol! My friend introduced me to this method and showed me on her very touchy standy and he was fine with it. You kind of hear a pop pop pop as the hair releases itself from the mane while you apply light tension and no pain!!!!! He us an 8th who likes to think he is 2 so gets easily distracted so he gets bored but that's about it! He is one to bite things too so that's saying something!!!! She usually will do it over a week or two and spend 10/15mins on it every day or so and he doesn't have a care in the world untill he gets bored and starts fidgeting lol!!! I have a mix of everything here from a pulled mane(dressage tb) to natural (husbands pleasure tb) cut and banded -for shows (qh stallion) and two mares that get a thinned natural mane which I just use a mane thinning comb with blades in it and make the ends wispy and wild looking but still straightish as if it's pulled but longer than a pulled mane natural length. They are my pleasure/trick/broodies. Works great all round for me :)
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