Everyone wants to have good hair and we as horse owners and lovers want our horses to have beautiful manes and tails as well. Sometimes this can be difficult with uncooperative horses, however with a few tips and a little time your horse will have a gorgeous show quality tail.
Grooming
Pick through your horse’s tail daily, removing any hay or shavings and picking through any knots or tangles. Try not to brush his tail everyday as brushing pulls out the hairs and they can take a while to grow back, (some research has show up to 7 years) so you want to keep as much hair intact as possible. When you do have to brush the tail pick through it first with your fingers then brush through small sections of the hair, starting at the bottom working your way up.
Bathing
A horse’s tail should be washed once every two weeks at most, more then that as it can strip the tail of its natural oils and dry the hair out. When washing the tail start by detangling it, brushing it, then start the actual bathing process by rising the tail and applying shampoo. Scrub the shampoo throughout the tail then rinse thoroughly. Be sure to get all of the shampoo out of the tail, as left over shampoo can cause the hair to dry out and break. After rinsing, apply conditioner all over the tail and wash out. If you want to add a detangler like Show Sheen, spray some on after conditioning to prevent knots from forming. After washing, tie your horse up and let the hair completely dry. Do not brush a wet tail as it could break your horse’s hard-to-grow hairs. Once the tail has dried use your fingers or a wide toothed comb to brush through the tail. If your horse is kept in a stall you can then loosely braid the hair and put it in a tail bag to further protect the hair.
Clipping and Trimming
There are two main ways of cutting the tail. One is trimming the hair on both sides of the tail bone, and the other is called banging the tail which is cutting the tail straight across so it is even with the horse’s fetlocks.
Trimming the hair on both sides of the tail is a common practice in the sport horse world and many other disciplines. This type of trimming is designed to refine the look of the tail. It works best on horses that have short hairs near the base of the tail or those that rub their tails. To trim the tail it is best if you use clippers or scissors instead of pulling the hair out. Start clipping on a dry tail by standing to the side of your horse (desensitize your horse to the sound of feel of the clippers first if you plan to use them). Hold the clippers or scissors upward and start at the bottom of where you want to trim to. This line is usually five inches long with space to taper the hair back into the tail, cut up against the hair growth getting as close to the tail as you can. Look over your work once you have done both sides of the tail to make sure the hair is even.
The second way to cut the tail is banging, which can look good both with the tail clipped at the top or with it left naturally. The idea is to make the tail look fuller and keep it short enough that a horse won’t step on it during work or competition. When banging a tail it is best to work with a tail that has been recently washed but not still wet. Brush through the tail, then ask a helper to place one arm under the tail bone to lift the tail to the level it is when the horse is in motion. If you cut the tail hanging straight down it will be even shorter when the horse is moving. Then snip the bottom of the tail straight across making sure to get any stray hairs.