by Audrey Pavia
A good, well-fitted halter horse is a beautiful sight to behold. Exquisitely balanced and perfectly groomed, halter horses are among the most pampered equines in the world.
Part of what makes these horses so easy on the eyes is their perfectly kept manes and tails. Those who fit halter horses take the hair nature has given these horses and make it all the more handsome.
Whether your horse is a halter competitor, a performance horse, or simply a weekend trail horse, the wisdom and techniques of those who fit halter horses can help you make your horse’s mane and tail all the more glamorous.
Grooming & Nutrition
The most important aspect of keeping manes and tails looking great is proper care and conditioning of the mane and tail, as well as the entire horse. Without this vital, fundamental step, no amount of primping can make those horse hairs look good.
“We start with the basics and the foundation for producing a finished halter horse: a good complete and balanced feed program, individualized for each horse, including a high-quality coat conditioner,” says Linda Jones, of Harvey and Linda Jones Paint Show Horses in Turlock, California.
“Good hair coats, including manes and tails, come from the inside out. No amount of moisturizers and conditioners will create great manes and tails if the horse’s general diet and condition is not optimum.”
Denny Hassett of Burns, Kansas, has been showing Paints and Quarter Horses in halter for more than 30 years. Having fitted a number of world champion Paints in halter, he is an expert at creating great manes and tails.
“Part of your daily routine should be paying close attention to the mane, keeping it clean is important,” writes Hassett in his book Winning at Halter.
Halter horses, which are sweated daily under synthetic neck sweats, have particular problems with dirty manes. Horses kept at pasture or in dirt paddocks also have a tendency to accumulate a lot of grime in their manes and tails.
It’s vital to keep these manes and tails clean if they are to look good for the show ring or even out on a day’s ride.
“You have to be very methodical about washing and conditioning, especially if you have a horse that is being campaigned,” says Vicki Dobbins, stallion manager for Manor House Paint and Quarter Horses in Murrietta, California, and owner of Ima Luckychance, a Paint stallion she fitted for a world championship in halter.
“If a horse is being campaigned or neck-sweated every day, I put a leave-in conditioner on daily. I don’t wash the mane every day, but I do add the conditioner. I can tell by feel if the mane is particular dirty and needs washing.”
Training & Protecting
One part of keeping a mane looking good is training it to fall all to one side. Jones begin this process right away on new horses that come to her barn, as well as weanlings she is fitting for halter.
“We first braid the mane over on the left side in fat heavy braids,” she says. “After a week or so, we remove the braids and shorten the mane, using either a clipper blade or thinning scissors or both.
“If the mane still won’t lay flat, we repeat the process as the braids are shorter now. I keep all manes laying on the left side. I’m right-handed and it’s much easier for me to band if the mane is on the left side.”
Because the hairs on a horse’s tail break easily, halter experts take a variety of steps to protect them.
“To keep tails looking good, I braid them after washing and put them in a tail bag,” says Dobbins. “The tail has a leave-in conditioner on it, which I put on the braid. I’m also careful about the types of buckets I use in the horses’ stalls. A braided tail can get caught on a bucket with a hook handle, and hairs will get ripped out.”
Hassett prefers long, natural tails that fall to the upper part of the pastern. Long, luxurious tails like this need special care to stay beautiful.
“We don’t like to see any hairs pulled out unnecessarily, so we are very careful with our horses’ tails every day. We don’t comb them out. Instead, we tie longer tails into figure-eight loops after they have been washed, and while they are still wet. This keeps a horse from stepping on a long tail while he is standing in deep shavings.”
Once the tail is put into a figure-eight pattern, Hassett places it in a sock, which basically functions as a homemade tail bag. This protects the hairs from breaking.
Hassett also uses an automatic fly control system in his barn to help keep horses from swishing their tails too often. When a tail is swished with frequency, valuable hairs begin to break off.
Jones, on the other hand, does not believe in covering up the tail, but instead tends to them daily. “We are not fans of tail bags,” she says. “In order to avoid staining of the tail with manure, we groom tails every day.”
Banding Manes
One of the arts of fitting a halter horse is in the practice of mane banding. A good mane banding job can make the difference between a horse that looks balanced and proportioned in the front end, to one that does not.
Halter experts all have their own methods and philosophies regarding mane banding.
Before banding can begin, a mane must be shortened and thinned to the appropriate length and thickness so the banding will be even.
Some experts do this by pulling the mane, while others prefer alternate ways of thinning.
Hassett thins manes by pulling them when necessary to get them to lay flat evenly across the neck. Preferring to pull manes that are slightly dirty so they will be easier to handle, Hassett is careful not to pull too much in one section to avoid creating bald spots.
Dobbins, on the other hand, has a different method. “I sometimes run across manes that need thinning,” she says.
“I don’t like pulling manes on halter horses because these horses have neck sweats taken on and off each day, and wear neck warmers at night. This keeps their manes a little thinner than other horses.
“You have to take this wear and tear on the mane into consideration. If a mane is too thick, I use double-sided thinning shears after it has been banded, and cut straight up into the band.
“Then I comb it out, and some of the hair comes out, thinning the mane. After I have banded a mane, if some of the bands are puffy, I do the same thing to get them to lay flat.”
Accentuate the Positive
Banding methods can also help to accentuate what is good about a horse’s conformation, and de-emphasize aspects that are short of ideal.
“Both banding and proper clipping can help a less-than-perfect horse,” says Jones. “We adjust the length of the clipped bridle path according to the horse’s neck.
“On a horse with a thick throatlatch, the bridle path will be a little longer.
“On a thick-necked horse, I’ll pull the bands farther over on the side of the neck and band it tighter in the middle (usually the fattest part) and less tight on the remainder of the mane.
“We’ll leave the mane a little longer on a horse with a heavier neck and short on a horse with a long thin neck. We always clip the bridle path down past the poll – it gives a cleaner look to the face and head – and we clip the white hair on the horse’s face for the same reason.”
Dobbins also uses banding to make a horse’s head and neck look its best. “I like to start with a bathed horse and one that has had a silicon spray put on it, although not on the mane because the spray makes it too slick,” she says.
“I then band the mane while it is wet. When the mane is damp, it’s easier to control all the little hairs. Also, this way, when the mane dries, it stays down the way I want it to.”
Specific flaws can be easily camouflaged with the right banding techniques, while good areas can be accentuated.
“For instance, if a baby has a beautiful neck, I will use a white band with a brown mane to show this off,” says Dobbins. “If the baby has a little bit of milk crest left, I will pull the bands really tight where the crest is so I can get the neck to look as tight as I can.”
Hassett also uses this technique to de-emphasize problem necks. For crested necks, he makes the band level and trims the mane from short to long to short in certain places to draw the eye away from the rise in the neck. For slightly ewe-necked horses, he raises the banding at the top of the neck to create a straighter line in the top of the neck, while also pulling the mane down tight just behind the bridle path.
By employing some or all of these techniques on your own horse, you can change an ordinary appearance to one of considerable glamour.
The impact of a well-groomed mane and tail is evident when you look at the horses that win in the halter ring. They all have fabulous manes and tails.
