...It is time to think about giving the Q a new "do" which is more appropriate to his new station in life.
I've got to admit: I have had THE. WORST. TIME. trying to bring myself to pull that Saddlebred mane! It's the weirdest psychological hangup ever. Anyone who knows me knows that when I get a new Thoroughbred in off the track or off the layup farm, the VERY first thing I do is pull the mane! So why on earth have I been standing next to Quattro in the cross-ties for several nights in a row, scissors/pulling comb/clippers in hand, then putting them back in my pocket and thinking "Uhhhhhh, maybe tomorrow night"????
Bee-zarre.
But I conducted a strict psychological inventory on myself and finally decided the reason I haven't been able to bring myself to pull the mane is that I have wanted a nice Saddlebred for sooooooooooooooo long (decades in fact!), and now that I have one, he really does look awfully cute and perky racing around in his paddock with his My Little Pony mane flowing in the breeze.
Nevertheless, he is going off to be backed this fall; he will be in a sport horse environment, where it will be expected that he already know how to stand for pulling, thinning and braiding and that his mane already be properly done; so it is definitely time to start teaching him about the Mane Thang!
I bit the bullet and did it tonight.
Now, STANDING is not Quattro's favorite thing to do. One of his countless nicknames is "Twinkletoes". That should tell you a lot. But I intentionally picked the hottest part of the day to tackle this project, and he did stand long enough for me to get a "BEFORE" shot:
As you can see, that's really NOT how you want to send your horse off to a pro hunter barn!
So away we went. Q is still more than a bit head-shy, so I did it kind of backwards, pulling and thinning from the withers UP the neck. Much to my relief, he really didn't seem to mind the pulling and thinning at all. I've had Sensitive TeeeBees before who just couldn't tolerate it, and you had to rub Anbesol on the roots or spray Chloraseptic on them, which is truly gross and a real hassle - I've even heard of horses you had to tranq to pull their manes, but I've never owned one. Pleased to report I don't own one now, either!
I got maybe one-third of the way up the neck and Q decided enough of this STANDING stuff was ENOUGH. A lot of pros will just "let be" at that point and let the young horse go with one third shortened and thinned and two thirds still straggly. Unfortunately I am not that patient. So I decided to persevere with a short cut by using scissors and those wonderful Wahl Pocket Pro clippers (I'm addicted to those things, and yes please, we WOULD like a product endorsement!).
NOT the world's best idea with a head-shy Twinkletoes. True to form, he promptly proceeded to spook at a barn cat, jerking his head up right when I was starting to trim. Whoopsie! :-P
This, chilluns, is why you NEVER decide to pull the mane the week before a horse show. You always give yourself lots of extra time for it to grow out so you can fix these types of mistakes and finish the thinning - which you don't want to do a lot of at once, or horsie will end up with a Mohawk as the underhairs grow out.
So, anyway, he's got a chunk missing, which will grow out enough to be invisible by fall; but in the meantime, I must admit he does look much more civilized in his "AFTER" shot:
Plan for tomorrow is to finish the thinning; then he should look moderately stylee! Except for the chunk, of course; but that'll grow.
The adventure continues.
You BRAVE woman! I still can't bring myself to do it. However, I have been "shaping". I teased an unruly part back as if I were going to pull it, then I chickened out and cut the ones I should have pulled with scissors.
ReplyDeleteLittle by little!