baxtersmom wrote:
Me, I hate hair on horses. Never liked the furry foot unicorns, can't stand gypsy vanners, no romance in Friesians for me. Just another place for them to collect dirt and burrs!

I am happiest in last spring and early fall, when Baxter is black, and sleek to the point of being almost hairless. I trim his mane to about four inches and even clip his teensy tiny little ergot hairs (and I attack chestnuts with a vengeance). I do admit to babying his tail a bit, but I want it thick, not long... it's always banged to 6-7 inches below the hocks.


Yes! When my daughter was younger, she got a Barbie horse. It took all I had not to pull its mane! And stick Barbie's mane in a hairnet. I DID try to stuff it under her hunt cap, but there was no way.

That said, I leave our Shetland's mane full. It is ALL on the right side naturally. He lives out, so I leave him as natural as possible, though I did have to trace clip him this fall (hated to do it).


I've pulled tails, and shaved them, and I can assure everyone, shaving is MUCH more pleasant for the horse, and properly done, you achieve the same look as pulling.

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt