Ok, so I normally keep my horses tail braided and in a tail bag over the winter. He is in a sand paddock, and it just gets so disgustingly filthy, dry, and
tangled without a tail bag.
I went out to the barn last night, and noticed that it looked like he needed the tail re-braided, since it was a bit messy at the top where the bag tied up. Well I pulled off the tail bag, and seriously thought there was some dead animal hanging off the back of my horse. The tail was still braided, but now was 4 inches wide, and a SOLID dreaded mass. You could not even poke a finger through the tail, it was just solid.
When I last put it in the bag, I had washed it, conditioned it, let it dry, show sheened it, and then combed it out, braided it, and bagged it.
I put an ENTIRE bottle of conditioner on the tail, bagged it again, and then rode. 45 minutes later, I washed out part of the conditioner, and then spent a good hour picking his tail apart, inch by inch.
On the plus side, his tail is now dragging on the ground by 2 inches when standing. So the tail bag (sort of) did what it was supposed to!
How do I make sure this does not happen again? I'm assuming I need to pay attention to it more frequently and add more conditioner/show sheen and re-braid it more often. Should I wrap the tail in vet wrap before putting it in the bag?
I went out to the barn last night, and noticed that it looked like he needed the tail re-braided, since it was a bit messy at the top where the bag tied up. Well I pulled off the tail bag, and seriously thought there was some dead animal hanging off the back of my horse. The tail was still braided, but now was 4 inches wide, and a SOLID dreaded mass. You could not even poke a finger through the tail, it was just solid.
When I last put it in the bag, I had washed it, conditioned it, let it dry, show sheened it, and then combed it out, braided it, and bagged it.
I put an ENTIRE bottle of conditioner on the tail, bagged it again, and then rode. 45 minutes later, I washed out part of the conditioner, and then spent a good hour picking his tail apart, inch by inch.
On the plus side, his tail is now dragging on the ground by 2 inches when standing. So the tail bag (sort of) did what it was supposed to!
How do I make sure this does not happen again? I'm assuming I need to pay attention to it more frequently and add more conditioner/show sheen and re-braid it more often. Should I wrap the tail in vet wrap before putting it in the bag?
