You can call him Moe. I know. It's hideous. But I had to do something before our first show at the end of April. I have never been happy with any French braid I've tried; I don't think the lattice braid flatters any horse, and Larry's mane is too thin and fine to pull. So out came the scissors for the bob job.
Cutting Larry's mane was not on my agenda today. We are in the midst of a very wet weather pattern, so when it stopped raining mid-morning, I sprinted for the barn to get in a ride. But I'd barely started brushing Larry when the rain began to fall again, so I focused on giving him a thorough grooming, followed by some tummy-tucking, back-lifting exercises from the ground. Since it was still raining, I turned to his mane.
Then, glory be, the rain stopped! I quickly tacked him up and we got in a good 25 minutes before the clouds opened up again.
Here he is in the second bridle Theresa gifted to me. With its brass buckles it looks very nice with the Aurigan KK bit, and the whole assembly looks dandy on
6 comments:
Snip the ends of his mane with your scissors pointing up - yes, in line with the hair. It will slowly take off bits in different levels and camouflage the cutting. I have to do that with Handy.
Beautiful Larry and nice bridle. Happy riding.
I've done that before, Sara, and to me it just makes a bad haircut look worse. Either way, no one will be able to tell when he's braided up for show.
Thanks, Lori!
Thinning shears might help reduce the blunt cut. They helped some when I whacked off my gelding's mane.
I bought one of those thinning blade/thinning scissors kits (brownish fakey leather "holder," scissor handle sticks out one side, blade has a sheath that always comes off and stays in the holder, thinning scissors hard to use, and don't work) YEARS ago when I was showing AQHA and English was a new discipline for the shows--and we braided with yarn. Hated the kit because neither of the tools worked.
Sold the horses, sold all the stuff in 1988.
Fast forward 10 years. New horse, doing dressage, I buy ANOTHER of those same stupid kits. Scissors don't work any better, thinning blade handle still comes off in the container, etc.
Argh. Slow learner here.
Bottom line: I zizz the bottom of the mane with clippers. Take the thinning blade (with the handle on because I've dug it out of the container) and work on neatening up the ends, which (after clippers) look like I've CHEWED the bottom.
Larry's mane needs to be shorter and it DOES need thinning a bit, even if it's fine hair.
I may not be able to trim a mane to look decent, but I DO know what a properly shortened and thinned mane should resemble.
And he is ADORABLE, btw. Never have noted that fact.
TBDancer, I've pulled manes short, left them long, and cut them halfway. For me, a little longer is easier. I braid locks, put a rubber mane band at the bottom, them fold them up in half and half again, and wrap another band around the short, now fat braid. Relatively easy in, easy out. I should look to see if I have a good photo of Russell braided in this way to post.
And I'll tell Larry. ;-)
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