10/15/2024
People ask me about my horses. You know I love them! Well this girl, ‘Mariah’, has the LONGEST knottiest mane in the history of the world (not really but trust me it’s a lot).
She was very suspicious of the camera (my phone) sitting right there and she kept a very close eye on it 😳 I wanted her to step up a little closer so you could really see this mane - but she wasn’t having it. So we did the best we could.
The longest part of her mane is just beyond the place where you can see.
It is SO long. And just wavy and frizzy enough to be a total knotty train wreck every single day.
I have cut it before and I may need to again but it just feels so wrong to cut those amazing long lovely locks. But for the sake of practicality… I’ve had to do it before. I may have to again here soon.
I’ve tried ALL the products. Some work better than others. But I have to use so much of it - it ends up funky… or if I don’t… it ends up like dreadlocks. 🤷♀️ Her hair is very porous so it sucks everything in like a sponge and then, to get enough on it to get any slick / slip out of it, … it just ends up gooey. (Yes I’ve tried ‘filling it’ with deep conditioner. It soaks that up too but doesn’t help the brushability factor.
I know all the show horse folks probably have better ideas and products and keep a better handle on these things but she’s not a fancy girl like that. She’s a farm horse. A fancy trail horse. 🐴 She gets like 4 good baths a year 🤷♀️ Trust me. Washing and brushing all that is a whole day affair. And she hates it because it takes so long and it’s exhausting.
Part of the reason her mane is so knotty is because she isn’t stalled and kept clean… she lives in the sun and lays and rolls in dirt. 🙄 It’s a good horsey life indeed. But not super conducive to fancy horse issues.
She’s always a hot mess express.
It’s part of her charm. But it has to be managed or she ends up with dreads.
This video really doesn’t do justice to how frizzy her hair is and how hard it is to get a brush through it. But we tried 😂 I’ll try again soon and maybe she’ll stand more in front of the camera next time!
I don’t tie my horses when grooming them (usually) because it gets tedious for me - and for them - because they are so complicated with their long thick manes and tales. If they turn away or walk away… I let them. They stand very well for me so when they move away… I know they need a break. And I usually so do I by then🤷♀️
ANYWAY! The point I was trying to show you besides how long her hair / mane is… is that I’ve decided to try a straightening iron on it! I don’t know why I never thought of that before. I was a hairdresser for years and years… but I guess I never thought ‘horse = hot irons” 😂🤷♀️
Anyway. She was suspicious of that too so I only did just a few passes with it to see how it would do. The goal is to get the hair shaft to lay flatter so it’ll be easier to brush and get less knotty. It’s really not at all about the ‘look’ of it. It’s about the functional care of it.
The true test will be tomorrow when I try to brush it and see if it stayed smoother or back to frizzy sticky. If it works I’ll do more of it. It’ll take me a few days to get through all that mane and 😮💨 her tale. I may need to start with washing the tale and go from there. It’s almost impossible to get through her tail when it’s wet and drown in conditioner. I don’t know that this little iron will do much so I better start from the beginning with that.
We’ll see! 🤞 Fingers crossed!
Let me know if you ever have tried straightening your horses main or tale and if it worked for your purposes!
I’m curious if I’m the only weirdo horse lady out there.
