I'm guessing most of you don't stalk my pony pictures QUITE this thoroughly, but if you do, then you've probably noticed that Courage's hair looks a little different than last year. It's not that I've forgotten how to turn a horse out properly. It's that I'm trying something new. Ho boy! Hair trend.
See, I've been watching pictures and videos of the big jumpers who go to the cool shows. Beezie Madden comes to mind, but I don't know how to get my hands on non-stolen photos of her. Anyways. Courage and I are aiming towards the jumpers and within the jumper ranks, I was noticing a fun trend I wanted to try.
Noted: all photos not of Courage are by Lauren from
She Moved to Texas and are used with permission. She will probably hate me a little bit for taking a few that aren't as perfect as the others, but I'm using the ones that illustrate my topic the best.
Point is, manes are moving in the longer and thicker direction, while tails are staying thick and getting shorter. It's trendy. It's modern. It's cool.
It's also wildly practical. The tail is up out of the way looking fabulous and not collecting dirt. The mane is thick enough to hang on to (I do that) or help keep flies off (Courage likes that). It's not as easily braidable (unless you do dutch braids), but I also hate braiding.
There are a lot of different examples floating around out there. I don't actually care for the mane of the bay in the second picture--it looks sloppy and scissored, which is always tacky.
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| he's so attractive. can't believe he's mine. |
I don't let Courage do tacky (unless you hate stars, which means you need to get over yourself).
Thus, I've been carefully growing out his mane while keeping the ends maintained for a tidy but longer and fuller look. At the same time, I banged his tail. I want to keep it at this length for the time being and let it get a little fuller. Come spring, we'll see if I want to grow more length.
I'll be honest: after so many years of short, thin manes, I wasn't really sure I could deal with longer hair on a horse of mine. But you know what? I kind of love it.
