My horse won't let me pull her mane!

[VES 423]

My horse is great and will let me brush her mane for as long as I want to,
but as soon as I start to pull her mane, she throws her head up and will
not let me touch her mane for the rest of the day. Sometimes, all I do is
push some of the hair up with the pulling come and she yanks away. We
were told when we bought her that she did not like having her mane pulled,
and with some help I can cut it and get it to look good, but I would
really like to be able to pull it. Please give me any suggestions!
Thanks,
Tory

[EvalleyR]

;My horse is great and will let me brush her mane for as long as I want

OUCH! I have no need to pull my horses mane and the one time I tried to
"for looks" I very shortly decided not to. Didn't take long to figure out
that I sure wouldn't want my hair cut that way! Realy don't imagine that
a horse does either. If someone started pulling on my hair like that I'd
probably wanna knock 'em on their butt, just like your horse wants to to
you. What I did was to take a sharp pocket knife ( no long blade!!!!)
and at the length I wanted I scrapped it until it went through the section
of mane. Turned out great and didn't end up with the "just cut" look
exceptible on humans but tacky on a horse.

[Dave & Cindy]

Hi,

Don't know if this will work, but someone else told me that they use
Cloraseptic throat spray to help numb the skin area before they pull
their horse's mane. Don't hold me to it, but it might be worth a try.

Cindy in California

PS If you try it, let us know if it works for you.

[kristy foster]

The only time you need to pull a mane is if you need to braid it for
showing! I stopped showing a year ago and, much to the relief of my
equine friends, no longer pull their manes! I use a scissor (I know, the
ultimate no-no!), and cut _parallel_, not perpendicular, to the hair. I
guess it's kind of like cutting people's hair! To make the neck look
really fine, I cut the 'withers' end and the 'poll' end alittle shorter so
there is a tapered look! All my horses' manes look great, their necks
look shapely, and they never look like they just got back from the
barber's!
Happy beautifying!
P.S. If you're still determined to pull, have your vet tranquilize your
horse before you do it. Better yet, bone up on 'resistence free' work
with your horse so that he won't fight you no matter what you do!

[Sarah J Frankel]

Try using a twitch. Twitch her nose, and get a friend to jiggle it
lightly to keep the horse distracted, then pull away. Make sure your not
ripping out chunks that are too large, and just try to be as efficient as
possible.

SARAH

[Bonnie J.V. Salter]

I have a very similar horse. Some horses are more sensitive than others in
the mane area.
My horse backs up on the cross ties, then walks forward, she just won't stand
still once I start to pull her mane, so I have thinned the mane using
scissors. I am going to invest in one of those combs that has a blade
built in, so that it thins while you comb. To me, it is not worth her
discomfort.

Two suggestions you may want to try though are - pull the mane after a light
workout, when the horse is warm (not over warm), and a dirty mane is easier
to pull then a clean one, so don't brush it out first.

--
Bonnie Salter
_____________

[Allison Christian (CSD)]

I have had this same problem with my horse. He is recently recovering
from a hematoma in his neck area and is very sensative about his mane
being pulled. I would recommend pouring some Listerine Antiseptic on her
neck before pulling her mane. This sort of numbs the neck. I would also
only pulls certain sections of the mane at one time so she gets used to
it being pulled. I had to make him mind before I could pull his mane, I
guess he thought I wuldn't pull it if he was miss behaving. Cutting the
mane will make it look horrible and it will only get thicker and thicker
then it will be really hard to pull. If she still won't mind then I
would put the chain over her nose and tie her head down so she can't pull
up and away. You have let her get away with it for a long time, she is
laughing at you, don't lose the fight....

[Jim & Laura Behning]

"Allison Christian (CSD)" <achr...@luna.cas.usf.edu> wrote:

> If she still won't mind then I
>would put the chain over her nose and tie her head down so she can't pull
>up and away. You have let her get away with it for a long time, she is
>laughing at you, don't lose the fight....

Please, don't ever ever tie a horse with a chain over the nose. Some
serious damage can occur in this scenario.

I doubt the horse is "laughing" at its owner, but instead trying to
tell her that getting her mane pulled HURTS.

Laura Behning
mor...@mindspring.com

[GJMarchand]

Manes are much easier to pull after the horse has warmed up and sweated a
little from exercise...the pores are open and the hair pulls out much
easier. My first TB gelding was fussy about this too, so I waited until
after working him, gave him hay to keep him busy, and pulled little bits
at a time. After a while it was no big deal. My current TB, Garth, could
care less if you yank it out by the handful.....I think some are just more
sensitive than others, especially up towards the poll area.

Becky in MN

[Katherine Sedwick]

It sounds as if this horse is quite sensitive to the pain
of having its hair pulled. (So am I, as it happens; I
have real empathy here.) I think the animal is really
suffering. You could always have a vet (if one would
agree) anesthetize the roots of the mane when you pull it.
I doubt that home remedies will do the job.

Failing that, think for a minute about what exactly is
going on here. There is no reason on God's earth to pull
a mane except to prepare the horse to show. You need to
ask yourself just one question: do you want to show so
badly that you're willing to torture your horse to do it?

You both might be better off if you sold this horse and
got one to whom showing and all its side effects are not
torture. Take my word for it, frequent applications of
pain do *not* cause the victim to get used to it. If you
continue to inflict major pain for no reason your horse
can understand, he may try to kill you; or he may go nuts
and kill you without trying.

Kate Sedwick

[ann_savage]

My horse gets a little antsy if I put him in the cross ties and have a major
main pulling session but if I work on it a little bit each day while he chews
on some hay he hardly notices I'm doing it.

Good luck!

[Susan Keogh]

My mare is very sensitive, too. Practical Horseman had a technique a
while back that made me and my horse a lot happier. You take a sharpened
medium-sized clipper blade (the big blade, not its smaller counterpart),
take it in one hand, grab a small section of mane with the other hand,
then feather the blade back and forth until it slices through. My mare
stands easily for this, and it's very fast. Her mane tends to get thick,
though, so if yours does, too, use thinning scissor (not regular
scissors). You can get these at any tack store. I only "shorten" her
mane right before a show and not at any other time, so right now she's
quite the hippy.

Hope it works for you.

[Richard Botterill]

In article <4lgbn9$r...@freenet-news.carleton.ca>, ck...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Bonnie J.V. Salter) says:
(snip)

>Two suggestions you may want to try though are - pull the mane after a light
>workout, when the horse is warm (not over warm),

This is a good idea.

>and a dirty mane is easier to pull then a clean one, so don't brush
>it out first.

I don't think brushing would make that much difference. I've always
brushed my horse's mane before pulling it. Before he was a hunter,
and braided for shows, he was a western horse and went with a loose
mane. I found it best to pull it a week or so ahead of time and leave
it just a little longer than I ultimately wanted it, then after giving
him a bath and letting him dry I would pull it to its final length. It
would come out more even that way. What you _don't_ want to do before
pulling it is to use conditioner on it, or even worse, something like
ShowSheen. Those make the mane very slippery and almost impossible to
pull.
Richard Botterill
bott...@technet.assiniboinec.mb.ca
Technologies and Environmental Industries Division
Assiniboine Community College
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada

[Phil Roberts]

Back when I used to pull manes, I found that offering two or three
pellets of feed after every pull or two made all the difference to one
mare I had. She likes her food, and after just a few of these
handouts she stood quietly waiting for the next.

dinnie

__________
phil roberts and dinnie thorndike, lincolnville, ME
prob...@midcoast.com
---------------------------
Phil Roberts and Dinnie Thorndike, Lincolnville ME
prob...@midcoast.com

[megl...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, April 20, 1996 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, VES 423 wrote:
> My horse is great and will let me brush her mane for as long as I want to,
> but as soon as I start to pull her mane, she throws her head up and will
> not let me touch her mane for the rest of the day. Sometimes, all I do is
> push some of the hair up with the pulling come and she yanks away. We
> were told when we bought her that she did not like having her mane pulled,
> and with some help I can cut it and get it to look good, but I would
> really like to be able to pull it. Please give me any suggestions!
> Thanks,
> Tory

Hi! I am sure you've already figured this out on your own :) most people gave excellent suggestions....but one thing that bothered me was people saying "ouch it hurts them!" horses do not have those kind of nerves along the part of the topline where the mane grows out. And the nerves that are there are so few and far between that they genuinely cannot feel the difference between hot and cold or pain and no pain only that something is "there" ...anyways.... i learned the hard way with my mare as she ripped a stall door off. Give them ANY distraction or.....*i shutter to say* SEDATE THEM! it is safer for all if you have a horse who is horrible with mane pulling. What most horses are sensitive to is the tugging affect most people have when they pull a mane as they go for too much at once. take a comb and split the mane down the middle putting the part that you want to be outermost when laying flat on the other side of the neck. Then fold the part you want to pull toward you. take a LONG thin toothed metal comb and try to get 3-4 hairs in between each tooth hold the hair up against the comb and then twist the comb once it is twisted and holding the hair on its own pull SWIFTLY like a bandage. because it is so few hairs they react much better and you didn't yank their hole neck toward you. Also try not to rest one hand on their neck for support when you are pulling I finally figured out that's what my mare was having a fit about.

[John Hasler]

Tory writes:
> Please give me any suggestions!

Don't do it. Cutting is fine (if it needs to have anything done to it
at all). Flip the mane over to the "wrong" side to cut it.

meglook writes:
> ...but one thing that bothered me was people saying "ouch it hurts
> them!" horses do not have those kind of nerves along the part of the
> topline where the mane grows out.

Bullshit. It hurts. Pulling out a few hairs at a time hurts less.
Horses can be trained to tolerate minor pain, but it is still there.
--
John Hasler Boarding, Lessons, Training
jo...@dancinghorsehill.com Hay, Jumps, Cavallox
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA

[Poster]

In article <87zk1su...@thumper.dhh.gt.org>,

John Hasler <jha...@newsguy.com> wrote:

> Tory writes:
> > Please give me any suggestions!
>
> Don't do it. Cutting is fine (if it needs to have anything done to it
> at all). Flip the mane over to the "wrong" side to cut it.
>
> meglook writes:
> > ...but one thing that bothered me was people saying "ouch it hurts
> > them!" horses do not have those kind of nerves along the part of the
> > topline where the mane grows out.
>
> Bullshit. It hurts. Pulling out a few hairs at a time hurts less.
> Horses can be trained to tolerate minor pain, but it is still there.

Somebody didn't notice that the date on the original question was 1996,
eh? :)

(Thank you, Google - we LOVE necrothreads! Don't we, folks? :) )

But seriously - Agreed, on both points. Don't do it - 'cause it hurts!
DUH...

[John Hasler]

Poster writes:
> Thank you, Google - we LOVE necrothreads!

These days on rec-eq we take any threads we can get.