What to do with long tail

[clipclop25]

My mare has a 6 1/2 ft. long tail. I plan on driving(show pleasure) this year. What do I do with the tail? Do most people tie it to the cart or just let it flow? I am afraid to let it loose as once I saw a long tail get caught in the wheel. So I planned on tying it to the bottom of the boot on the cart. This is what I have done in the past. wanted to know what most people do???

[vlayne]

I don't think you'd need to tie up a 6'6" tail. My horse has a 9 foot tail and I leave it loose. If it were about 4" longer I'd have to tie it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3yWpMEpZFM

To tie it up, you would braid about the last foot of the tail (start very loosely so it looks natural) and then tie the end of the string through the hole in the bottom of your cart basket. (At about 52 seconds into the video, there is a horse driven by a gal in a white jacket - his tail is tied up using this method).

For a tail your length, I would tie a string across the cart shafts and just drape the tail over the string. That will help keep it from getting tangled in the horses' legs when you back up. It shouldn't be anywhere near the wheels.

[Thunderstruck]

For pleasure & driving classes I usually give my horse a "self switch". By that I mean I loop it up under itself so that it is shorter in appearance but mangeable for backing and avoiding cart wheels. It takes ALOT longer than hooking to the cart, but I prefer doing ti this way so it looks natural. You can get away with a longer tail indoors, but I'm always extra careful when showing outdoors since the wind can blow and get a tail into the wheels when it wouldn't get there inside.

It's hard to describe but I start by dividing the tail hairs about 3-5 inches above the end of the tailbone into 4 or 5 sections round the tail and braid about 12 -15" and tape with electrical tape at the bottom of the braid...basically you are going to use this for the loops so the length of braiding depends on how much you want to loop up under to shorten the tail. The more braids you use the easier it will be to make them flatter when you do the loops. After those are done then take the remaining tail hairs now falling directly from the end of the tailbone and braid that about the same amount...depending on how thick the tail is you may need to do more than one to make it more compact.

Once all the braids are done them start looping and experimenting with how much you need to loop to make it the length you want. Tape the loops separately so that you can easily adjust if needed and then once you have it adjusted tape it all up together into the smallest ball you can.

This is him the last time I did it...the only time I can see the braid ball is when he swishes his tail as we are going to get our ribbon. There is about 4 feet of extra tail up under there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdfarsOBMjY

[vlayne]

Your video says "embedding disabled by request" so you can't watch it by clicking on it... :(

But it sounds like a good idea - if Carson's tail gets any longer I'll definitely need to do something!

[clipclop25]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I am going to tie it to the cart like I have done in the past. But I like the shortening idea too. Might experiment with that one.

[Thunderstruck]

Your video says "embedding disabled by request" so you can't watch it by clicking on it... :(

But it sounds like a good idea - if Carson's tail gets any longer I'll definitely need to do something!

Not sure why it was like that since I normally set them to allow but I changed it so it can be viewed!

It's definitely a HUGE undertaking, but worth it if you don't want to risk getting the tail backed over (he did still step on it a little, but not the big tanle of hooves and tail it ususally was) or cauight in a wheel.

One other thing I didn't mention was when you are making the loops go inside to outside so that the final loop ends up hanging to the outside. That way the bundle is hidden by both feathers and tail hair itself. Tape around the top of the loops so it looks like a switch.

I forgot to add also, if you are showing more than one day you can just braid the loose ends once you get back to the barn so you can let them back down for the second class in case you can't or don't want to wash the tail for some reason. That particular show it turned bitterly cold for the second class and I didn't want to wash his tail again (although I normally do) so I just unbraided to bottom sections, picked them out and applied a little water to smooth them out and he was good to go!

[vlayne]

If you're going to go through all of that, why not cut his tail shorter? What's the point of having and maintaining the length, if you hide it anyways? I would do that for driving classes only because I want the length under saddle. But if I wanted it shorter all the time I'd cut it off. Actually, last year I DID cut about 3' off of it...

[dahponyboy]

Personally I think tying the tail to the cart is a bad idea. It's an accident waiting to happen. Believe it or not a tail can be too long, especially when it interferes with the horse's function. It looks bad when a horse is stepping all over it's tail when backing. It really is OK to trim your horse's tail to an manageable length and still have it long and flowing.

[Renae]

I prefer to trim a driving horse's tail short enough so it won't be getting caught in the wheels. I don't think if you are tieing the tail to the basket with a rubber band or little piece of string that it is dangerous, but I do not like the look. Trim it straight across and then feather the end by cutting up into the hair so that not all of it is the same length.

[Thunderstruck]

If you're going to go through all of that, why not cut his tail shorter? What's the point of having and maintaining the length, if you hide it anyways? I would do that for driving classes only because I want the length under saddle. But if I wanted it shorter all the time I'd cut it off. Actually, last year I DID cut about 3' off of it...

Because most of the time he shows Amateur and I need the extra length when it's braced. It's a "Dad" thing...he prefers to see Dylan show against the big dogs so I only get to show pleasure occasionally and I've only driven him at two shows. It is actually shorter now than it used to be. Right now it only drags the ground about 6" when it's braced...it used to drag about 3 feet.