Took Down the Tied Up Tails

Back in early spring I took down the horses’ tails. Again, the winter tie-up worked wonders on the length. I had to cut off about 6 inches off Goldie’s tail to get it even with the bottom of her pastern.

Here’s a picture of the tied-up tail:

And here is a picture of Goldie’s tail after being taken down and bathed:

 

Winter Tail Tie-Up

Every year I tie the horses’ tails up over the winter to protect them and keep them clean. I found a great way to tie them up in Cherry Hill’s book, “Horse Handling & Grooming”. Using a long vertical strip of a sheet placed behind the middle section of hair and one strand of the sheet held in each hand with the other sections, I braid the tail until there are about 12 inches left and tie off the strip. Then I take the strips and unbraided hair and poke them through a hole at the top of the braid and pull them through. I tie the looped braid together by criss-crossing the the strips and tying them off  with two knots. I then place the loose hair over the braid and criss-cross the strips to cover the braid. Now it looks like a short, tied tail. I leave it tied up all winter, and when I let them down in the spring, I usually have to cut off at least 3 inches to get the tails back to pastern length.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3