Grooming and horse care tasks that I’ve never learned to do

Tiddlypom

Tiddlypom

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Prompted by another thread, I confess that though I admire them, I do not know how to create quarter marks. I also can’t plait tails 🙈.

I can do most other stable management/grooming tasks, including plaiting manes, clipping and trimming, and I trim my own horses‘ feet, but I’ve never cracked those first two.

Anyone else like to fess up to gaps in their equestrian stable management CV?
 
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expanding_horizon said:
Clipping. Never fancied learning. I am not good with fiddly things. I can clip hair off wounds / injuries / mudfever etc. But no desire to learn to fully clip.
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Clipping is easy. Clipping well is hard.

Plaiting, pulling, trimming, Clipping etc are all things I have learned to do whilst working in racing.

Haven't quite mastered sharks teeth though!
 
i can plait a mane, but my tail plaits are also awful - i plait the “wrong way”, so i put the middle over the outside, not under, so i’ll never be able to get it properly straight🤣 i have no reason to plait a tail so i’ll be sticking to my plaiting methods lol.
 
I can probably plait a tail as with three daughters plaiting hair was the norm! I have never had to do it in earnest on a horse though - the beauty of having Exmoor ponies!
 
I also cannot plait a tail or a forelock...my forelocks are another mane plait.
But my mane plaits do stay in.
I am too impatient to clip.
I struggle to cut a tail straight too.
 
Elf On A Shelf said:
Clipping is easy. Clipping well is hard.

Plaiting, pulling, trimming, Clipping etc are all things I have learned to do whilst working in racing.

Haven't quite mastered sharks teeth though!
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I’m not good at painting my nails / other people’s nails, doing hair / makeup etc. if I did clip it would be messy which would annoy me for the effort and investment in buying clippers. I’m also blessed with horses easy to clip and only needing 2 clips a year.

I can under duress plait proficiently but that’s a necessity for competing regularly that I’ve mastered.
 
Tiddlypom said:
I also can’t plait tails 🙈.
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Plaiting tails - me too. For some reason I just never cracked it. Other teenage girls tried to teach me (more than once!) but twenty years on I still can't do it.

(I can't do a straight plait down the back of my own head either so there''s probably no hope for me)
 
I can do a very nice tail plait…… can’t do manes at all…. Solved that problem by clipping and hogging.

But technically he should, I suppose, have a pulled tail… but I can’t do that either!
 
BMA2 said:
I also cannot plait a tail or a forelock...my forelocks are another mane plait.
But my mane plaits do stay in.
I am too impatient to clip.
I struggle to cut a tail straight too.
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Forelock plaits are my nemesis, having shown for 40 odd years, I always leave this to an 'expert', don't know why I have never perfected it either!
 
I'm absolutely rubbish at putting on rugs! Granted I don't have to do it very often as I don't have my own. I always end up putting them on inside out and I really struggle to do up the little twisty metals fasteners of the straps that go under the belly!
 
Ooh I love clipping (well), trimming, plaiting manes and tails, brushing in quarter marks freestyle, "pulling" manes and tails where required (ie using a knife and a comb, not yanking it out by the roots like a barbarian) but one thing I've never tried to do and absolutely never will, is cutting a mane :eek::eek::eek:

I used to plait 12 manes and tails three mornings a week all winter, your fingers get very strong :)
 
Can plait manes either with bands or thread, can clip and ok with straight lines, used to do an Irish clip on my later horses and full clip when I was competing … cannot plait tails , have been shown lots of times but they defeat me, luckily my friend was expert so she did them for me. Used to love doing quarter marks on my dark bay and my black horses
 
splashgirl45 said:
Can plait manes either with bands or thread, can clip and ok with straight lines, used to do an Irish clip on my later horses and full clip when I was competing … cannot plait tails , have been shown lots of times but they defeat me, luckily my friend was expert so she did them for me. Used to love doing quarter marks on my dark bay and my black horses
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I used to have one of those quarter mark templates. I always think they looked better faintly done, more subtle.

You could vastly improve a horses conformation with well placed quarter mark's.
 
The last time I plaited a tail was over 40 years ago, never needed to since and no inclination to either.
Have plaited many manes and could do a good job I reckon even now with bands or thread ✔
Pulling, trimming, quarter marks and sharks teeth etc ✔
Clipping, again not done it in years, prefer to cross friends palm with vino or similar 3 or 4 times each winter. Tho no doubt I still could if I had to.✔
Shoe removal ✔
Rasping and trimming ✔
Dressings, bandaging, jabbing meds etc ✔

Actually 🤔 cant think of much I havent done (sorry TP!)
 
I can't bandage without them falling down when working as I get so vervous they're too tight, same reason I've never bothered to learn to bandage a tail properly.
I also can't plait a tail or forelock (but also can't french plait, I have had ear length hair for 15 years so not needed to)
Can clip, but can't blend legs..
 
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