Mane training!

[MoonlitArcher]

My horses mane lies in many directions; the bottom half perfectly to the left. The top half, mostly to the right but also seems to point forward towards his ears when it’s short.

When he was a foal his mane lay perfectly all to the left so this is his natural side.. I think years of solo combing and raking have obviously ruined it so I’ve decided to let his mane grow out now and try to get it back to one side. Im not bothered about training it all to the right as he is not a show horse and I can always plait on the right hand side for dressage I guess.. although I don’t think it really matters for dressage does it?

So question is.. how can I get it to stay there permanently and will I ever be able to keep his mane short once it is all on one side? Also, how can I keep it short and tidy without using a solo comb or mane rake? He definitely won’t let me pull it, so any other options?
Thanks

 

[L&M]

Hog!!!!! Sorry probably not helpful, but what I always end up doing with unruly manes that refuse to stay tidy......

 

[Annagain]

No, you can plait either side for dressage. I saw a post on facebook the other day that said you need to plait the mane to one side and weight it with little fishing weights to train it all to one side. I feel your pain, Charlie's mane has been lovely all winter, on the left but all lying flat and looking quite smart but now that I've taken his neck cover off he's ended up looking like Brian May.

 

[MoonlitArcher]

Lol! I think plaiting is the way to go. Believe me, I have considered hogging and starting again! Then I googled it takes 2 years for it to grow back so went against that idea lol

 

[milliepops]

I think you've got to be a bit obsessive to get a mane to fall all one way when it doesn't want to ?

Out of my 7, I have one with a perfect mane that always falls the same way and is uniform thickness.
I just let the others do their own thing, I always plait for shows anyway so it doesn't matter what happens at home ?

 

[MoonlitArcher]

Haha, that’s true! I usually plait for shows too.. it takes some doing mind ?

Ill probably not bother, I think he just looks so scruffy coming out of winter and I’ve got my ‘spring clean’ head on and want a tidy horse for once haha.
Cheers all!

 

[Season’s Bleatings]

My old boy’s mane lies to the “wrong” side. I actually found this gave my plaits a little extra oomph any time I plaited him ?

 

[HorsesRule2009]

Lol! I think plaiting is the way to go. Believe me, I have considered hogging and starting again! Then I googled it takes 2 years for it to grow back so went against that idea lol

I've given up trying to train manes, if pkaited/banded over once out it stays for a day or two and then reverts back.

As for the hogging I always believed that it would take ages to grow out, but I started a new job in juky(groom) and one of the horses is normally hogged but due to lock down it was growing out(think last hogged Feb 2020).
And by August I had enough mane that it started laying to one side by time plaiting season came around (late October) I'd had to pull/shorten it so I could plait. ?

 

[PSD]

I gave up with my Connie mares mane. It was wild! I tried all sorts, the longer it was the better it lay but I kept it short as we did sj.