New Forest owners.

Spiritedly

Spiritedly

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I'm hoping to get our Forester used to shows this summer by doing a few inhand classes only he has a hair do that would make Tina Turner jealous! I know it's ok to tidy them up for showing but what do you do about their manes? His currently comes to the bottom of his neck, is very thick and lays on the wrong side. I'm trying, not very successfully, to train it over but stuck about what to do about length and thickness. I'm on my phone but will post pictures later, in the mean time if anyone's willing to show some photos of what his mane should look like I would be grateful :)
 
I like to see the New Forests with the mane about half the depth of the neck it can be thinned a fair amount but should still appear natural. Keep working on getting it to lie on the correct side, once it is thinner and shorter it will be easier to get under control.
 
You can trim and pull discretely, most do.

I think I would thin his mane out a bit at the base, using a mane rake. Be careful as it's seriously addictive.

To be fair, unless you're headed for HOYS it really doesn't matter. You can't force it to lay on one side, so just thin it through and get it laying nicely on whatever side it naturally falls.
 
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This was earlier this winter, it's got a bit longer since then and a bit more ginger :eek: Can't believe how ginger it is considering he's a grey :rolleyes:

Sorry the pictures so big I don't know how to shrink it.
 
Don't worry too much about the side, if you are training it, leave it longer as it will stay over easier. I know farriers finger print has a mane about 6inches long so it can be plaited too, but yours looks babyish still, I'd take off the ends and leave it as that, but I like my ponies manes even with their forelock :) have a look for breed show photos :)
 
I don't actually know his breeding, I got him from a lady for £1 and apparently she got him from someone who had a few ponies that had come straight from the forest. The lady was told his passport would be forwarded to her but it never was and when my vet checked he wasn't micro chipped so I don't think he was ever registered :(
 
Good luck with him - bet you'll have a lot of fun! I've had my Forester 10 years now and I wouldn't swop him. I absolutely love the breed. :p
 
Mine was wild & woolly when I got him. I found the best way to train his mane was to pull from underneath which thins it a bit & then plait in bunches ( 2 or 3 twists & an elastic band on the bottom) ideally replait every day so that the bunches are never in the same place twice. I kept it up for two weeks & eventually his mane sat more or less on the right side. Have done this several times & he looks like I'll be doing it again in a week or two for this year's show season.
 
I do trim and pull mine discreetly so to speak, my mare has similar to yours, short thick forelock but long mane but her mane is very fine so i don't thin it at all and just nip the ends off every now and again, she has a heavy set neck and crest so needs the length of mane to distract. My gelding i take much much shorter, probably around 6-8inches long, he has Tina Turner hair, his mand and tail are so thick that i have to plait it in three sections just to get it in a tail bag.

As long as it doesn't look blatantly obvious and straight then go ahead and trim, you could probably take that mane to half it's length and still look natural.

I use a Solo rake, best invention ever for thinning but as another poster said, don't get carried away as it does work rather well - LOL
 
shorten/thin it either by pulling or solo combing, but don't worry too much about the side the mane lays on. I have a cracking forester with a "deviant" mane which lays the same side as your boys, it's never held him back, he's a regular rosette machine in whatever you ask him to do. And his mane lying on the "wrong" side has only ever been commented on once, and that was at what was frankly a really crappy show I wished I hadn't bothered going to. That's in 7 years of ownership.

Shame he's not registered, but he's a lucky boy to have ended up with you!
 
This is how I do mine- I shape it to enhance the neck- the phot is from last year (NPS Summer champs) where he was in the 2/3 year old classes
Howielookingcool.jpg
 
Thanks everyone. I think I may try shortening his mane a little at a time to see what length suits him and probably give up on trying to train it over.

I agree it's a shame he's not registered, we're not even sure of his age, I was originally told he was about 2 1/2 but my vet thought he was around 18 months, a year on he still hasn't lost any baby teeth so was possibly even younger than the vet thought.
 
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