Plait Fashions?

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Ezme

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Can someone please tell me what happened to the traditional 9-11 plaits? It seemed to start with the SJ'ers now its spread. The catalyst was the 16.1 black mare--------------->
Would you get penalised in the show ring having excessive plaits? I can kinda of see the point of it with dressage (although you could probs say its a kind of cheating) seeing as half of all dressage horses are short in the neck and any illusion of length would help. I counted over 20 plaits in the mane of a showjumper in H&H the other week!

p.s. 9-11 is sounding wrong now... my brain is befuddled after doing stupid american team building cr*p all day, sorry!
 
I thought it was meant to be 12 plaits? I pull manes to within an inch of their lives to avoid plaiting...
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I never thought it mattered so long as the forlock made it even numbered?

I get 14 in my connie x cob gelding, thats now after ive thinned it out, although IMO it could do with some more he's got such a cob mane! before i pulled it plaits looked like golfballs
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Uh! im getting sleeping, i meant thinned not pulled
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You should in theory, but my horse has a long neck and I end up with about 14/15 plaits because if I did any less they would be about 4 inches apart which would just look stupid!
 
I thought 7 to 11 along the mane and the forelock made it an even number, last time I plaited though was on my old ex-racer and we ended up with 10 plaits in her mane as I pulled out the one nearest the wither to grab hold of (serves me right for leaving her martingale off)
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I think you plait to suit the neck - always uneven along the neck.
I must admit i do tend to try for 11 as i am a perfectionist. As others have said if a horse has a very long neck if 11 were tried they would be very far apart and look worse than a few more put in.
As long as they look neat and enhance the neck i don't think it realy matters.
 
How many of you have come across a judge that actually counts them at local shows....well unless your in tack and turnout classes

I put what I like in, dont even count em lol, but then I hate plaiting
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never stopped me from winning anything, but if you just juding the plaits, think I'd be thrown out of the ring...god I hate plaiting!
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I always thought it should be an odd number, so the neck doesn't look like its 2 halves, and either 7, 9 or 11. One of my mates had 21 plaits...I really couldn't be bothered, even if my boy was short necked!
My boy, although his mane is pulled is very thick and tends to be alittle long, so we go for big plaits :P. Don't a few of the 'top' dressage people use really few plaits, like 5?

http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/pictures/files/1/6/2/8/ankyrollkur.jpg

well 7
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Golly I'd be more concerned about the way that horse is horrendously overbent (rollkur'd?) than about the number of plaits!

P.S. For those who hate plaiting - get an Arab and you'll never have to plait again!
 
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