relaxers/ hair conditioners for a horse with a mohican/afro?

tobiano1984

tobiano1984

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I have an ongoing battle with my gelding's mane - he's a coloured of unknown breeding - mum was a chunky traditional type, dad must have been arab or TB or similar. He's inherited dad's coat, temperament, legs, tail etc but unfortunately has a proper cob mane. He's too fine to keep natural or hogged, so I have to pull and plait it. We've almost mastered plaiting although they tend to burst open half way through a show!

I'm hoping to take him cubbing soon and would love him to have a neat, flat-lying mane. Currently it's pulled/trimmed to plaiting length but the moment he moves or shakes it stands up in a rather characterful afro-mohican. I can't pull it any more because it grows as fast as I pull it out it seems - and it would probably take about 4 hours to thin it out enough, so I've been using a combination of pulling/mane rake/scissors, which probably hasn't helped the 'fro.

A lady at my yard swears by afro-hair 'gloss' for her show horse's tail, and I wondered if there was another product for afro hair (human) which is like a super conditioner that might tame Rupert's mane. There seem to be a few products on ebay but just wanted to see if anyone has any recommendations??
 
Mine has a mohican, I love it! I think he's a Connemara, maybe with a bit of cob in there too. I do have to keep it a little longer than I'd like to be able to plait it (if it's very short it won't plait at all) but TBH even when it's quite long, it still sticks up. He looks awful with it flat, as I was reminded the other day when I took off his full neck LW rug (he has a hunter clip) and it was all lying flat... So I just leave it because nothing works anyway! I take him autumn hunting looking like this, along with SJ, XC, etc.
 
Mine used to have an afro... He was full TB so no idea how or why he felt the need! I kept it longer than I would for any other horse who would be plaited, and the extra length meant that the plaits stayed in better.

For keeping it all on one side, baby oil is quite good at adding weight to the mane. And we used to bunch his mane over onto the correct side for most of the time, so it had a chance of staying vaguely neat when we took the bunches out.

(in the end, I just got really quick at plaiting and plaited for absolutely everything bar XC!)
 
Yes at least with the winter coming I can plait/bunch it and hope the neck rug tames it a bit, although he always manages to swap sides.
It's also odd because the bottom and top of his mane are reasonably well-behaved, it's the middle third which has a mind of it's own and makes it look like his mane is all different lengths...! It is easier plaiting it when it's a bit longer, but as it's still so thick he ends up with golf ball plaits or about 25...
 
chestnut cob said:
Thin it with a mane rake! Makes it so much more manageable. I think mine's mane a lot and it does help.
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I do have one and have used it for 'pulling' his tail and thinning his mane a bit - however have been a bit tentative as I didn't want it to worsen the 'fro - do you rake it as it lies, or the underneath, or what?
 
Lovescobs said:
I have no idea which product would work best but I've done the opposite and used mane and tail on my daughters afro hair when at the stables and needed to! worked a treat!
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I have visions of someone with a spray bottle saying 'and stand..... good girl' lol
 
tobiano1984 said:
I do have one and have used it for 'pulling' his tail and thinning his mane a bit - however have been a bit tentative as I didn't want it to worsen the 'fro - do you rake it as it lies, or the underneath, or what?
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I tend to rake what should be the underneath of his mane but sometimes that makes it stand up more! I often take it out of the middle - part the mane down the middle and rake that bit. Though... that just gives me a mane that sticks up in two different directions with a track down the middle! ;) I just take a bit from everywhere since nothing works that well, mostly the bottom and middle though, the idea being the top is heavier so should help it stay down.
 
chestnut cob said:
I tend to rake what should be the underneath of his mane but sometimes that makes it stand up more! I often take it out of the middle - part the mane down the middle and rake that bit. Though... that just gives me a mane that sticks up in two different directions with a track down the middle! ;) I just take a bit from everywhere since nothing works that well, mostly the bottom and middle though, the idea being the top is heavier so should help it stay down.
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Haha that's pretty much what I've been doing, I might just have to resign myself to having a mohican horse!
 
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