Thoughts on coloured youngster - keep traditional or chop it?!

tobiano1984

tobiano1984

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One of my 4 year old projects has recently been broken in, and the original intention was to just break him in as a general allrounder mostly for hacking and a bit of this and that. However having started the process (my rider's background is dressage) it turns out that Monty has rather lovely paces for a ploddy cob! It was a big surprise as he walks everywhere like he's 100 years old and spends most of the day asleep with his lip hanging down. He's got a lovely uphill, very collected canter and lovely pacey trot. He also went into an outline almost immediately and just drops down without question. We're quite excited to see what happens next.

Originally I intended to keep him traditional - in the pics below he's been plaited up to stop him overheating but his forelock is down to the end of his nose, and his mane is about 1-2ft long. I'm aware that he's not show-quality but was going to leave him natural anyway. However now I wonder if I should hack it all off and pretend he's a sports horse..?! I've never liked feathers/mane and usually keep my horses neat but the others at the yard were adamant I should leave him hairy!
Opinions please!

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Your horse, do what makes you happy. Nothing to do with anyone else unless you are putting him up for sale and wish to appeal to a certain market.
 
PaddyMonty said:
Your horse, do what makes you happy. Nothing to do with anyone else unless you are putting him up for sale and wish to appeal to a certain market.
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This^^^^^
Personally, I would keep him traditional and revel in the fact that he is as athletic as he is despite popular misconceptions. You would be able to enter lower level dressage comps with a running plait.
 
Never usually say this but if you don't plan to show him I would take off the feathers and pull his mane/tail. I think he'd look lovely plaited up.
 
I'm tempted to pull and trim! He's not really feathery enough to be a proper traditional and he's not got great colouring so I don't have any great showing aspirations. Although if I decide to sell him later this year (I have 2 youngsters in training, one needs to go and the other one is very immature and slow growing!) I know a lot of people love the flowing manes! But then I'm interested to see how he looks trimmed up...aargh
 
tobiano1984 said:
I'm tempted to pull and trim! He's not really feathery enough to be a proper traditional and he's not got great colouring so I don't have any great showing aspirations. Although if I decide to sell him later this year (I have 2 youngsters in training, one needs to go and the other one is very immature and slow growing!) I know a lot of people love the flowing manes! But then I'm interested to see how he looks trimmed up...aargh
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My thoughts exactly. Lovely boy!
 
Quick, where's Shils?!

If he's heading for dressage and doesn't have the feather to pull off the proper traditional look, take off the lot so he looks super smart. It grows back if anyone prefers hairy.
 
I love a flowing mane on the right type of horse but reckon he would suit being trimmed and plaited up :-)

I don't know if I could bring myself to take off a lovely mane though!
 
I did it!!

Just an initial trim, I just hacked off the feathers and then will take the clippers to them when I have some more time. The mane looks a bit 'pudding basin' at the moment, but have just cut and thinned for now, will pull at the weekend. I've left his forelock a bit longer for now to keep the flies off but will shorten it before we go off to any comps.
Here's the new look and the previous look without plaits for those who asked!


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