Pictures To chop or not to chop

windand rain

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Well I am a fan of long manes and tails but she is very pretty and a Welsh partbred looks more Welsh than cob so I would trim her out like a partbred so feathers off mane to plaiting length and tail 4 inches below the hock. I would wait until Spring and riding her though cannot remember how old she is and if she is of an age to be backed
 

tallyho!

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Big fan of long manes and get some oil (jojoba/olive/argan you only need a tiny bit) girl and learn to work it in the hair you’ll be amazed how well it stays tanglefree but it takes a while. The tail however... chop to the hocks in winter it’ll grown like the clappers cone spring
 

Cowpony

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If it's hard to deal with now why not trim it, and by the time the better weather is here it will have grown back again.

She's looking absolutely gorgeous!
 

tatty_v

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What an absolutely stunning girl ? I’m normally a scissor happy person myself but she is definitely swaying me towards the L’Oréal look!
 

Lois Lame

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She's lovely. All I'd do is trim the tail a LITTLE. A TINY bit. Not much at all (i.e. the hocks would still be a distant view if glanced at from the end of her tail).

Feathers -- leave
Mane -- leave
Forelock -- leave

Maybe I'd even leave the tail as well.
 

Widgeon

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Well I am a fan of long manes and tails but she is very pretty and a Welsh partbred looks more Welsh than cob so I would trim her out like a partbred so feathers off mane to plaiting length and tail 4 inches below the hock. I would wait until Spring and riding her though cannot remember how old she is and if she is of an age to be backed

Yes, I was wondering what you planned to do with her? Do you want to show her at all, and if so, how? I think that would influence the answer for me (regarding the mane certainly). Her mane at the moment is gorgeous but beauty doesn't detangle itself - if there's no particular reason to leave it all long, I think she would look equally lovely with the "neat and tidy" look - mane trimmed, tail shortened and feathers off. Although she doesn't look like she has *much* feather anyway?
 

TPO

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If you decide to keep it long why not get a set of waterproof mane bags and a tail bag?

Brush the mane and put some leave in conditioner in it, plait and then bag. Protects from breakages and keeps it clean. Come summer* you'll have long, smooth, flowing hair.

* people generally advise unbagging, washing if possible, conditioning and re plaiting/bagging approx every 2wks. I'm not suggesting you leave from now until summer!
 

Annagain

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I can see why you're torn. I'm not usually a fan of long manes but hers is lovely. However, she has such a pretty face it seems a shame to be hiding it behind all that hair. I'd trim it to a good Welsh length (not really short but a sort of half way house). If you don't like it, it won't take too long to grow again. I'd chop a fair bit off her tail both so that she can't stand on it and so that you can watch it grow - then you can decide at which point it looks best and keep it there. This winter I chopped Archie's really quite short for convenience as he's retired and naked so it doesn't matter how he looks. It looks a lot better than I thought it would!
 
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