Very long manes, care and management

Wow, some impressive manes on here :)

My boy's always seems to be uneven... either rubbed out by rugs or chewed out by someone... I then get itchy and end up getting the scissors out :o It's usually bottom-of-neck length, sometimes a little longer. I tend to brush out most days, plenty of mane and tail, always plaited up in warm weather. As his isn't obscenely long, plaits seem to get messy quickly and I redo them daily.
 
My friend has a cob with a very thick, very long mane.
She brushes it every day with a paddle brush and uses normal mane and tail detangler on it.

She never ever plaits it before turning her out.

This is because she used to leave it in a running plait in order to protect the mane, and it got caught in the gate when the horse scratched her neck on the fence next to it. Somehow she managed to get the plait caught in the bolt of the gate and panicked. She literally pulled the gate off its hinges before her mane gave in due to it being in a secure plait. It was only then that the section of mane was pulled out from the roots freeing the horse from the gate. We arrived at the field to find a broken gate with a huge chunk of mane still attached to it!

Luckily we keep an "emergency chain" on both sides of the gate, it is meant to be to deter horse thieves, but in this case it kept the gate upright so the horses didn't escape!

Clearly this was a freak accident, but there is no risk of something like this happening if the mane is loose, it just means you have to brush it more often ;) This was almost 3 years ago and the section of mane still hasn't caught up with the rest!
 
The hairy one just gets a bit of oil rubbed through now and again.

Washed only during a heatwave to make him comfortable and plaited only when working on a hot day, otherwise it gets left alone to protect him from the sun and flies.
He never wears a rug with a neck.
 
I spanish plait to ride, but leave it out otherwise. I use my fingers to get out knots and regularly spray with mane and tail conditioner to keep her mane consistently soft (which keeps it knot free most of the time too). I brush maybe once a week with a comb, but very gently. Winter is harder as she is grey and doesn't wear a neck cover, but we manage... If I don't laugh about it then I'll cry :rolleyes::p
 
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