How To: Pull a Mane

   One of the ways to keep your horse looking fancy and taken care of, at least for us hunter/jumper people, is to have a well kept mane. Allowing a mane to grow too long really makes your horse look messy. There are two ways to maintain a mane, this post will go over how to pull the mane and in a later post I will outline how to trim a mane with scissors.

   It is best to learn how to pull a mane first because this is the most traditional way and the expected way if someone where to ever ask you to take care of a mane. Pulling a mane is in fact pulling the mane hair out of the mane. Now that sounds like the most traumatic thing to do to your horse. However! Horses don't have nerve endings in their mane area, so pulling out the hair causes them no pain.

---

Step #1: Measure

   Depending on what you plan on doing with your horse and the need for making their mane shorter, there are two different lengths that are normal. The width of your four fingers is about the length you want the mane if you plan on going to a horse show where your horse will be braided. Shorter hair makes braiding easier. If you are just trying to keep your horse looking tidy I will include my thumb in the measurement. This gives the mane a little bit more weight and length so it doesn't mohawk and continues to lay flat on the horse's neck.

---

Step #2: Back Comb

   First make sure you are using a metal pulling comb, a plastic one will end up breaking and a comb with a razor will be cutting the mane at the same time and is not desired.

   Start by grabbing a section of hair at it's longest point and then use your metal pulling comb to push the shorter hair away from where you are holding. By backcombing the mane you are keeping the majority of the hair and only pulling out the longest pieces. This helps to thin the mane while making it shorter.

---

Step #3: Wrap Around

   Once you have backcombed the section of hair you are holding, you then take what is left in your hand and wrap it around your pulling comb. By wrapping the hair around the comb you give yourself the needed leverage to pull the hair out of the horse's mane.

---

Step #4: Pull

   Once you've wrapped the hair around the comb all that is left for you to do is pull the hair out. Make sure you do small-ish sections at a time to avoid pulling really hard on the horse's neck with a big chunk of hair. Again, horse's don't have nerve endings in their mane so they don't feel pain when you pull the hair out, but be fair and don't try and pull out too large of a section.

   Many horses, if they don't regularly get their manes pulled, will react to you doing this step. They are reacting to the pressure that pulls their neck to one side (you can see a small amount of movement in the video on the side) and not pain. If you are pulling a horse's mane for the first time go slow! Take breaks as the horse needs them and break it up into multiple days. As long as you stay calm and patient you will train a horse that calmly stands for getting their mane pulled without any fuss.

---

The Final Product

   Keep repeating these steps until you have done the whole mane, from poll to wither. Make sure you take steps back often to make sure you are staying even and straight. If it is your first time pulling a mane, stay on the safe side and leave the mane a little long. You can always make it shorter, it takes a while for the mane to grow back and cover up mistakes.

   Also, start at the poll. So start right behind the horse's ears. The reason for doing this is because many horses don't really like you messing around either with their ears of just being up by their head like that. So, if you start there first they will appreciate it getting over with quickly. If you wait to do up by their ears until the end, after you have already spent time pulling the rest of their mane your horse will most likely have lost their patience with the process and be less willing to stand still for you.

   When you are finished you should have a nice straight, thin mane that helps make your horse look super polished.