30th March Plaiting

What a patient little horse I have.  It's less than 2 weeks till our first show so I decided it was about time I worked out how to plait correctly.  This is a photograph I took in Golega of a particularly good looking plait.

I also noticed that some manes were plaited half on each side, and as Xaile has a particularly thick mane I thought this might look good.

So, Ali, our lovely yard manager, and I watched a couple of videos, looked at a few photographs and then got stuck in.

First we gave him a centre parting and we decided that as we were doing the plait on both sides it was important it matched so we divided the mane up as you would for normal plaiting and then took a side each.  That was where the problems started, for me at least.  Ali happily sped down her side and I got stuck at the first turn!  She had to come and do my side as well but that gave me a chance to see what she was doing and I was able to have a go at making the forelock and the tail match. LOL.  Anyway I think he looks ok, though we have rather a lot of work to do (especially me and the tail!).  And I think the sections used need to be rather a lot smaller.

We also decided that it showed off his dandruff rather too well so we took the plait out and I gave him a thorough shampoo.  Poor little boy was terrified of the hose pipe which comes out of an arm suspended above his head on the wall.  All he did was shake and snort, but he was really scared so a good boy to stand and let me wash him.  I then plaited his mane into lots of long plaits in the hope it'll stay relatively clean and tidy till our next attempt at plaiting.

I was then going to ride, but I looked at my watch and it was after 6!  I'd been playing with him since 3!!!!!!!!  Good thing I got lots of work done in the morning otherwise I'd be feeling really guilty.