Tail Trouble - Grooming - Grooming - Horse Community, Horse Pictures, Horse Forum and Information

Posted : 3/25/2011 2:28:42 AM

My husband's new horse, Skip, is getting settled in and I was out cleaning him up a little today. We knew he had a mat in his tail, but I got a good look at it and it is the size of my hand! And for a girl I have BIG hands! When I got my horse she had a couple dredlocks, but this this is ridiculous. It start about an inch below the bone in his tail and is just a huge wad of hair. Somehow it's in the middle of his tail too. It has unmatted hair that hangs down on all sides of it. I hate to cut it out because while he'll still have some tail, it won't be much and we've already had flies on the warmer days. I've heard of using mineral oil, but I wanted to see if anyone has tried this first. It sounds like it could just become an even bigger mess. I have some Cowboy Magic detangler, but I've never been able to get it to work quite like it says in the ad.
Are there are types of combs or brushes more suited to tackling this big knots than the standard wide toothed plastic comb?

danastark

Posted : 3/25/2011 3:02:24 AM

We usually just use human hair conditioner, massage it into the snarl, then go out the next day and start gradually combing it out. Goodluck!

AppyLady

Posted : 3/25/2011 3:59:36 AM

Rub some baby oil in the mat and pick it out by hand. Or spray it with WD-40. It's really not as hard as you might think to get it untangled.

Connie

Posted : 3/25/2011 9:22:07 AM

Show sheen sprayed into the mat and then allowed to set for awhile works for burdock, might help with the mat. Hair detangler sounds like a good option. I never used wd40, but if AppyLady says it works, I am sure it does. If the horse is patient, you can use a steel comb (like for dogs) to work the mat out. The wire paint scraping brushes (wooden handle) work great on tails.

hunterseat

Posted : 3/25/2011 9:49:02 AM

I've used WD40 and it's a really clean oil. Makes the hair really shiny too! [ ':D'

]
At the ethnic stores they have some strange sounding stuff (Cholesterol?) but it works well and makes your horse smell like a little black girl. [ ':)'

] At least Dani did!

studeclunker

Posted : 3/25/2011 9:56:05 AM

Show Sheen, love the stuff...[ ':D'

]

littlebit

Posted : 3/25/2011 1:05:14 PM

In a pinch, you can even use spray on furniture polish! Puts the shine on as well as works on tangles.

WishRemembered

Posted : 3/25/2011 9:16:34 PM

Wow thanks everyone! Those are lots of great ideas. Hopefully the weather clears up some and we can get some work done on that tail tomorrow. I'm beginning to think WD40 is like duct tape, there's just not much that you can't do with it. ':)'

WishRemembered

Posted : 4/5/2011 2:50:58 AM

The knot is out! My husband used the Cowboy Magic detangler and much more elbow grease than I had and freed the tail. It doesn't look fabulous at the moment, but he's still got a nice fly swatter and that's what I was hoping for. Bonus, the detangler works on dry hair, apparently better than it did on my horse's matted up wet tail a summer or two ago. This made it nice for taking care of his tail on a cold day with no drips!