From: Chuck
Dear Jessica,
Great job on your hard work which informs many of us weekend horse riders on how to keep and ride horses safely and responsibly.
I have a question regarding the care of my 5 year old quarter horse's tail. I bought the horse about a year ago and noticed at that time that he had a large mat in his hair. In the past year I have tried regularly to detangle the mat by hand but I haven't made alot of progress. I have considered purchasing a detangling product but I am unsure if they will work for something like this. I dont think it's a big deal, but as time goes, it seems to be getting even worse. Should I consider just cutting the whole area out or do you have a solution that would be more effective? I dont really like the idea of cutting the tail since Spring/Summer is here in Texas and the flys can be a pain.
Thanks in advance...
Charles
Hi Charles! Thanks for the kind words.
You are right to be concerned -- it's definitely time you got the mat out of your horse's tail. Mats aren't just a cosmetic concern; they can cause acute discomfort and health problems. Let's get rid of this one, no matter what it takes. You didn't mention whether it's over or below the dock, which will make a difference to your approach, but the mat needs to disappear, either way.
There are a lot of different ways to get mats out of a horse's tail. In this case, since it is so badly matted, I suggest that you wash the tail on the first really warm sunny day (start before noon... this could take a while).
Have some shampoo (horse-type for preference) handy, lots of warm water, and a strong and extremely heavy, wide-toothed comb. Also have a bottle of some sort of silicon coat product at hand: Show Sheen, LazerSheen, or anything similar. Be prepared: You may end up using most of the bottle.
Wash the tail as thoroughly as possible with the shampoo, rinse with warm water until the water is running clear or nearly clear, and then it will be time to tackle the mat.
Start by saturating it with Show Sheen, and then wait a few minutes, put more Show Sheen on the tail, and take out your wide-toothed comb. This is where your patience will be put to the test. Begin at the very bottom of the horse's tail, even if that's NOT where the mat is. Comb the very ends of the tail, gently, as if you were combing a baby's hair. Then go up a little higher, and a little higher, until you have smooth tail everywhere except the mat. Now you can use the end of the comb to try to bring a few strands out of the mat and into order. Start small -- with just eight or ten hairs in the comb at one time -- and keep working at it. You'll probably find that you end up with a lot of loose, dead hair. That's okay -- it's just hair that would normally have fallen out and been brushed away or blown away in the wind. When there's a big tangle or mat, the hair never leaves, and when you finally work the mat out, you'll typically have a big pile of tail hair to throw away. That's normal, so don't worry about it.
If you spend an hour or two doing this and still get nowhere near the mat, rinse the tail again, let it dry, and then clip the matted area. The hair WILL grow back, and the horse will be more comfortable with no hair or short hair over that small area of the tail than it would be with the sores that can form under a mat. When there's a really dense mat in an animal's hair, the skin underneath the mat doesn't get air or sunlight, and this can result in pain, sores, infections, ulcers, even maggots... not something your horse will appreciate. Cut hair, on the other hand, will expose the skin under the mat -- you'll be able to medicate it if it's infected or ulcerated, and if it isn't, you'll be able to expose it to fresh air and sun, which will help keep the area clean and healthy. And the hair will grow back!
Now that your horse's tail is combed and clean, with some of the mat combed out and the rest cut out, you may find that your horse now seems to have three tails: a short ratty one across his dock, a full one under the dock, and a long snarled thin tail reaching to his heels or dragging on the ground. If this describes your horse, CUT the long, ground-dragging part of the tail hair, so that when the horse is just standing there doing nothing, the end of its tail hangs down no lower than its fetlocks. Your horse has a much better chance of growing out a long, thick, full, healthy tail if there's no extra-long segment of the tail to be dragged in the mud and manure... and stepped on and torn out. A shorter, cleaner, tail will grow out in a much more satisfactory way.
Good luck!
Jessica
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