Tips for Mane and Tail Clipping

Beyond their conventional use for body clipping, horse trimmers and clippers offer versatile applications for maintaining your horse’s mane and tail, especially for horse shows and special events. It’s fast and easy to help your horse look stunning by tidying up stray hair by mane and tail clipping, they’ll be show ring ready in no time.

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Trimmers vs. Clippers

Choosing the best tools for your grooming tasks is easy – shears for thick coats, body clippers for clipping most horses and trimming them, and smaller trimmers for wispy, thinner hairs and touch-ups. Shears are the most powerful and largest, while trimmers are the most compact and suitable for smaller areas. Clippers are that middle ground that can body clip a horse and do some trimming.

For most horses, trimmers are great for the mane and tail unless the hair is extra thick. Using a #10 blade is best, as the teeth have more room to grab and chop the mane and tail hair. Trimmers have that great 5-in-1 blade perfect for setting to #9 or #10 for this job.

Trimming Your Horse – Prep the Hair First

Clipping clean and dry hair will always yield the best results. Conditioners are a good idea when body clipping, but skip the mane and tail before they meet your clippers. Extra products may weigh things down and give you uneven results.

The same holds for manes and tails. Bath your horse, and pay special attention to the mane and tail. Wait for them to dry before clipping! You want to see how the hair hangs naturally before you start trimming.

When it’s all chopped to your liking, condition the hair. You could wet it and apply a rinse-out conditioner or use a grooming oil on dry hair. Grooming oils also add shine.

Tail Grooming Techniques with Trimmer and Clippers

We spend a lot of time looking at our horse’s cute face, and we often forget that their tail and hind quarters are just as important when in the horse show ring.

This is one way to tidy up the fuzzy tail.

Trimming the tail top

The top of the tail often appears unkempt, with shorter hairs protruding. If your horse is a tail rubber or has short and coarse hair, you can trim those hairs away. Usually, it’s just the sides of the tail top.

Trimming the sides of the tailbone can create a neater appearance, but it’s essential to exercise caution and start with minimal trimming, gradually adjusting as needed.

How to tidy the tailbone of your horse

Start with scissors or trimmers at the far ends of the stray hairs, and use them vertically to trim off the stray hair. Work your way inward until you like the result.

Some horse owners clip right down to the tailbone, giving their horse a vertical mohawk of sorts. This is great for lean event horses to make their hind ends more pronounced but is not great for larger, heavier breeds that already have large hindquarters.

A collaborative effort with an extra set of hands makes this process easier.

This event horse’s tail has been clipped along the sides.

Bang the tail

Another technique to consider is tail banging – clipping the tail ends to achieve a blunt cut. This adds volume to the bottom of the tail and is relatively standard in some disciplines, like dressage and eventing. Other Western disciplines and hunters prefer a natural finish on the tail.

Steps to banging the tail

To execute this, prop the horse’s tail away from its body using a riding crop, cloth, or polo wrap. This little butt pillow ensures the final cut looks good while your horse is in motion.

Then, grab the tail and run your hand down its length, keeping it vertical to the ground. At the end, you can hold the hair tightly and lift it.

Lob off the hair bluntly, and you’re done! If your trimmers hesitate at this, switch to clippers for more oomph.

Mane trimming

The possibilities are endless on how to style your horse’s mane. You can keep it long, trim it up an inch, or hog it off.

Shorten the mane

Very brave equestrians can use the clippers to carve a straight line down the mane. The blunt edge look is becoming more fashionable, and you can use clippers or scissors for this look. If you want to get fancy, use a comb as your guide.

For long manes that need a clean-up and major shortening, rough-cut the mane with your clippers first, then go in for the fine-tuning when some of the weight is gone. Or, use a mane knife or blade to tidy up the bottom of the mane for a natural look.

These mane blades are fantastic for creating a shorter mane with a natural edge.

Pulling the mane?

Pulling the mane to create a thin mane for braiding can cause pain to your horse. Use a Solo-Comb, mane and tail rake, or thinning shears to remove bulk before braiding.

Read more about how to shorten the mane without clipping here.

Mane Tidying with Clippers

Trimming your horse’s mane and head makes it look sharp. Tactful grooming also shows off your horse’s conformation.

The bridle path

Creating a bridle path, a shaved section along the horse’s poll, facilitates the even placement of tack without causing discomfort or pressure points. The smooth leather of the halter or bridle’s crownpiece will rest evenly over your horse’s head instead of unevenly with a bump.

The length of the bridle path may vary depending on your horse’s breed and discipline. A great place to start is with a path that’s a smidge more extensive than the halter crownpiece.

Some equestrians like to fold the ear back and use that as a landmark, clipping to the end of the ear. Some show horses, like saddlebreds and Arabians, may compete in classes where the breed standard dictates the path that goes halfway down the mane.

Many horses look pretty cute with a reached mane!

Should you roach the mane or trim the mane?

Hogging or roaching the mane is clipping it off entirely. This is common in certain breeds and disciplines, such as Fjords and polo ponies. It may also help manage skin infections or allergies. It’s easier to see problems and apply medications without a jungle of hair to wade through.

Body clippers are the way to go here, using a #10 blade for most horses. Trimmers will do the job well on thinner manes, though. For extra thick manes, use shears.

You can clip to the mane base or leave a cm or two of hair. Don’t worry if you clip too closely; it will grow quicker than you think!

Body clippers (top) can handle most manes, although extra thick manes and tails do best with shears (bottom).

Mane and Tail Clipping and Horse Trimming Tips

By consistently maintaining your horse’s grooming regimen throughout the year, preparing for shows or clinics becomes effortless, ensuring your horse always looks their best.

Don’t excessively brush or smash the hair down before trimming your horse. When you finish clipping, the hair will return to its preferred state, and the results will be uneven.

Trim less than you think you need, then reevaluate. After you finish the first round, step back to take a look. You can also watch your horse walk around and see how things move as your horse does. Make any adjustments as needed.

If you are trimming or roaching the mane and there is accidental unprotected skin, use sunscreens or hooded fly sheets to protect that skin.

Condition after you finish tidying up! If you use grooming oil, a little goes a long way. For most tails, a quarter-size dollop of oil should be enough. If you use too much, lightly wash the tail with mild shampoo or braid the tail and let the extra oil work as a deep conditioning treatment. You could also use a tail bag if you like.

Nutrition will always play a role in your horse’s skin and coat health. Of particular importance are Omega-3 Fatty acids.

Mane and tail clipping should enhance your horse’s look for the show ring without compromising their health and comfort.

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Solocomb Mane and Tail Grooming Tool, Red

$19.95