The Cost of Beauty

I had an epiphany this week about horse beauty.

I started off in hunter/jumper land before converting to Eventerism so appearances were paramount. The horses had to be braided with about forty thousand perfect identical braids and nary a whisker or hair could be out of place.

Shiny and beautiful O.O

I was okay with it, because I really, really, really love grooming. I could (and do) spend hours grooming Runkle. There's something really soothing about the sound of the curry, and I know I'm not supposed to brush tails but I love brushing his tail. He's like a real life My Little Pony and his tail hair is so soft you can run your fingers through it.

However, I've noticed very slowly that my grooming methods and standards have changed.

Are those... whiskers?

I still love braiding, but I'm going to have to rethink it. I braided Runkle for our combined test at Flora Lea but the braids fell apart pretty good before we got to the dressage arena. You know what's apparently paramount for braiding? Your freakin' right pinky. It was so hard to keep the braid tight because I kept losing a third of the braid since my finger couldn't grip it.

Somewhere around last April my philosophy on clipping totally changed. Actually it may have changed as soon as I brought Runkle home. His ear fluffs are so cute I want to die. I could never cut them, it would break my heart.

Exhibit F. For Fluff.

But in April I saw Michael Jung jog his horses up with full whiskers. Usually I like my horses clean shaven but you know what? I wouldn't cut my cat's whiskers off. They have them for a reason. And the longer I let them grow the cuter they looked. So he gets to keep those now as well.

They're way longer than this now.

The real holdout though was bigger, and it crumbled this week: mane pulling. I like a short mohawk mane. Last winter I roached Runkle's mane, which I really loved. This year I decided not to because I wasn't body clipping him (I just took off the mane with his neck hair). So the other night I was engaging in our monthly torture mane pulling session and Runkle was vigorously shaking his head, standing all the way at the edge of the cross ties and bumping into the wall while flailing around and I was like "... why am I doing this?"

Tools of the trade.

I was always told pulling their mane didn't hurt. But this horse let's me clip him with no issues and crawl around under his legs painting stuff on his splints and ground ties while I set up a course of fifteen trot poles. I have a hard time believing that the mane pulling was purely misbehavior on his part. I also have a hard time believing that pulling mane out at the root doesn't hurt either.

So I decided, no more mane pulling.

Me pulling Lexy's mane

I do have a solocomb, and I do like the results I get with it. Sometimes it makes the mane too thick but I think I can work around that. But I don't need to torture him by ripping his hair out.

I'm starting to think this horse will convince me to do anything. I'll let you know when he convinces me to try Parelli, because that'll really be the day.