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“It’s the tail that makes the horse!”
Most people think the length of a horse’s tail and it’s thickness come from the horse’s DNA alone. Besides your horse’s genes, nutrition, environment, and care of the tail all play a part in the length and thickness.
Here are some tips to growing a long, thick tail:
Nutrition
- Make sure your pasture and hay are of high-quality.
- Make sure your horse receives certain nutrients in it’s diet. Receiving the correct amounts of Vitamin B biotin, omega fatty acids, essential amino acids, trace minerals and lysine is key. More is not always better.
Environment
- Remove any items on gates, fences and stall walls that tail hairs can become caught in and pulled out.
- Watch for tail rubbing. Insects, pin worms, harsh cleaning products, allergies and udders or sheaths that need to be cleaned can all contribute to your horse rubbing its tail. The best solution is to figure out the cause of the rubbing so you can address it.
Care
- Use a hair shampoo and be sure to completely rinse out. Follow the shampoo with a good conditioner. (A vinegar rinse is the best.) Only rinse the conditioner off of the tail head.
- Use a detangling product to help keep your horse’s tail silky. This will help keep knots away.
- If the tail is dirty and muddy, try soaking it in a bucket of water and shampoo, swish it around and then rinse thoroughly.
- Don’t brush your horse’s tail. Brushing daily will gradually thin it out. It takes years to regrow these broken hairs.
- Do brush the dock of your horse’s tail with a dander brush. The dander brush will remove dirt and dander as well as keep your horse from being itchy.
- Cut your horse’s tail straight across (bang cut) or right above the fetlocks to keep your horse from stepping on it while backing up.
- Braid the tail in one large braid. Be sure to start below the tail bone and use a hair friendly elastic band. Once the tail is braided, place it in a tail bag.
Your horse can have a tail that all envy. Growing a better tail does require some patience though. Whether you have to enlist your vet or just use common sense, you can have that long, flowing tail.
