Products We Love: Taming the Tail

Since every horse person seems to constantly be searching for the perfect products, I thought I'd start to share some of the products that I really like.  

It takes effort to keep those wavy curls from turning into dreadlocks!

The BHB grows hair as fast and dense as any fuzzy pony! This includes mane, tail, and body hair. His tail is the most difficult thing to keep looking nice. His mane can be difficult to keep on the short side, but he will get actual dreads in his tail if it's not maintained. Everyone one dreams of having giant, fluffy tails on their horses, but keeping it from becoming a tail full of dreads takes frequent maintenance, and I'm not just talking about once a week brushing! I used to bang the BHB's tail nearly to his hocks at the first frost of every year for hunting, but Amber nearly had a heart attack when I chopped 8 inches off in fall of 2012. It grew back to his fetlocks by the spring, but now I pretty much let her handle the tail trimming to avoid any future panic :)

I was gifted a bottle of Carr & Day & Martin's CANTER mane and tail conditioner for Christmas of 2007 and have been hooked ever since! It's so much better than any other equine hair product I've ever used. It's just as effective, maybe even more so, as Cowboy Magic detangler... yet it leave the tails incredibly soft and silky without stickiness. I find that it stays effective for nearly a week, so I only need to apply it once a week. 

Perfect for horses prone to dreadlocks!

The only downside to this stuff is the cost. It runs around $16-18 for the small bottle. I go through around 2-3 of these bottles a year using it liberally once a week and everyday at shows. So while it's not the most budget-friendly, it keeps Mark from running around with a tail full of nasty dreadlocks! With that in mind, I vote this product well worth the cost for a single/double horse-owner. Maybe not so much of a good value for the horse trainer though, unless they can bill the clients with bushy tailed horses for it.