This isn't Shakespeare, but that is the question. I know what my heart wants and I know what I should do. Why are those things so often at war with each other??
For non horse people that are reading this - roaching a mane means to clip all of the mane hair off.
Why would anyone do this you ask? At pleasure horse shows we take a shortened mane and either band or braid the mane depending on if we are showing western or English. These terms are probably also confusing. Banding a mane means putting roughly 60-80 tiny little "pony tails" in the mane. The goal, to make the mane lay flat and look neat and tidy. This helps smooth out the neckline and clean it up. There are many different ways to do this and everyone develops a favorite technique. Then we apply a "slinkie" or cover to protect the bands until showtime.
Braids are similar but probably not what a non show person is imagining. We aren't talking about braiding your horse's mane like you would your daughter. These are tight braids that are looped around and secured to make "buttons". At least that is what I believe they are called. This is where I admit that I have never mastered or truly even attempted braids. Braids are for horses that show more towards the English events. While we do show HUS (English), we tend to look more like western horses doing English as I don't have the knowledge or the time to switch mane banding/braiding between classes at our shows. It took me a long time to get decent at banding (notice I didn't say good - it is truly an art to be good at banding.) There are also running braids which is like a giant French braid in the horse's mane. I've attempted those a few times. Mine have never lasted...
There are many keys to success in having a mane look good while banded. One thing that helps is that the mane should be of a decent thickness but not too thick. Elsie, Pepper and China have all been a challenge to band as they have SUPER thick manes. I have tried thinning them every year and was never successful with any of the methods I tried. Someone suggested roaching a strip down the middle of China's mane it is so thick. Probably would have worked but I chickened out on that one. I even thought about banding it to both sides. She literally has enough mane that I could have split it down the middle and had the mane banded on each side. It would have been funny for one show anyway.
A thin mane is equally difficult to band as it ends up looking spindly and sparse and does little to help the look of the neck. Instead it tends to make it look worse. Which is where we are at with Gossip. Her mane is thin by her ears, thin or non existent across her wither and a decent thickness through the middle. I feel it would lay nice once banded across the middle, but with either end looking so miserable...
Last night I washed her mane for the first time, cut the length a bit (it still isn't short enough, I just took the long ends off) and did some sample bands to see what it would look like. I'm sad. The more I look at the pics, the more I think the roach is coming her way when we clip for our first show. I think a roached mane looks nice enough on other horses/ponies. But I have ALWAYS wanted a flaxen maned sorrel pony. I finally got one and really REALLY don't want to roach all of that flaxen beauty off. I know what I should do and that is roach that sucker off, but I just don't know if my heart can take it.
Once roached it is a decision that you are stuck with for the rest of the show season. It would have the time to grow back over the winter, but not between shows. Once roached it would cut my show prep down because banding takes time. Lots and lots of time if you do it correctly. Having one less to band wouldn't be a terrible thing. Lots of pros and cons to debate. To roach or not to roach, that is the question. What do you think?
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