Dressage 101

Braiding Your Horse's Mane for Dressage Shows

The dressage test is a demonstration of one's achievements in training. To present themselves and their horses with pride, riders turn their horses out in fine style. This style is partly for good looks and partly to show off the lines and development of the horse. Not only should the rider be impeccably dressed in clean whites, polished boots, clean tack, and a tailored coat, the horse should be a sight to behold as well.

Braiding the horse is all part of this image. While it is technically not required for a dressage horse to be braided in competition, you would almost never see a rider show a horse that is not braided. It would be considered disrespectful to the judge to do so. Horses with short manes are shown with a line of small braids pulled up tight against the top of the neck. A few styles are common, with "button" braids being the most popular. For all types of braids it's possible to use rubber bands, however, they damage the hair and just don't give the polished look that yarn or thread sewn braids do.

Button braiding with yarn and elastic:

What you need:

Braiding elastics
Wax coated string or yarn
Large (dull ended) yarn needle

Step 1 :

First start off by taking a large section of the horse’s mane (approximately 3 inches or so of hair). Then braid that hair loosely at the top and tighter towards the bottom. Tying the end of the braid with an elastic.

Step 2 :

Once the braid is complete take a piece of the wax coated string and wrap it around the elastic 3 or 4 times creating a sort of knot. Take the large needle and thread the string through it. Take the needle and sew through the base of the braid at the top of the neck.

Step 3 :

Now that you’ve gone through once, sew back through the braid and make sure to push the needle right through the ‘knot’ that you created with the string and elastic. Go through the knot and back through the center of the looped braid.

Step 4 :

Roll the braid up into a ‘rosebud’ and sew back through to the other side of the mane. Pulling tight each time you go through the braid. Go back and forth 2 more times, pulling the rosebud tight. Then simply snip off the extra string and move onto the next braid.

Demonstration of Button Braiding:

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Braids with White Tape

For horses with a very nice neck conformation AND a good steady contact it can be accentuated by braiding down in "plaits" or skinny flat braids that lay close to the neck and then wrapping them with a piece of white tape made especially for that purpose.

The picture below shows a horse with white tape on his plaited braids. Not many horses have a nice enough neck or a steady enough contact on the bit to be shown this way as any deviation or flaw is highlighted by the flash of white! It's even more critical that the braids be evenly sized and spaced!

On some occasions, the white tape is replaced with metallic silver bands. These in combination with a silver chain browband has a very striking effect that can set you apart from the rest of the crowd.

Braids with white tape

French Braid

French Braid or Running Braid

Breeds who traditionally wear a long mane - Andalusians, Lusitanos, Lipizzans, Friesians, Arabians, etc. all have the option to either pull the mane short and have short braids or keep the long hairs and braid them down into a French Braid.

When the mane is particularly thick as it is on some breeds, the mane may be parted down the middle of the length of the neck and a French Braid done down each side.

Tails

For horses with a short mane it is proper to square off the end of the tail and trim the long hairs at each side of the dock. How short one trims the base of the tail is partly a matter of preference and what shows off or "doesn't show off" a horse's strengths/weaknesses.

A horse with flashy movement behind (particularly if it's not so flashy in front) may be more striking with a shorter tail that doesn't hide the action. A horse whose tail is naturally very full may look more elegant showing off as much of that hair as possible by leaving the tail long. In general, most horses look very sharp with the tail squared off just at the base of the fetlock joint, or an inch above. Be aware that as the horse moves he raises his tail slightly so you may want to watch him move to get an idea of how far he lifts it (arabians tend to lift their tails quite high so you would not want to start too short.)

Thinner tails look a tad thicker when they are slightly shorter. Andalusians and other breeds who have a very long tail should still have the very base of the tail squared off. Not only does dragging hair get damaged in the footing and break off at the ends, it can actually be pulled out from the roots thereby thinning what would be a luxurious tail. For these breeds square the tail just above the heel bulbs and then ask the horse to back up. If it comes too close to getting stepped on in the rein-back, trim it another half an inch or the minimum necessary to take away that risk while leaving as much length as possible.

Demonstration of Braiding the Tail with both
Pinwheel or Wraparound Ending: