Traditionally, you're not supposed to cut a horse's mane with scissors since it looks weird. And I can attest to that, having gone after Royal's mane with a scissors before. It always ends badly. The more prah-pah way to shorten a horse's mane is through pulling, which is exactly what it sounds like. You literally rip hair out by the roots. Ouch. I tried it last summer, and got about 1/4 up the mane before Royal's "Why are you doing this to me?" looks made me feel like a huge jerk. I ended up cutting the rest. I'm usually fine with causing my animals pain if there's a good reason for it. For instance, vaccinations are not fun, but neither is rabies. But pulling the mane serves only a decorative purpose, and I didn't want to put my horse through it.
Enter the SoloComb.
It starts out the same way as pulling, with the grasping of the long hairs and backcombing the shorter ones. But instead of ripping the hair out, you press the lever and it simply cuts the mane. You get the same look without the pain, and I used cookies to make positive associations with the comb. Royal and I were much happier.
Here's was he looked like after I'd been going at it for a while:
And here's what he looks like now:
And all the hair I took out:
Not bad for a rookie, but I'll definitely be able practice braiding now. There'll be plenty of pictures of that too.
No comments:
Post a Comment