Manes Rubbing?

Question

How can i stop my horses manes rubbing out, i have tried skinny hoods but they always come off, and i don't leave halters on them incase they get caught, what can i do

Answer 1

Is she rubbing it off on a feeder/fence or is she rubbing it because it itches? I agree with the moisturiser if it just itches. You might want to try an anti-bacterial shampoo just to rule out any fungus type problems. If she is rubbing it off on the fence/feeder then you will have to remove the feeder or add a hot line on your fence.

Answer 2

Moisturize. The most likely reason your horse is rubbing his/her mane is because he/she has dry, ichy, flakey, or dirty skin and needs comforting. Give i a thorough wash with dandruff and intense moisture shampoo about once a week or twice if you can, and if you aren't showing, put vitamine E oil or cream, baby oil, and/or goat milk soap along the roots of the mane (tail dock aswell if they rub there too). Massage the creams and oils right into the root as if you are shampooing your own hair, then just give your horse probably a week and a bit (give or take) and it should minimize. Still shampoo and moisturize on a regular basis even if they aren't itching. You can use listerine mouthwash aswell on the areas where the hair has been rubbed off, it helps to speed up and enhance the growth of the hair folicles. Good luck! :)

PS: Do not braid the mane to stop rubbing because it doesn't stop rubbing. Your horse will end up literally ripping the braids out one by one and will soon have no mane at all, or bald spots where each braid has been ripped out

PPS: The slinky's work sometimes, but reality is, they just aren't prcical. They are really for when your horse is going to a show and you have them braided so that they don't mess the braids up. They aren't really meant for prevention of rubbing, cause they will still rub with it on, maybe not mess their mane up as much, but you have to get to the root of the issue and not just cover it all up, capiche? :)

Answer 3

My 5 yr old stock horse did the same thing, he rubbed almost the entire mane out. I'm afraid the only thing I could do was to buy a new rug without the neck rug. I assume the combo is canvas?  you could try a lighter synthetic combo but they can do the same thing.

As far as getting the mane back goes, i massage "old timers" vitamin A cream into it, if you massage, the blood flow increases and the mane will come back faster - although you will probably find it comes back finer.

Answer 4

You can try showsheen it works really well just wash the manes and then spray genrously on the mane with show sheen it makes the manes slippery and hard to get caught on therefore pulling out hairs..  can get it from almost any tackhorse feed store or horse catalogs like statelinetack.com

Answer 5

You can usually braid/band it each day, or every other day. Have you tried the Sleazy Sleepwear hoodies? I have never had problems with them coming off.

Answer 6

My horse had the same problem....

I traced the problem back to the fact that they had used thier salt block and was missing the minerals and vitiamins it gave them so they resorted to mane rubbing..... We put in a new salt block and it stopped... You may wanna try that