The Mane Thing-or the Tail End?

Figure 1 Belgian gelding with chopped tail

       Most of us horse owners, at one time or another, have spent hours combing and untangling manes and tails of our equine partners. Some have even gone into the braiding, extensions, tail bags, etc. necessary for the show ring-or just because we want our “perfect partner” to look the way we envision in our dreams. Whether that dream means a short 3” length along the neck for the hunter look or the sweeping lengths seen on a Friesian, that look is YOUR horse-and that’s what you expect when you go down to the barn or pasture.

            So imagine the distress of people like Belgrade, Montana area resident Alisha Novotny when she went out to see about her mare and found a large portion of her tail just whacked off.[1]

The problem is-this is NOT an isolated case either. If it were just one white mare in Montana, it would be sad and crazy, but it isn’t.

            People in California, Colorado[2], South Dakota[3], Texas, Maryland, Florida, Massachusetts[4], as well as Europe and Australia have reported incidents-and those are just the ones we KNOW about. It is widely suspected that far more are out there, but are unreported or are just unknown.

Figure 2 victorian watch fob

            Some of the thieves will just chop off entire tails as they did with the Belgian geldings, taking everything below the dock. Others will be more selective and cut only a section of tail hair like the tail of Alisha’s mare. Then you have the more creative guys who spend the time to cut under the manes so the “crime” will go unnoticed longer and under the forelock as well as using thinning shears on the tail.

            All of which begs the question-what in the devil do they possibly WANT with the stuff? Other than ruining our personal dreams, what is their objective? Well, there are several possible answers to that.

In no particular order (since the author cannot answer for any particular thief!), they could be:

Figure 3 Raku - Navaho horsehair pottery


Figure 4 Bagpiper's sporran
mess dress

• Selling white Arabian tail hair for violin bow manufacture. (It’s true. It makes the best bows.)
• Making horsehair products for sale-tack, jewelry, etc. Check out ebay for sample products. They can be rather pricey. I found a complete horsehair bridle for sale in Montana for $5,000 nego. (item 370316522651 if you are interested-and, yes, it would be worth it)
• Those “shoo flies” for your girths
• Tail and mane extensions
• Ropes
• Mecates
• Brushes-from body brushes to artist brushes
• Hatbands
• Zipper pulls
• Upholstery (in the early 1900’s, it was considered to be a mark of coming up in the world to have a horsehair sofa!
• Some kinds of fishing line
• Luggage and women’s purses
• Pottery
• Bagpiper’s sporrans for mess dress
• Moreover, we’re sure the list goes on. We just don’t know what else!

The question becomes: are authorities following up on it? That we can’t answer for you-we don’t know. We suspect that they will treat it as being low on the list of priorities. No humans were harmed and no property of (market) value was taken-which in their eyes will mean this is a “tempest in a teapot”. So-for the horse owner, how do you protect your horses?

            You tell us. Now that you know what is going on, what, if anything, are you going to do? Post on the discussion board.

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[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/10/horse-hair-stolen-montana_n_1003474.html
[2] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2009/04/weird-crime-horse-tail-theft.html
[3] http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/37054/thieves_steal_horsehair_from_tails/index.html[4] http://www.thehorse.com//ViewArticle.aspx?ID=18820&eID=345681