Growth Rate of Horse Tail?

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AngC

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Any opinions on how many inches a horse tail grows per year?

Poor Nicky; his new nickname is "Bucktail Bob." Nicky acquired burrs in his tail and mane; I thought we had ridded his pasture of them all, but after a recent windstorm he rolled in a bunch of them, plus rolled up a bunch of fallen cedar needle thingies into his mane/tail to really knot things up. I did pretty good picking some out of his mane but had to cut some of them out. Then I was working on his tail; the husband and I miscommunicated--after Nicky gave me a little kick in the face, because I wasn't paying attention ...not Nicky's fault.

I didn't realize how high up into his tail Nicky had burrs and was having trouble working my small scissors and told my husband to cut straight across horizontally.

...poor guy (Nicky, not the husband.) Nicky's tail is rather short. I'm just glad we screwed up after fly season.

Growth rate, anyone?
 
Absolutely no idea of the growth rate but hope your ok
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Give it a trim every now and then , should help to promote good growth
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Absolutely no idea of the growth rate but hope your ok
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Give it a trim every now and then , should help to promote good growth
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NOOO! ...no more trimming!!!

It's partway between his hock and stifle. To me, it looks obscenely short -- although I've seen photos of horses with tails that short.

I like hairy horses.

All of ours have ( well, had) long manes/tails. ...to the point, that my procrastinating self knew that I had to trim, because Nicky and also Coco were sometimes walking on their tails. I just didn't want his that short. I've tried to convince myself that he looks like a polo pony... or that it makes him look slimmer. ....aww, poor dude. I wonder how long it's going to take for our mistake to grow back.

By-the-Way, thanks, Ryan; but I'm fine. Nicky tagged my nose which made the husband freak when he saw a smidge of blood. The few times I've ever been hurt by a horse (which this really doesn't count) it has been because I've done something stupid. ... as in this case.
 
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Half way between the hock and the stifle is fine in my books , just think of it as a "cut" instead of a trim.

Glad your ok
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Growth rates vary w/ my herd. Age of horse, individual horse, time of year.

This year, with our move to sandy soil and "no grass - just weeds" - our youngsters have gone CRAZY with growth - attracting all the weeds and burrs. This weekend I plan on spending time just combing out manes/tails and cutting the tails since 1/2 of them are literally standing on their tails when tied up to eat.

BUT wow - 2" in one month - WHAT's the trick to getting that? None of mine have grown that much,
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Most of ours have no forelocks and very little growth there anytime of year.

So - Hock to stifle - it's cut right below his tail bone. Might take some time - for some reason it takes longer when that short and not a foal. While I love long tails, I think that between the hocks and fetlocks is a decent length... BUT I come from a western background where for more than 20 years our horses had their tails shortened to hock height (some of the older grooming books still have that for a western working horse). That helped keep the brush, burrs and CACTI from attaching to our mounts when working or trail riding in "rough" country.
 
Put MTG on it and it will grow faster. I have always used this product on our oops haircuts or on spots where they rubbed mane or tail hair off. It's made by Shapely's and most tack stores or feed dealers carry it. I know tractor supply carries it. As for the length per month...every horse is different, adding a skin and coat feed supplement may aid the regrowth process. As others suggested, do refrain from combing/brushing it to avoid breakage. I use a soft body brush to brush debris out of tails to avoid breakage.

One of my guys tails fell off as a result of an allergic reaction to vetwrap. We put tails up on our show horses to keep them from stepping on their tails. I wash and braid the ends, fold up the braid and wrap the "bun" in vetwrap. Well, Timmy is allergic to whatever is in it, probably latex, so he rubbed his itchy swollen tail dock until the whole tail scabbed right off. He looks like a little bob tail cob! It has started growing back, little by little and the MTG seems to be speeding up the process.
 
Genetics and nutrition.

I have one mare that tends to pee on her tail, so after fly season, I cut her tail about at her hocks, come spring it's about down to her fetlocks again if not longer.
 
So - Hock to stifle - it's cut right below his tail bone.
Nicky's got about 4 inches below his tail bone.

I'm ashamed to admit that we were arguing about scissors; to my husband's credit, he noticed that Nicky has a tail bone and cut below it.

I wonder what Shapely's MTG is? I'm kind of thinking that if you "whack" hair, it's gone until it's good and ready to grow back. ...sigh..., Nicky came to us with a bad shave job. I guess I'll have to look through old photos to see how it went.
 
MTG is a liquid product that they label as a conditioner. It is slippery and has a strong odor but it does make my horses hair grow faster. It's funny, I feel like I have to clean up bridle paths once a week on most of mine as they grow like a weed, but if someone rubs hair out, it takes forever to grow back.
 
I am not sure about 2" per month but we have to trim most of ours regularly so they don't drag on the ground and we take off about 2" when we do that. Maybe more like 6 weeks. Not all of them grow at that rate, but most of our 12 do.
 
MTG is a liquid product that they label as a conditioner. It is slippery and has a strong odor but it does make my horses hair grow faster. It's funny, I feel like I have to clean up bridle paths once a week on most of mine as they grow like a weed, but if someone rubs hair out, it takes forever to grow back.
Thank you; I've written it on my shopping list and will see if I can find it. I'm still dubious of surface treatments on hair that's gone. I think our best bet is to not do that sort of stupidity again.
 
AngC -

Check BEFORE you use it to make sure he won't have a reaction to it - MTG.

Most feed stores and TSC carry Shapley's MTG now. Here's a pic of the new product - I haven't seen it around here yet... I use the Original. This says you can get up to 3" of growth in 1 month.

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I have had 3 (the ones who had the most hair missing on their manes/tails from itchy rubbing) have serious reactions to the sulfur or the combination of ingredients in MTG. One was our daughters' purebred arab mare, the 2nd her 1/2 shetland son (becoming more itchy and sensitive to bugs - rubbing every year) and 1 mini shetland...

BUT I too, love it and use it on the ones that I can. Also, when you do apply it, do so at first at night w/ limited sun exposure. Being in heat, bright sunshine can add to the "burn"... I used it on a 1/2 shetland filly once that had a lot of white over the top of her neck/mane - the resulting sunburn did more damage than the rubbing did previously (or added to it?) - it was pretty bad. Manes don't grow at all on sunburned necks, LOL.
 
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hmmm... I think I might want to check this out a bit more before smearing it on his tail head. (I kind of try to operate under the concept of "do no harm.)

Thank you, though, for the label. It appears the active ingredient is 4-percent sulfur. I'm feeling more dubious after reading that the label indicates it's also a cure for fungus and rain rot, in addition to promoting hair growth.
 
Nutrition indeed. That is one thing I've noticed when raising the protein level in the feed ever so slightly.
 
Try not to brush it with a comb, if it has anything stuck in it, hand pick it out or use a hard brush to get off mud etc. Nutrition is important and flax is something I put all my horses, big and small on, it helps a TON with growth of healthy hair coat, mane, tail and hooves. Also keep it washed. Most important part is keeping the tail bone clean and that will premote growth. I have a client who washes her horses mane and tail every other day and she can wrap the tail around the horse lol! I do mine about once a week. Simple care can work wonders!!
 
Try not to brush it with a comb, if it has anything stuck in it, hand pick it out...
Just saying...

I wasn't trying to ramp up the rate of tail growth. We screwed up, so I had wondered how long it takes to "unscrew" the human error. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Thank you all for your responses/advice. I don't think I'm going to mess around with Nicky's diet (like adding protein or flax) Fly season is done and gone, so at least we didn't do it when it would affect his comfort too much. And he does look rather sporty; like a polo pony. ...well, ok, maybe not. Thanks all.
 
It's both nutrition and genetics. I think I posted before, I have one mare that will grow quite a bit of tail (I cut it almost to her hocks before winter, she's about due, and it's down to her fetlocks by spring, so about 6" give or take in about 6 months), and others that don't seem to grow much of anything (they are all on the same diet, so it has to be genetics mostly for the difference among my herd).
 
I may try this MTG if I can find it at our TS store or our Co-op farm supply store. Misty has rubbed about a 2 inch section of her mane off this summer! She has been sticking her head out one of the gates to eat the grass even though she has grass to eat inside the gate!!!!! I guess the grass is greener on the other side!!!! Lol Sorry had to say it as it fit our situation!! It has started to grow back since mid summer, about 2 inches. But it still needs to grow quite a bit to be the same lengh as the rest of her mane!!
 

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