Operation Tail Revamp

Since Supertrainer just finished with B and his show training and Yankee is still "broken" (8 more days!!) I have yet to step in the irons which makes for boring blogposts. However, things have happened.

Many things.

Most notably and very exciting for a tail whore like myself, I took Amanda's tail dye tutorial and worked on revamping Yankee's very sad tail. If you know me at all, you know I am obsessed with tails...especially my own horsebeast tails. Bacardi's is gorgeous, but nothing has come close to Yankee's luscious locks when it comes to my string of horses. His tail has always been THE tail and I treat it like its made of glass. I legit SOBBED when we had to cut off part of his tailbone in 2014 and part of his tail hair went with it. I died inside a little. I love it, cherish it and care for it like it were worth a million bucks. Unfortunately due to boarding circumstances in MO, his tail got quite bleached and it made me so sad inside. I also think a lot of the hairs got pulled out due to living outside constantly which also made me more sad. Precious, precious tail hairs.

Therefore, "Operation Tail Revamp" began with me making trip to CVS to buy human hair dye. yup.

THE HORROR

Seriously, I can't look at it. It makes me ill. ORANGE. It was fucking Orange. His tail has never been ORANGE, OMG.

First step was to slather his surrounding bum hairs with the conditioner that came in the package to attempt to keep his butt from getting black dye on it. For those dying to know, I chose "soft black". I chose Garnier, because I have used that in the past with my hair and its just the brand I know. I'm sure there are better brands for dying horse tails, but thats what I chose. I hear ethnic hair dye works well, but I didn't know where to even begin with that.

Why did not one tell me my floor mats were disgusting before I took this pic

Next, I gloved up and mixed the solution and started applying it from the top down. Made sense to me. Luckily it was a cold day, so no flies...but if you do this in summer I recommend slathering horse with fly spray.

I am a messy SOB so I took extra care to not get dye on my clothes, body or the rest of his body. Shocker- I managed to get a huge streak down his butt in the red so he has a lovely black skid mark on his ass. Go me.

Then, I braided it up, with gloves on still, doubled under and stuffed in a plastic bag then vet wrapped the top for security. Then we waited.

Amanda warned against plastic bags  in your horses' tail if they are spooky, but Yanks could give a shit about nothing so I just assumed it would be fine and he was. Literally fell asleep. 

Do you guys love my old shitty barn?

I sat on the floor (safety first) and watched Yankee doze while I played on insta because addicted, and after 30 min, took his tail down and rinsed it. Per Amanda instructions I did NOT shampoo, just rinsed thoroughly and then when it dried Cowboy Magicked the whole tail. 

BAM! Gorgeous tail.

SWOON. Thats better. & I swept up the mats a bit.

Seriously, this is an amazing "trick" and I don't give a shit if anyone screams cruelty, his tail is the bomb.com again and it makes me happy as a pig in mud. JUST LOOK AT IT.

I choose not to "event" the tail at the top by pulling the hairs to give the tailbone a sleek look. I personally can't stand it and it reminds me of rat tails. But thats just me and my horses. For some it looks really nice, just too fake IMO. I do bang the ends though.

So that was that. Thanks Amanda for your wealth of knowledge and things. 

Also, Yankee moved to The Palace (EME) a week early because Braggles left for his new job.I wasn't mad about it, because I literally loathe cleaning stalls and it freed up so much time for me this week.

Mostly though, I was so so sososososososooooo happy to have my boys together at the same barn again. Yankee settled right in at EME and I think he will do great there! His lease already started even though he can't be ridden until May 20th and jumped until June 15th, but all is well and good in my little corned of the world.

PRECIOUS