Making a Bald Tail Less Ugly?

[ihorse]

Andie is back to rubbing herself raw again. She did MUCH better last year and actually kept her mane and tail, but the dock of her tail is already bald and we haven't even had warm weather here yet. I've been hired on a trial basis at a dressage barn, and if everything works out I'll be moving there and taking Andie with me, and luckily the flies

Comments

[teh_kusogaki]

First, make sure it's nice and clean.

My girl also likes to rub her tail out and gets "male patterned baldness" at the top of her tail. It looks a lot more noticeable when it gets dusty and dirty: the few hairs she has poke out and you can easily see the dirt-colored skin underneath.

The only other thing I can think of is to braid if your discipline allows it. Even though my pony rubs the top of her tail, the sides usually stay long enough for me to pull over into a braid. See:

[icarus_abides]

Nothing to add, but I just love the term "pokey-up hairs". And I love how horse people know exactly what you mean, lol.

[teh_kusogaki]

I'm pretty sure "pokey-up hairs" is the technical term ^_~

[ihorse]

Unfortunately her dock is completely bald, and because this is something she does every year it has yet to get long enough to braid even when she DOES have hair on her tail. :P So I usually just trim it short - neat and clean, like a lot of eventers do.

[sm923]

I'm not sure if this is legal or not for the shows you're doing but if her tail is black or chestnut, you can rub shoe polish on the dock to make it blend in better with the color of the tail. I did it for a photo shoot I did.. my horse had a few nicks in random places and shoe polish covers them right up. The same idea applies to the dock of the tail. From a distance, it should all be black and the judge won't be looking up close unless you're doing in hand. Use the shoe polish in the can-not the liquid stuff. It washes right off and doesn't cause any skin issues.

[ihorse]

The skin is pretty cracked and irritated (working on getting the skin healed up... amazing how much damage they can do in less than a week -_-), so I'm not sure shoe polish at this point would be a good idea, but i'll keep it in mind as *hopefully* she gets all healed up and stops rubbing so badly.

[sm923]

I've used it on irritated skin as well (it sounds like your horse has the same issues as mine.. the hotter it gets, the worse the flies get they get itchy.. mine itches all over.. tail, shoulders, mane, haunches, etc) and it never affected him. I just put it on right before the photos and then took it right off.

Good luck though! I feel your pain!

[my_ownwings]

I have the same problem with my gelding. Bald tail head and nearly bald mane.
If you find anything that works, please let me know! I've been trying a bunch of things and nothing has seemed to help.

[lythinae]

I'd be inclined to maybe leave it alone if it's raw or irritated. Trim it so it's as neat as possible, and use a damp sponge to slick it down some but don't put anything on it.

If it's just a bald patch, you could use gel/spray to help hold a combover in place, and use make up/cover cream to help hide it a bit (I've used Champion Tails stuff, and some stage makeup stuff to hide scars before and Raven's Oil is really popular where I am, tho I wouldn't use that on broken skin.

Edited to add: What's the rest of her tail like? A false tail might help if she's rubbed the long stuff out as well

[pony_love]

I don't have much advice for cover up, but we do have a gelding that is an obsessive rubber and a mare that is just itchy all over and enjoys a good rub. For the mare, a bit of Listerine cut with water in a spray bottle applied regularly to the dock helps cut back on the itching and rubbing. The gelding has to wear a fly sheet all the time because without it he absentmindedly rubs his whole body raw (his issues are a little psychological). My best advice is to fight the itching and hope the hair grows back. Keep the area under her tail and between her cheeks very clean, fight flies and bugs to the best of your ability, use the Listerine(!), and look around her stall/pasture to eliminate things she is rubbing on where possible (our gelding has soft kick-pads in his stall to prevent him from rubbing on the hard walls).