To roach or not?

@Joshua Kingsley 20017 wrote:

I have a pair of haflinger geldings that have really heavy double manes and I am thinking about roaching them.. The question is are there pros and cons to roaching?

I have never fully roached my mares, but I use to roach saddle horses that I would pen cattle on. I think it keeps them cooler, it is sure easier to keep them groomed without dealing with all that hair. It is easy to do, especially if you have good set of clippers. I guess those are the pro’s.

The con’s: usually takes awhile to get them to get use to clippers, I would simulate clipping them by running clippers up around their ears, etc SEVERAL times before I would ever actually start clipping hair. That way if they melt down on you there won’t be a half roached horse running around you place. If you wait this late in the year to start roaching they can sunburn pretty easily, but maybe not where you live. I usually did mine in late spring, on through the summer and started letting them grow out in the winter. Then again I was more concerned about heat than anything else. It does grow out pretty fast, so you have to do it several times in the summer and it looks like hell when you decide to let them grow back out and they get about halfway grown there. Looks like a a long, badly cut Mohawk.

I use what we call a Texas Clip on my mares; roaching the poll and down about 25% to one third of the way down the neck, but leaving the rest long. I do thin the balance of the mane, but not a lot. That is common here, because of the heat. May get you some weird looks up there though!

I have always roached mine. I like the way it looks, and it is easier that managing a long mane, which I have never been good at. I clip every time I reset shoes.

Carl