Braided Brilliance | FEI groom and equine braider

Your braider has 15 horses today. She wasn’t supposed to have that many, but her accounts added horses. Also last week her accounts canceled 20% of booked horses so now she has to make up for the money.

She’s operating on 2 hours of sleep, granola bars, and Red Bull. She’s planned her schedule meticulously to be able to get all 15 braided on time. 15 hours of braiding (give or take) without breaks and she can get everyone in the ring looking their best.

But someone decided to bring a first timer and didn’t tell her. The horse took 2 hours instead of 1.

Another is so headshy she won’t be able to do the forelock. Now she has to take $5 off the mane price to give her client a discount and obviously the client isn’t happy.

The next one has two horses, both with brand new slinkies and EquiFit tail wraps still in packages. She sighs, and opens the packages, snips off the tags, fits the slinky to the horse and unwraps the EquiFit rolls to re-roll them inside out. That took an extra 10 minutes.

One horse’s mane has conditioner in it. So when she sprays water on it, it becomes even more slippery. Now she’s choking back tears.

The next pony’s mane isn’t pulled. She pulls the mane. Adds 45 minutes.

Your braider works hard. Your job as a client is to make sure you don’t give her extra work, especially without telling her.

The “little things” you don’t think are a big deal, are a big deal to someone who’s operating on a tight schedule. The “just one horse” you added adds an extra 1-2 hours to her night. The fake tails that weren’t brushed out add extra minutes and mean that she’s getting that much less sleep the next day.

We as braiders know that things happen and horses will be horses. But please take a few minutes out of your day to make sure you have done everything you can to make sure your braider has an easy experience with you:

No conditioner or show sheen in manes/tails

Tell your braider about quirky horses and first timers.

If you have to add a last minute horse, be prepared to pay her extra or even be ok with her saying no to you.

Leave tail wraps, fake tails, and slinkies in front of the stalls. Brush the fake tails out (it takes you only a minute but it takes us an extra 20 minutes a night when we brush out everyone’s fakes).

Tell her your show schedule so she can prepare early on.

Fit slinkies to your horse in advance.

Open and re-roll all tail wraps like polos and EquiFits.

Pull the manes in advance or tell your braider ahead of time that your horse needs a pull.

The little things matter to us Be the client whose horses we look forward to braiding!!