on saturdays we wear braids

Happy weekend, y’all! It’s been a quiet one around these parts since I opted to just give Doozy a full week off post vet visit. Lots of grooming and snacks and…. that’s about it lol. 

But I did finally sit on her again yesterday for a very light ride, chaperoned by a nice steady mare, and Doozy felt fantastic! Here’s hoping we can just ease back into it over the next week or so, maybe test out some little jompies etc… We’ll see!

always with the side eye

In the meantime, tho, I figured we were due for a little hilarity practice. Specifically: braid practice. Bc. Uh. Well I probably haven’t braided a mane in 5 years… And wasn’t exactly what you would consider “good” at it back then anyway. 

#SadMareDiaries

And let’s not even get into the whole relationship between tidy mane keeping habits and easy braids, m’kay?? lol…. Bc… Well. Ahem. We really don’t have much at all going for us in that regard either!

But. Eh. What the hell, let’s give it a go. Complete with pictures that absolutely do not do the devastation justice…

Step 1: Gather the materials!
Pro tip: Your sensitive mare may require preliminary examination of any new products.

Step 2: We totally got this. There’s the clippy thing doing clippy things, and we have a proper comb to measure the appropriate section of hair. Check and check!

Step 3: We have achieved yarn in braid, go team!

Step….. Oh Dear: That knot might be more yarn than hair, ngl :(

Step The Next: OK, Rally, Y’all! We got another yarned braid! This time with more sauce!! Braid spray is our friend.

Step Ahead: Second attempt is vaguely more button-ish looking?

Step E for Effort: Ok we went back and redid the first (left side) braid and that one looks more-ish normal-ish-ish. Just ignore all the crazy flyaways pls.

Step … Success?: That last one on the far right looks baaaaaasically like what I’m trying to achieve here? Ish?

Closer look at it. Passable?? Mebbe??
Idk if the hair is really long enough for the Dutch braid look I was going for… But adding a lot (like a LOT a lot) more braid spray and using slightly narrower chunks seemed to produce better outcomes.

Last Step: Take more time trying to get all those knots out of there than it even took getting in LOL

poor suffering mare!

Idk. There was a time in my life (cough cough like 30 years ago…) when I could make some pretty fancy macrame friendship bracelets lol. And the few times I braided Charlie turned out decently well. 

All the same, tho, I might need a little more practice to knock all that rust off! Sorry Dooz, but part of the job of helping me learn and advance my skills includes… random shit like this too. 

Anyone else out there taking advantage of the budding spring to work on spiffing up grooming and show prep skills?