How to Groom a Horse's Tail

"Hi! This is Sharon Booth with Goldenrod Performance Horses on behalf of Expert Village. We are now going to pay particular attention and learn how to groom the tail. First as you stand next to your horse, not directly behind, you are going to stand next to your horse. Therefore avoiding any injury and bring the tail towards you and kind of fan it out so that it shows the hairs. Now the hairs may be kind of clumped together. You are going to want to pull those hairs apart rather than using your tail comb yet because you don't want to pull the hair out of the tail or break it off. So you are going to be pulling these hairs apart and as you do that, you are going to be looking here at the stump of the tail to make sure that everything is in good health. If you see if the hairs are worn off around the tail or around the stump of the tail, that usually is an indication of worms in a horse or some kind of irritation. You might want to consult your vet on that. Or if you are used to grooming and worming your horse, you might to want just put it up early on your grooming schedule. But here if you use your hands to separate the tail, you are looking for good health, good hair and that there is nothing wrong with the hair itself. It is good indication of good health in a horse. So as you pull on the tail and pull the hairs apart, be very careful to watch your step, watch your horse while you are doing this. Then to finish it, you take your grooming mane and tail comb and just lightly fluff up the tail. It looks good after you are done."