We all have horse world horror stories that cause us to roll our eyes, gnash our teeth, and doubt human nature. Other times, it can be a great place.
Saddlebreds show with freakishly long tails. In between shows, the tails are braided and tied up to preserve as many tail hairs as possible. In the ring, the tails are combed out to float gloriously in the breeze. In between classes, tails are fastened up temporarily with hair bobbles.
At the show, I took Dottie for a walk. We were far away from our home stalls when I realized her tail had fallen out of the bobble. I detangled bobble from tail. I had trouble rebobbling, as it required two hands on the tail and one hand on the leadrope.
I walked up to the nearest trainer-shaped object, held out the green-plastic bobble and said, “Can you do these?” She said sure, introduced herself, and attended to Dottie’s tail. We chatted a bit about the horse she had in cross-ties. Dottie was done. We resumed our walk.
Where else can you ask a complete stranger for help with the assumption that you will get it, happily and with competence?
Thank you for reading,
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
How do the horses swat at flies if their tails are tied up?
The unbraided hairs are about hock length & they live indoors. They seem to be fine with it.
whatever they’re used to….