Truthful Tuesday: Throwback braiding edition

 

Alternate title: My braids used to be terrible

At this point in my horsey life, my braids are pretty decent. Still not as amazing as some of the full time pros can do, but certainly nice enough to charge for. 

But let me tell you... My braids were not always so nice. When I was a kid, braiding was one thing my dad refused to shell out for. My mom secretly paid for my horse to get braided at Indoors so I could get some extra sleep for those big events. But otherwise, I always had to braid my own horse. Even before my braids were any good. 

Back when I was a kid, braids were a LOT cheaper than they are now. Usually $20 to $25 for a mane, and we rarely braided tails. I'm not sure what they cost when we did. I vaguely remember my trainer doing it for me though, as I didn't learn how to do tails until college. Anyway, not only were braids a lot cheaper, there were also a lot less of them. Braids were bigger and we rode mostly thoroughbreds who aren't known for their thick luxurious locks that's for sure. 

The first horse I actually owned was George. George was an appy and as you may have guessed, had a pretty thin mane. It wasn't as bad as some, but it was far from the mane in the above photo. And thank goodness for that because my braids... were not good. Wanna see? Of course you do!

Forgive my odd looking proportions here, the photo wound up distorted somehow.

I know it's not the clearest photo. It's a photo of a photo and enlarged to boot. But let's be real. These braids would be horrifying if the photo was crisp. If you're thinking it looks like they're falling out, you would be correct. They likely were falling out. I remember showing one day and having probably half of them out by the time I was done showing that day. 

My home barn where I boarded hosted lots of shows throughout the year, so even though I didn't travel much when I was younger to shows, I got to participate at home quite a bit. So there were lots of opportunities to practice! 

But like... That practice didn't really pay of right away. Early on, I didn't even know how to french braid the forelock. I had a friend that would do it for me sometimes, and if she wasn't around, I would just do a regular braid like you see here on Bud. And look how crooked those braids were! But at this point, I had gotten them tighter at least. So they weren't falling out. Just twisting something awful. 

I think it wasn't until college that my braids really started to improve. I had gotten some tips from other braiders on how to keep my braids straighter and had learned how to keep them more even. And I had the opportunity to braid for other people so I had no choice but to get better or I wouldn't get the jobs. Plus I was older and a little more disciplined in general so I think that was a big help. 

So that's today's confession. I wasn't always a good braider, and it took MANY YEARS for them to get to where they are now.