#plaiting tutorial

Hunter Braids

Step one- Section off the mane in about 30-40 1in or 2.5cm segments. Use rubber bands to hold the mane loosely to make sure you’re not pulling too much hair into your braid.

Step two- Tightly and as close to the crest as possible, braid each segment (one at a time). Keep your hands less than a finger’s width from the neck and braid downward, do not pull the braid out toward yourself. It is imperative that you braid downward! The braids MUST lay flat when you’ve finished. Ideally you will have been using a braiding comb to make parts between the sections so that your braids look extra sharp when finished!

Step three- About 1/2 to 3/4 way down the braid start to incorporate a strand of thread into the braid. Braid as far down as possible and tie off the braid using the thread with a square knot.

At the end of completing step three your braids should look like this!

Notice how flat they lay? 

Step four- Use a braid pull to fold the braids in half, if your mane is too long you’ll need to “fold them” one again using the pull. Which is a silly way of saying grab the rest of the braid with the hook (see picture below of what I mean by rest of the braid) and bring it through the same hole one more time! You’ll end up with a “loop” of braid that is actually “two braids thick” if that makes any sense at all!

(This braid requires one more fold as you can see by all the extra braid coming out of the crest! You will need to use the pull through one more time to pull the excess braid through the same hole as the rest of the braid!)

Step five- Take the thread coming from the braid and bring the thread in a not at the bottom of the braid, squishing it upwards, you will need to use your finger to make sure the thread is tied off at a nice point. You want the thread to tie 1/4 down from the top, producing a nice small little bulb. I suggest a square knot in front of the bulb,then behind, then front, and finally behind. That way it’s super secure and you know it’s tight! Continue all the way through the mane!

Step six- cut any excess hair poking out and the strands of thread to make them as “invisible” as possible. Check that all your braids are as uniform as possible. Re-do any that look particularly bad.

Final product-

Forgive me father for I have sinned and not actually competed in hunters for 6 years and not had to braid hunters for 5

Our model is doing a lovely job of demonstrating how bad badly done hunters look! Here we have 20 braids where we should’ve had closer 30 to 40 braids. That massive amount of braids ensures the braids all touch each other and are small, giving a lovely uniformed look. Hunter braids are meant to elongate the neck and give a more “flattened” look to the neck as if the horse is stretching and reaching forward.

Button Braids

Step one-Follow the same first step as we do for hunter braids, this time band off 20-30 sections of mane instead of 30-40 sections. The sections can be between 1-2in or 2.5-5cm in width.

Step two-Braid the same exact way as you did for step two of the hunter braids, tight and close to the horse’s body. 

Step three-Here’s a step where we can make a variation: for sewn in buttons- complete the same step three from the hunter braids tutorial. for banded buttons-simply use a rubber band to finish the braid off.

Step four-  for sewn in buttons-use the braid pull to bring the braid in half twice. Similarly to the way we did for the hunter braids! for banded buttons-  fold the braid in half twice and then secure with a rubber band.

(half folded for sewn)

(completely folded for sewn)

Step five- For sewn in braids, tie them above, below, and above in a square knot. For banded, secure with a rubber band. When finished trim thread, hairs, and anything sticking up and out. Make sure all braids are even and redo any particularly wonky ones!

(sewn in)

(banded) Final product-

(sewn in)

 (banded) To be perfectly honest, those banded braids look pretty terrible because I did these right after I did the hunters so the braids were kinked and you are going to have a tough time folding braids well if you don’t have straight braids! Button braids are a great mult-discipline braid in my opinion. When done nicely they are neat and clean looking. The are not so tied to a single discipline as hunter braids are and are far easier to do well. They do give a slight elongating effect to the neck, but not so much so as to look utterly out of place for dressage. They are not a bad choice for a horse with an underdeveloped neck as they will not overwhelm a thinner neck. On a horse with a shorter or thicker neck, they can appear a little hilarious looking due to how small they are. These would certainly be a go to if you don’t have a lot of time for braiding, are doing a schooling show, are doing a horse trail, or at a multi-discipline show. They transition very easily from the jump course to the dressage ring.

Dutch Braids Step one- Take a roughly 4in or 10cm section of hair. Use a hair clip to hold the rest of the mane away from that section.

Step two- braid the section as tightly as possible, braiding in thread about 1/2 to 3/4 down the braid. Tie off at the bottom. Just like in the hunter braids and button braids! repeat steps 1& 2 until the whole mane is completed

Step three- use the braid pull to pull the braid up through itself until it makes a small rounded shape.

Step four- tie of the excess thread going  over then under then over in a square knot. Once all braids are tied, cut excess thread and redo any wonky looking braids. Also trim up any hair that is sticking out.

Final product-

Dutch braids are more traditionally associated with dressage and look best in that discipline, in my opinion! They offer great balance to short or thick necks and give a more rounded appearance to the neck. Though they a bit of a fad right now for the Grand Prix jumpers!