Watching a Parelli video some time ago, a comment was made that on some horses (not haflingers and shetlands of course),a mane that falls on both sides of the neck in places can be a sign of some problem in way of going somewhere. My big hoss had mane split evenly on both side when I got him. He had contracted heels, deep central sulcus thrush, lots of fractures in the inner hoof walls and enough heel pain that he could hardly walk downhill. Heels are decontracting, thrush is under control and central grooves have grown back up to the surface, frogs and collateral grooves all widened. No heel pain now, walks downhill fine, and still working on growing the hoof walls out. There's only about a six inch section of mane behind his ears that falls over to the right now, and I haven't done anything to train the mane. Go figure.

Barb

I had never heard this before but I once had a gray percheron mare that had a split mane and was pigeon toed. She was a good mare otherwise and I told my neighbor that her pigeon toes was what made her such a good horse to walk the furrow.

I have a Morgan mare riding horse with a beautiful split mane. She is in her early 20s now and has always had a perfectly split mane. She is also the one that had a sarcoid under one eye that disappeared on its own. No problems otherwise. Still a split mane. Ummm... does how I part my hair indicate the condition of my health?

Our 22 year old Belgian has a split mane. So far no problems and he's always a half step up on his 12 year old partner. He gives 110% every time I hitch him. He's a good friend and will be buried on this farm.

I don't know, Nora, but I'd be careful! *wink!*

Barb

I have never seen a split mane on any of my work horses. I keep them roached short. I do leave a mane on any saddle horse that is a little hard to get on but roach the rest.

Dale, I don't watch much tv. Can anybody name one of the experts who say grab granny with your right hand and the mane with your left? Most of the 4h kids are conditioned to right hand on the cantle.
Bad if you got a cow blowing snot up your but and she means it.

I roached manes because I didn't want to take the time to take care of it when work was waiting.
Don, it your arm is long enough, you can twist on a ear to maybe get their attention. I've cheeked some of them to get more time to find the off stirup. When I was a lot younger, I could just grab the horn and jump on. Now a days, I would like to have a step ladder.

Dale, it's not age. Horses are 3 times taller and gravity is 2x stronger! About 10 years ago I went to show the grandkids how to swing up from the ground with just catching the horn. I don't know if they still think it can't be done!