SHANNON DUECK:Hi, I'm Shannon Dueck
from Team SmartPak. I'm a dressage trainer down
in Wellington, Florida, and how our dressage
braids look are a really important part of our
competition attire.
My favorite braider, Sarah Perry, is going to show
you today how she does her dressage braids for me,
and she'll show you some tips and tricks that she uses along
the way.
SARAH PERRY: I use a pulling comb, rubber bands,
a darning needle and I use wax threads to tie my braids up.
The reason I use a pulling comb is that's about how white
wide I like to do my braids.
I pull it down that way you have a nice, crisp straight line.
Leave that right there. So when I'm braiding down I pull
fairly tight just to keep a good amount of tension,
and I count how many times I'm going down so that the braids
stay about the same length,
because that makes tying up easier.
I'll try to fit one more in here and I'll leave that just because
the saddle pad will probably cover it. If it is shown
by the saddle pad I'll throw a super small braid in there.
But this is going to be hard because we have very short here
and long on the other side. So what I try to do is when i'm
parting it when I have a situation like this, it may not
be the most even parts but I want to try to get some long
hairs in with the short stuff. So that I can braid down just
as far. It might make your life a little bit easier if you have
a horse with a thick mane to braid wet. Or a horse with lots
of fly aways.
Take another rubber band.
Pull the hair up just about an inch above the original tie,
and I just loop that around so you don't have a bunch of fly
aways when you tie these up.
Cutting my wax thread, I just sent it around my arm.
Depending on how many braids you have to use one piece
multiple times. I normally send it around four or five times.
And then cut it right where you have your excess from
the beginning.
So I'd take the end of my thread. I loop it 1,
2 times like so.
Then I take my needle and I send it through my braid
rubber bands down the bottom. Pull tight. Send it up
the center of my braid, pull tight and the next part
when you send it back down is key cause you want to keep
your braids tight.
You want to try to send it back through your rubber bands.
So you want to send it through your rubber band and back
through the bottom. Cause if you have it come out
the center at all you're going to have a crooked looking braid.
Up, pull tight. Down. Up, pull tight.
Generally just because these braids I find to be super easy
and fairly quick, I don't leave my braids in. If they stay nice
and I have a horse that I can trust overnight probably just
over night if I were to leave them.
I do prefer to braid forelocks wet or with product if you
prefer to use product. I start like you're starting like if you
were to braid your own hair down in a French braid,
that's what I always think about. And then you just
trying to be as straight as possible braiding down
their forelock is the most important part. And I always
take very thin pieces instead of thick pieces. Try to stay
as even as much as you grab every time you go down just
because that'll change your braid size as you're going down.
So then I go up the center of my braid, and I send my
needle straight through, and then up once more.
SHANNON DUECK: If you have any more questions or need more
information on braiding, please check out SmartPak's blog
on blog.SmartPak.com. Thanks, Sarah Perry for showing
your great braiding techniques and thanks for watching and have
a great ride.