# Home remedies for burrs in horse mane/tails



## Bleenie (Jan 26, 2015)

starting last year we took in a small herd of 3 mini mares(a family). Previously we had a single cow and her calf on about 15 acres and the thistles never caused a problem.  A couple months after the minis we saved a paint mare from slaughter and later on ended up with two mare/filly pairs from a feedlot group. (Purchased one pair was given the other pair).   

Since having the girls(all mares lol) the thistle burrs have become a very obnoxious issue, the paint mare being the worst with them. I pulled them for a while but felt bad because of the pain it was causing at times so resorted to chopping the manes on 4 of them and had to cut a couple long lovely tails too  and trim another.   The paint though, isn't the easiest to handle, and were working on that but  her tail is horrendous. 

Would like to avoid cutting it and want to know what I could possibly use(home remedy preferred) to get the burrs out?


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## norseofcourse (Jan 26, 2015)

I dealt with burrs for years, since I boarded and most places didn't bother to get rid of the burdock plants.  Some people liked using conditioners and things, like Cowboy Magic or baby oil (work them into the mane and tail, then they said the burrs combed out easier), but I don't like the feel of that stuff on my hands, so I just teased them out with either my fingers or a very wide tooth metal comb, working from the bottom up.  And yes it can take a long time, even when you use conditioners or oils.

I'll be watching this thread in case someone else has a good solution!

I got very good at identifying and getting rid of burdock plants.  I'd cut them down in their second year (the year they flower), just before the flowers started to open.  I'd cut them flush with the ground, even a bit below ground if I could manage it.  That way they couldn't resprout and make new burrs before the end of the growing season.  Two years of that and they're virtually gone, you just have to get the few stragglers every year.

One place, I wasn't able to get the burrs before they flowered - and they had a lot!  I ended up putting on long thick rubber gloves, and picking all the burrs off the plants that I could.  They came off easily, and didn't stick to the gloves, so I was able to quickly strip hundreds of burrs off plants.  I packed them into five gallon buckets, and I know I had over a dozen buckets full of burrs - yes, it was that bad.  But it was much easier than combing them out would have been!


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## frustratedearthmother (Jan 26, 2015)

Just an idea......Baby oil works really well on removing tangles...maybe it would help slip those burrs out too?


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## secuono (Jan 27, 2015)

Fix up the pastures by constantly mowing/ripping out the plants, wrap tails, cut mane/tails. 
Using oils is going to be a huge, slippery mess and if you cheap out and use cooking oil, they might chew on each other's hair...


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## MaggieRae (Jul 28, 2015)

Not natural, but I use Cowboy Magic. You could try coconut oil, though. I've heard of that being used as well as a conditioner. It's fairly affordable from Costco as well.


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## goatgurl (Jul 28, 2015)

something like show sheen works well.  had a guy who is a dealer of high priced horses tell me he uses wd-40 to get out burrs and bad tangles.  never used it, wouldn't want to so don't have a clue if it works


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## mikiz (Jul 29, 2015)

WD40 is fish-oil based, would say it works wonders for burrs and tangles. We used it on tails to ease brushing.


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