# Time it takes for tail to grow?



## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

It was over a year ago that my mare, Ricci, ripped off the black part of her tail, and I mean ripped it out from the roots. For the last six months or so, I've been using MTG on her tail, as well as corn oil in her grain. So in these, 17 months, her tail really hasn't grown much.

This is the best picture I have of her tail, taken within the last few weeks. The black is what has grown, she hardly ripped any white out, I just cut the white part to match. The black part is approximately 6 yo 8 inches long.











Now I'm concerned, because Gracie was born around the same time Ricci ripped her beautiful tail off, and Gracie's tail is more than twice as long as Ricci's. I don't have any good pictures that show Gracie's tail, but you can kind of see it here, where it ends at her hocks, and it was taken over a month ago. I just washed and conditioned her tail today, and it is now half way to her fetlock.










So why isn't Ricci's tail growing? What else can I be doing for it? She gets fed alfalfa hay, timothy pellets, beet pulp, along with garlic powder and corn oil, she has access to a trace mineral block. She gets MTG put on it once a week, and when I brush her tail, none of her hairs break off. It never even gets tangled in the pasture. The hair that has grown is thick and shiiny and obviously very healthy. How long does it take for a tail to grow to it's full length? I just want my mare to have her long, thick, beautiful tail back. =[


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## PaintingMissy (Nov 9, 2009)

Tails take for ever to grow back in properaly. I've been waiting 4 years for the cut portion of my horse's to grow in and it wasnt even cut that badly. Now it is is finaly grown back in and touching the ground. So you pretty much have a long road ahead of you. I would recommend not putting anything in your horse's tail for a while and seeing what that does. Sometimes their tails just grow better when left alone... Its worth and shot. The MTG obviously isnt working and you wont loose anything if you let it go natural for a couple of weeks. Personally I dont use MTG because one it smells and two it gave my horse terrible dandruff. Have you checked to see if someone isn't nibbling on her tail. Babies do that sometimes. A good friend of mind put MTG in her horse's tail and her filly ate it right up. That could be happening and you might want to look into it.


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## paint gurl 23 (Jan 26, 2009)

Tails take forever to grow back. I would try a tail bag. Im not sure exactly why it works, but I think the weight of it maybe? I have one in my geldings tail to ad some length and hes got an inch in about 3-4 weeks...your mare looks healthy and sounds like she is on a balanced diet..I would try the tail bag and see what happens. Braid her tail in three seperate braids, then put the tail bag in that you slip over each braid and then braid it in. Just keep it conditioned. I use cowboy magic. Dont mess with it afterwards, just leave it in and let it grow. I would only take it out, max, once a week to re condition it but other then that just leave it be. I am a tail fanatic and this is the only thing I found that really worked for my gelding.


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## sillybunny11486 (Oct 2, 2009)

putting a tail in a bag dosent do anything to help it grow, it does keep it clean though. babies tails tend to grow alot faster than an adults, and it looks like its growing alot. (They are shorter.) I might be tempted to use a tail bag or something for summer to help her keep the bugs away.


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## paint gurl 23 (Jan 26, 2009)

sillybunny11486 said:


> putting a tail in a bag dosent do anything to help it grow, it does keep it clean though. babies tails tend to grow alot faster than an adults, and it looks like its growing alot. (They are shorter.) I might be tempted to use a tail bag or something for summer to help her keep the bugs away.


If you use the tail bag for a week, no, of course it isnt going to grow. Its a long term thing... LOL. Helped my gelding, just posting what worked for me. Using a tail bag in the summer however is cruel IMO. They need it to swat flies.


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## crimson88 (Aug 29, 2009)

My miniature show horse is 31" tall and his tail grew 46" in two years with out using MTG or other products. So maybe it depends on the horses genetics? Like you know how some appies have rat tails? I mean I know that your horse is not an appy but maybe in her genes her tail doesn't grow long and thick naturally. I don't know. It's just a guess.


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

My husband has been diligent trying to get 'Fras's tail to grow longer. He's never used a bag but he regularly rubs MTG into the tail dock and bone area, then uses hair oil on the ends to keep them from breaking off. 
As everyone said, it takes awhile for the tail to grow out. With care and good grooming it makes it seem to go a little faster. 
Fras' tail now-


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## sillybunny11486 (Oct 2, 2009)

> Using a tail bag in the summer however is cruel IMO. They need it to swat flies.


Umm are you looking at the same horse.... She dosent have a tail long enough to swat flies...


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## SarahHershey (Dec 17, 2009)

sillybunny11486 said:


> I might be tempted to use a tail bag or something for summer to help her keep the bugs away.


To SillyBunnies- I think she was reffering to what you said here.

To paintgurl- I agree it can be cruel in some situations, but for example- at my barn, we have auto fly sprayers in the barn, and they get sprayed daily,AND we use that stuff in their feed that kills fly eggs, so the flys die off. So it could actually bennifitial if say knats were biting the tail bone and the horse was rubbing it... A tail bag would stop the rubbing right at the source.

But all of this is my opinion, and Im sorry if I put incorrect words in anybodies mouths, it wasn't my intention.


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## thunderhooves (Aug 9, 2009)

lol good point........... just let it go naturally...........


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## riccil0ve (Mar 28, 2009)

Okay, at least I'm not the only one who's had to wait ages to let it grow back. I'm kind of off and on about the MTG, maybe I'll stop again. Her tail usually is bagged, I let it out for a week or so every month, but that's mostly because I don't like how icky her butt gets from her rubbing her MTG-ed tail all over it, lol. No, there is no one chewing on her tail. THAT I would definitely notice. And trust me, my mare is very capable of growing a thick and luxurious tail. It's why I'm so desperate for it to grow back!


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## GandRPaints (Sep 26, 2009)

What is MTG?


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## ridergirl23 (Sep 17, 2009)

GandRPaints said:


> What is MTG?


Its a product that helps hair growth, scratches,skin problems and a bunch of other stuff. and it smells like smokies and campfire


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## Vidaloco (Sep 14, 2007)

GandRPaints said:


> What is MTG?


Its made by Shapleys


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## sillybunny11486 (Oct 2, 2009)

How about trying flax seed?
It atleast seems to keep the mane/tail/coat healthy looking.


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## ScharmLily (Nov 23, 2009)

When we got my mare her tail was in a bag, but it hadn't been taken out for a while and about half of her tail was ripped out- literately hanging down with the bottom of the piece still stuck in the braid. Just trying to get it out of the braid and wrap, I ended up ripping out so many hairs- and I am always super patient and gentle with their tails. So, she had a thick area at the top, and then a scraggly little tail all the rest of the way down. 

I've had her for a little over a year and her tail is almost fully grown out now. I mostly leave it alone, but I do hand pick the shavings out of it daily. This also helps to keep it less tangled and less apt to get caught on anything. Every once in a while I condition and brush it, and of course it gets washed in the summer when I give her a bath.


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## mom2pride (May 5, 2009)

I would say just keep doing what you are doing; her tail was really short, from what I could tell, and that sometimes can take alot longer to get the tail to grow in; and perhaps she did some significant damage to her roots when she ripped all that hair out. Perhaps try a different conditioner other than MTG...I know so many people swear by it, but it gave me horrible reactions, and tended to dry out the hair and skin where it was applied, more than helped with growth.


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