Diamond (Braids) are a Girls Best Friend

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I am for sure a fan of diamonds. So when I picked up my book Braiding Manes and Tails: A Visual Guide to 30 Basic Braids by Charni Lewis, I immediately went to the diamond braid page. I've had this book for a long time and I remember being little and attempting to do the diamond braid, lets just say it didn't work out. I wasn't about to let this past failure stop me though, so on probably the coldest night of the entire month I decided to stay at the barn for and extra 2 hours to do this braid.

Now braiding is a very important skill for any competing Equestrian. There are hundreds upon hundreds of different braids in the Equestrian world, and all different styles for different disciplines. My main passion is Dressage and conveniently enough the Diamond-Braided Mane is a Dressage braid. I ride Arabian Horses which are not considered classical Dressage horses (we're getting there though) so I typically do a Running Braid when I do either Dressage or Huntseat, so this Diamond Braid was a whole different ball-park for me, but its always good to try new things!

Alright, I decided to test my braiding skills on a frigid Tuesday night after my lesson. My guinea pig was the ever so patient (I'm rolling my eyes here) Zoe, my trainers horse. Below you can see the necessary materials required to complete this task:

• Mane Detangler
• The Book
• A Stool
• A Brush
• Rubber Bands. 

Typically you would use tape or rubber bands that matched the mane color, but I used white rubber bands so you would be able to see the pattern and design more easily.

(Materials)

(Zoe's clean and combed mane)

After I combed her mane it was time for step one, "Use the comb to separate a portion of mane about 2 inches (5 cm) wide near the poll. Use a piece of tape to gather the hairs together near the crest of the neck or wind a rubber band around the section" (Lewis 101). Now I chose to do this braid on Zoe for she has a thick and long mane, but that ended up being a bit troublesome at this step as it was hard to keep it looking neat and clean.

(Trying my hardest to prevent fly-aways and keep everything even)

After this step (which took about 15 minutes) I went back to the beginning of the bands and separated them. This means I took each band of mane (save for the very first and last ones) and split it in half. I then took the nearest halves and banded them together about 3 inches down. It's a bit hard to explain so I'll show you.

(2nd step of the braid)

You can see above where I separated each section of mane and connected it to the nearest half (the beginning of a diamond). The very first and last section of banded mane aren't split and the entire section is banded to the nearest half.

Essentially the rest of the braid is completing the process again and again, "repeat the process of parting and connecting the sections nearest to each other, all the way to the withers, with tape or rubber bands in a line parallel to the crest" (Lewis 103). 

(Continuation of step 2)

(This was about the point Zoe decided she had had enough and began to shake her head)

(Almost done!)

(Finally finished!)

(A close up of the diamond shape)

Braid Review: Personally I am not a fan of how it lies on the neck, it is very stiff and looks a bit awkward. I feel like if you were to ride with it in it would be floppy and the rubber bands could break. I wouldn't use this braid when showing. It is definitely cool looking though and a great braid to impress people with, so if you have a horse near by or want to show off at summer camp this is a great way to do so.

Now this braid ended up being fairly easy, more time consuming than anything. The whole ordeal took me almost two hours (undoing it took as long as it did to braid it). Even though it wasn't a traditional braid it was fun to do and I definitely enjoyed it. This reading and experiment impacted my hobby by opening my eyes to the different braids out there as well as give me extra practice in my braiding. It showed me that not every braid is for every breed, and its important to find a braid that works for the "type" of my horse. It most definitely tried my patience as it took forever and Zoe was not feeling like cooperating, but showed me that with patience and dedication there is reward (and numb fingers). This also gave me a cool braid to try out at some of the schooling shows (practice shows). Most importantly it allowed for some closure to the struggle little 8 year old me had faced.

How have you worked through something that once stumped you?

Citation: 

Lewis, Charni. Braiding Manes and Tails: A Visual Guide to 30 Basic Braids. Massachusetts: Storey Publishing, 2007. Print.