14 DAY TRIAL // Wild horses (today, only Prjewalski horses are a wild species) prefer the fashion of short Tails. Domestic and bewildered horses (read mustangs) wear longer tails. And here comes Summer Breeze, a Kansas mare.
There's nothing fake in the image you see. Tail extensions are excluded. This exceptional horse has such a long tail that it cannot wear it freely outside the arena, but braided and covered in a white tube sock, so that the animal does not sweep the ground with it.
The Guinness Book of World Records has just registered, at the end of January, Summer Breeze as having the longest horse's tail:12.5 ft (3.8 m).
But the gentle Summer was well known at EquiFest, occurring each year at the Kansas Coliseum in Wichita, for her long tail. The mare has been displayed there since a filly, 11 years old. The mare was born with a normal sized tail, but at some point its growth boomed.
"She's our little queen. She knows it, too," said Crystal Socha, 26, who owns Summer together with her brother, Casey, owners of Hoof Print Farm in Augusta, Kansas.
The extremely long mane would enter the mare's mouth when she ate, that's why it is partially chewed off. The mane too could be a record, but the owners barely considered registering the horse for her tail in the Guinness Book.
Crystal combs out and shampoos Summer's tail once every two months, and the operation takes three hours. Each hair strand has the consistency of the fishing line.
"I don't think I've ever gotten every knot out of that tail. It takes a lot longer in the summer when she's flicking at flies. When it's out and it's flowing, then I know why it's worth it," said Crystal.
The tail is braided in 10 minutes.
