Horse hairdresser to the rescue after bizarre attack
The owner of three horses whose manes and tails were hacked off in a bizarre attack said she was “completely bowled over” when an equine hairdresser offered to fix the damage for free.
Intruders fed Siobhan Kavanagh’s mares Shuna, Lily and Rea on Saturday (5 August), to keep them quiet while they cut their tails and manes off short.
Siobhan was alerted by the owner of the land, just outside Glasgow, who saw the horses going past his house at about 6am.
She believes the person or people responsible for the attack had led two of the horses – Irish draught Rea and Highland Shuna – to part of the fence they had broken and set them free, while 25-year-old Welsh cob Lily panicked, not knowing where her friends had gone.
“Thankfully, greed got the better of the other two and they’d gone towards grass instead of the road,” Siobhan told H&H.
“Then I thought ‘oh no, her tail’s gone’. I looked at the other two and their manes and tails had gone too.”
Siobhan found the remains of a large amount of horse feed in the field.
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“It was definitely someone horsey,” she said. “There must have been quite a bit of food, to make them stand so long; the Highland’s mane is very thick and they’d hacked through every bit of that and her tail, so they must have been there a while.
“The Irish draught cross was a rescue and is very headshy so they didn’t get her forelock but none of the Highland’s was left, and they left the pony’s hair on the floor. Whoever did this planned it.”
Siobhan reported the incident to police and says it is being treated as vandalism.
“That means there will be a charge, which is good,” she added. “There’s CCTV covering the track, which will show them; I want them to be caught.
“If they are horsey, it’s such a malicious thing to do but they’ve done it for no real reason I can see.”
Siobhan posted pictures of her horses on Facebook and two days later, heard from Horse Hairdresser International Training Academy, which offers mane and tail reconstruction as well as creative clipping and plaiting, show grooming and “equine body contouring”.
CEO Lisa Carrera has promised to travel to Scotland next weekend to rebuild the manes and tails, which is done using real horse hair, in a similar way to human hair extensions.
“It’s lovely; four of them will be here all day and have said all they want is coffee and cake!” Siobhan said.
“They’ve got all the horse hair donations, matched the colours with my horses and they’re preparing it now.
“It’s amazing; they’re giving up their time, travelling, doing a whole day of what would have been expensive, how fabulous is that?
“I can’t wait, I’ve been assured they’ll be returned to their former glory and she told me to take them to a show after, to show these people they haven’t won.
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“It’s so nice that out of something so malicious and spiteful has come something so positive.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.