# What is a lawn meet?



## popsicle (4 August 2008)

You said it was best to plait at a lawn meet.  I googled it and it says at a subscribers home.  Well most of our meets seem to be at some farm or another, so is this a lawn meet?  or is it just the huntmasters home?  Please clarify.  Thanks  :grin:


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## LizzieJ (4 August 2008)

They'd all be lawn meets.  You should plait as courtesy to the host


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## popsicle (4 August 2008)

They'd all be lawn meets.  You should plait as courtesy to the host 

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Damn!!! I knew you were going to say that.  I started this thread off by saying how crap my plaits look and how they take so long to do, that i lose the will to live, let alone go hunting.  Surely no plaits are better than really embarassing crap plaits?


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## Starbucks (4 August 2008)

If someone comes out handing you free booze - tis a lawn meet.  It is polite to plait up but some people don't.

TBH if your horse looks smart and has a lovely pulled main you'll get away with it.


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## popsicle (4 August 2008)

If someone comes out handing you free booze - tis a lawn meet.  It is polite to plait up but some people don't.

TBH if your horse looks smart and has a lovely pulled main you'll get away with it.  

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Thanks.  Think i will have to work on the pulling also, as most of the time she looks like a mohican (sp)
Look!!  Any suggestions?


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## popsicle (4 August 2008)

sorry, can't seem to open the pic.  but her mane is wiry and sticky upy.


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## Tinker_Belle (4 August 2008)

Look!!  Any suggestions?
		
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Hog?  

Is there someone else you could get to plait her up for you?


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## popsicle (5 August 2008)

Don't think she is heavy enough to hog. Unfortunately there is no one else to do her.

I think i just wanted someone to tell me it didn't matter too much and to just go along and enjoy the hunt.

Not everyone does plait at our hunt, but only the true natives look like nothing at all has been done to them. Poppy is a cob x arab and middleweight.


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## Tinker_Belle (5 August 2008)

I was teasing about the hog :wink:

Wet it down &amp; solo comb it? 

I don't know what else you could do really :crazy:


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## Kallibear (5 August 2008)

no ideal why the picture won't work? I just copied and pasted this url into the address bar and it took me there ok though....

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn311/popsicle49-2008/DSCF0196.jpg

She's very pretty 

Her mane looks like it would be pretty easy to plait up. Pull the top so its thin and the same length as the rest and then just practise. Plaiting is not hard or rocket science - it just take practise. 

Stand on a block and split it into an odd number of evenly-sized bunchs (that's the hardest but most important part! Get that right and the rest is easy peasy). Plait the bunch, loose for the first four twists(so you don't make her uncomfortable and she can stretch) then as tight as possible. Elastic band the bottom then fold it in half and secure with another elastic band. Get a friend (or even a RI) to show you how to do it if you're not sure. A mane like hers should take 15-20mins to do.


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## Baggybreeches (5 August 2008)

She is lovely, but my sympathy with the mane. If you want to hog her then do it, a lot of hunt horses that are not cobs get hogged to save time getting them ready. I think she actually has a decent enough front end to carry it off quite well.
It is really polite to plait for all meets during the season, but especially important for lawn meets. Our hunt is not at all posh but they prefer us to plait for every meet.


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## popsicle (5 August 2008)

Thanks guys, guess I should just practise then.  Cheers! or think about hogging.  I have her clipped by a local lady, if i had her hogged, how long would it look ok, before needing to be hogged again?


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## Ravenwood (5 August 2008)

Just looked at the pic - what a nice looking horse.

If you could thin out his mane as much as possible (I use a rail rake type thing, push the mane over the wrong side and drag out the hair from the roots.  Its really quick and easy and obviously painless as one of mare wouldn't let me do it otherwise!!)  It is much easier and quicker to plait a thin mane, but don't pull it too short.

Don't worry too much about it though and definitely don't let it stop you hunting.  You will be made very welcome, plaited or no, I am sure.


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## Bounty (5 August 2008)

Honestly, she will be just fine hogged!
I have various TBs and TBx horses hogged  

Once the whole lot is off you should be able to maintain it yourself just using a small pair of dog clippers or similar - it wouldn't break the bank to get yourself a pair.


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## popsicle (5 August 2008)

Thanks everyone, as usual you have all been so helpful.  I'll let you know how I get on. xx


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## Starbucks (5 August 2008)

Don't hog her!!!! She looks lovely as she is. :grin:

Just look uber smart in every other way if you really don't want to plait.


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## karenpi (12 August 2008)

"




			If someone comes out handing you free booze - tis a lawn meet. It is polite to plait up but some people don't."

Most hunts will specify if its a lawn meet at which you  should be plaited unless you have a cob who should be hogged.

Generally, the only horses that must be plaited at all meets are hunt staff horses.

BTW, my draghunt offers port to all riders at ALL meets!
		
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## lucretia (12 August 2008)

the term comes from times when the landed gentry were more numerous and owned a great many of the farms where you now meet.  a meet at their ancestral pile,  often on the lawn at the front of said mansion, was a special occasion and the lord/lady or whoever would hand out free grog to the populace. the term has continued while many of the 'lawns' have disapeared.


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## LindaW (14 August 2008)

I wouldn't hog her either.  When I had a horse with a really thick mane I used to give a few quid to a PC kids to do it - they always seemed to come out of the woodwork and could do it so much better than me (I have athritis in my hands and struggle with fiddly stuff like plaiting)


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