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Colorful Extensions Add Fun To Riding
About 4 years ago, Montana horse owner Kim Zacha was inspired by her daughter’s drawings of vividly colored horses to create equine extensions. She figured out a way to attach synthetic hair to a clip that holds securely to a horse tail or mane. She then set up a website with a couple dozen color options.
  “My favorite calls are from little girls. Or I get letters with an order for one extension and cash in the envelope,” Zacha says.
  At $5.50 per extension, her goal is to keep the accessory affordable. She offers discounts for orders of 50 or more and donates a portion of pink extension sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.   
  “Color makes your horse look faster,” she says, explaining the colorful additions are allowed in speed events such as barrel racing. Drill teams like them too, and many riders match a horse’s hair extensions to their own for parades and other events.
  Zacha cautions that some judging classes don’t allow the extensions, so it’s important to check.
  The 23-in. long by 1-in. wide extensions can be trimmed, braided and mixed with other colors for even more flash. For nighttime riding or parades, Zacha offers LED extensions in six colors for $14 each.
  While mostly used for fun, Zacha says the hair extensions are also practical. Horses for trail rides can be marked with red (for a horse that kicks), green (inexperienced) and yellow (stallion). The clips stay in place better than ribbons, which are typically used.
  “I also promote using them on Appaloosas that have very little tails,” Zacha says. “Put them on during fly season to help keep the flies off.”
  She suggests choosing bright colors in case the extensions fall off when horses run free on pasture.
  Her colorful idea has earned worldwide attention. The extensions are particularly popular in South Africa and Australia. Other orders have come in from Saudi Arabia.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kim Zacha, Colorful Manes and Tails, P.O. Box 225, Corvallis, Mont. 59828 (ph 406 961-4572; info@colorfulmanesandtails.com; www.colorfulmanesandtails.com).


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2014 - Volume #38, Issue #2