Quarter Mark & Sharks Teeth Tips Please

[rubyshoes1]

Can you give me some tips on how to produce wonderfully sharp quarter marks & sharks teeth.
Mine always look really poor,
What do you use to do them, How do you get them even ? Im not sure mine are always equal, The pony has a lovely tight coat and when a friend comes and does them they look great but when I am on my own they look awful.
Never quite sure about the sharks teeth either.
Any failsafe tips will be gratefully received.
Thanks

[doodah]

make sure you use a really stiff brush with short bristles. how big is your horse? coz for small ponies use a small-ish body brush and for horses use a big-ish one. use plenty of water- you can buy the special quarter-mark spray but water works as well if mixed with a tiny bit of baby oil.

to start brush coat downwards at an angle towards the hock. then do a rainbow shape, then down towards the hock again in the middle of the thigh. experiment with whereabouts to put the point, it looks better in different places on different horses.

when you do the next "tooth" do a rainbow shape directly underneath the previous one- it is important that it doesn't have a gap- even of a few mm. don't over lap them either. then go downwards again

to make sure they are equal you should beable to see a line where you have gone down (from the previous tooth) like with the rainbow part, just go directly beneath this

with checker-board quatermarks, don't leave very much space in-between, the bit that you have combed should be of greater width than the gap you have left.

with squares- eg) show hunters, just emperiment with where they look best

good luck

[Bordercreek]

For my quarter marks we first put a bit of baby oil into slightly warm water and let it mix for a minute.
We then wipe the coat with this mixture and let it soak into the coat and then use a fork to do the actuall markings. This way they are all even.

after your done spray them with hairspray and they will stay in all day.

We also you the brush that we wiped the coat with for the quarter marking to do the sharks teeth and spray them with hairspray as well.

This way they look neat and stay in all day.

Hope this helps

[rubyshoes1]

Thanks, Its a 14.2 sp. I have a real difficulty getting the quarter marks in the same place on both sides of the quarters. What do you use for the chequer bit?

[Guestless]

Good thread - I'll move it into the tips section.

Does anyone have any clever step by step photos to complement the instructions?

[doodah]

www.newrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=114657

shows how to do sharks teeth though i would go a little more vertical when brushing down- just my opinion

for checkers:
www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/3386/quarter.html

same principle for show ponies but smaller and more squares. i use a comb from fylde- or you can use a nit comb-just pull out the prongs so it isn't very wide.

see the comb on www.fyldesaddlery.com
go to grooming accessories

[rubyshoes1]

Thanks everyone