I know this has been discussed before, but what is the best thing to put on an extremely tangled tail?

Cowboy Magic has been good to me!

I'm cheap when I can be....last time my daughter's horse's tail got stupidly tangled with stuff in it, I got baby oil from the store and used that to help me work all the mattedness out. 

Glycerin! It is like magic, good for their hair and super cheap. 

Mineral oil works great!

I use Cowboy Magic. Find the stick or wire that cased the tangle. Try to work it out. Soak downgood with Cowboy Magic and start at th BOTOM of the matted area. 

I use conditioner like for your own hair.  Cheapest you can find if you don't want to spend a lot.  Use a lot of it.   Detangle it carefully with your fingers.  Takes times and you'll lose some tail hair if it's very tangled.

Cowboy magic...but your horse has to be patient unlike mine haha

Mine love the attention............

WD-40

+1 on the WD 40

All of the above work well but the most important thing is to make sure and work from the bottom down.  

So do mine...but my stud hates his tail brushed

Any good heavy oil will work.  Saturate the tangle and let it set for a day and than start working thru it from the bottom on the tangle.  A nice dull hoof pick work really well!!

just shave it.  

Another vote for WD-40

WD40

Thanks everyone.  I actually have baby oil and WD40 so those will probably be my first tries.   I am thinking this will not be a one day project because I am not sure how patient he will be.  Being turned out has really done a job on his tail.

Took me about 1-1/2 hours but the baby oil worked pretty well.  That Grandgirl really owes me.  lol

Thanks everyone.

Next time you are near a Sally's Beauty Supply store,  buy a comb with a long, thin metal tail.  We used to call them "rat-tail combs."   They're used to part the hair when a hairdresser is putting it up on curlers. The tail is strong  but thin enough to help you pull out individual hairs.   Don't use the comb part, as it's not made for such coarse hair and the teeth will break. Just use the rat-tail- along with a good de-tangler and patience.

Depends on how tangled it is......if it's super matted...I normally just cut out the matted area as the tail will grow back. Otherwise I've used WD40 in the past. 

Good idea.  I used my fingers but broke a nail or two.  The metal comb would have worked well, I think.

If you're going to cut it, just run your pocketknife downwards through the middle of it, then you can usually tease the rest of the witch-knot open. That way you can salvage some of the tail hair-

This is exactly what I do when the tangled tail is nothing but a tight wald and matted, I use a small steak knife and go into the top of the matted mess and go down wards, I have saved a many of tails doing this, I use Show sheen and soak the tail in it befor I start with the knife. I would have friends call me over to do their horses tails for them, they might come out with a shorter tail but to me it beats pulling out all the hair and making the tail thinner, with all the pulling I have seen people do really makes a horse have a sore tail.. Thats why you see horses start to wiggle after a while with all the pulling it hurts.. I always find a piece of wire are a stick in the middle of the wads.

I had to do that one time on Faci's tail.  Still took me hours to get it out!  But it was worth it not losing half his tail.   He had a stick/vine hidden down deep in the mess!