#2 - even our retired horses get their manes pulled (although I'm addicted to the mane master these days - makes it so much faster and the horses aren't bothered at all). 

4. And I nearly cry when they rub them off.

#4 Natural, with trims

I love my horses but not messing with there manes, so I make sure it doesnt grow dreds but other than that its all natural!!!

Natual.  I like the long manes, and as I am starting to go more into reining, it is the style there.  I find that most of my horses seem to do best with only an ocasional wash, and combing.  Besides, with work, and almost 20 in my herd, that is about all I can manage to do any way.

I'm trying to decide if we should roach our 5 year old filly's mane.. It looks awful, all halfway rubbed out and she's too impatient to stand for it being pulled. But, I may be jumping her some, and as shes green, I may need a mane to grab if she decides to clear crossrails by like 4 feet. I remain undecided, leaning towards just roaching it anyway.

 I have always been #4, natural but with trims and I love to brush it out.  My first horse is a Morab, so his long flowy mane might be what got me into it.  My new Tb mare might end up with a roach or braid length, she has a long mane, and it is nice and smooth, but it is thin, and it makes her neck look so skinny...

In my case, it totally depends on the horse and their mane quality.

Buckskin:  his mane is thin so he looks better short but not roached

Grulla:  her mane is beautiful and full with silver flowing among the black, so I like it long, although her neck looks beautiful with it short.  I groom it, but leave it natural.

Quarab: he has an exceptionally healthy, long mane and tail.  Again, I like it natural and groomed, but who knows.... when we see his best skills which seem they will be English or Reining, we shall see.  He is only a yearling now.

We have another 2 AQHA show horses.  Their manes are kept short enough to braid.  They look beautiful that way.

I agree that it depends on the horse's mane.

I prefer a long flowing mane! But not all horses are capable of having one. Currently I'm working on growing my mare's mane, it's not super long right now, but it is very silky and soft, and just thick enough. She's also a grulla so has some pretty frosting going on. My mini originally had a very long beautiful mane, but waaay to thick (it was breaking his crest), I accidently messed it up trying to thin it some and ended up roaching it to start all over. My pony's mane is currently left natural, but if I was going to do something w/ it I'd roach it. It gets about 4 or 5 inches at the top and bottom, but the middle is only about 3 inches, and instead of laying flat on her neck it sticks out, I've had about 3 horses like this and don't see much more to do then roach it since it refuses to grow any more then that. I also recently roached my family's other horse's mane, his is normally not to bad, alittle thin, but good otherwise, but recently it'd been getting alittle unruly, it had desided to spit in the middle and fall on both sides. I could have work to tame it back where it belonged, but didn't really feel like putting in the time and since no one else seemed overly interested in working w/ it, and I wasn't having much luck keeping it clean (heading into cold weather, so no more baths either (white mane)), I desided just to take it all and worry about it next spring.

I'm going to go with 1 and 4. Mainly because it just depends on what horse of mine Im dealing with! Lol i groom then all everyday, but I'm not worried about a super long mane on my trail horses but I love a long mane on my racking horses! Sadly my boys mane wont get much longer then about average length.. I've tried everything! I have done some major research to find products from all around & its just stuck! but thats ok, hes still beautiful!

 I go with the wild thing! I'll brush it occasionally, but that's it!