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When a horse is running, if the hairs on the back of their neck are long, they "float" in the air.

What is the better word for "float"? I cannot think of any, and I cannot find a suitable search string on the net.

I have in mind also "flutter", "wave", but they seem equally bad.

Does the same verb apply to the movement of the tail hairs, as well the hairs of a person with long hair?

Side question: does the same verb apply to a flag in the wind?

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    Those hairs are the horse's mane. We speak of a flying mane.
    – Kate Bunting
    Oct 6, 2020 at 12:05
  • A flag is said to be flying when it has been hoisted on a flagpole. If it's visibly moving in the wind, it could be described as fluttering. Waving is mainly what you do with a flag you are holding in your hand.
    – Kate Bunting
    Oct 6, 2020 at 13:55
  • So the flag which is just hanging on the flagpole, with no wind and no movement, is still "flying"?
    – virolino
    Oct 6, 2020 at 14:01
  • @virolino For a person to “fly” a flag means to put it up on a flagpole, regardless of the wind. The flag itself is only flying if there is wind. Only the latter sense would apply to a mane.
    – StephenS
    Oct 6, 2020 at 14:50

1 Answer 1

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The "hairs on the back of a horse's neck" are called its mane.

Looking for "mane VERB" in the iWeb corpus, the only word that comes up with this meaning is mane flowing.

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