Once you have all of the hair tangle free it is very important to thoroughly wash all of the lubricant out of the hair. Then you can go ahead with applying your conditioners. See my earlier blog post for more information on that.
Many people think that you cannot brush the hair or you will rip it out. Horses naturally shed their hair so if you don't regularly remove the shed hair then you will get dread locks. This is because that long shed mane or tail hair inter-twines with the other hair in the mane or tail and creates a tangle. To avoid this you should try and remove the hair that has naturally shed. You can actually see this a lot of times both in the mane and more often than not at the top of the tail head. The hair that is naturally shedding will have a white tip on the root and this is a sign to you that the hair needs to be brushed or hand combed out. Remember though, that if the hair is not clean and conditioned you can pull out in tact hair along with that shed hair so it is important to wash and condition the hair at minimum every two weeks and at best once per week. I make it a general rule never to brush the hair without having it clean and conditioned first. If I see shed hair and am not ready to wash, then I use my fingers to comb through carefully to remove this shed hair. I hope this helps with those tangles!