Miss A. and the clippers

[PaulaO]

I've never needed to use the clippers on Miss A. But over the weekend I decided I wanted to trim her bridle path. (Up to this point I've paid someone to keep her mane tidy but I decided I can do it myself). My barn mate helped. I held Miss A and Doreen stood about 10 feet away with the clippers. Turned them on and Ariel WANTED NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING. She pulled back and wanted to spin and leave. Turned off the clippers and let her settle. We then just wanted her to sniff them (turned off of course). That took a bit. I was finally able to stroke her with the clippers, still turned off. Yesterday I decided to repeat the experiment (clippers off). I am not turning the clippers on around her. Boy howdy, that girl is smart. She took one look and wanted to leave. I got her to touch them with her nose and then we were done.

I think she's coming into season. She was very touchy on her flanks and very hyper in a way that is not like her.

I cut her bridle path with scissors and decided to give up on the clipper project. There is no time she will need to be clipped, and if she does it will be for vet care and the vet can sedate her.

I've had her 4 years and every day she teaches me something. Love my red head.

[exvet]

I used to have to use scissors on Junior to clip anything around his head. Now that he's 7 and has been body clipped a few winters in a row, the clipping of the bridle path today with typical oster clippers (ie, loud) went smoothly. Brandon has never been afraid of clippers per his breeder (and I believe her). We clipped his bridle path and legs/feathers without issue. I think he likes the spa treatment. Sometimes they're born tolerant of such stuff and other times, like Junior, it takes a long time to condition them and get them to accept that they aren't horse eating monsters, LOL. No sedation, no twitch, no bribes needed but they did get treats after we were all done (of course it also likely helped that we rode out 7 miles prior to taking on such a task too )

[acheyarcher]

I always did bridle path with scissors. So much less fuss and easier to control. My last horse had a real poor forelock and I tried a comb forward for a while but gave that up. I had a real good pair of curved tissue scissors, three snips and done

[Chisamba]

If I have a horse that worried about them I turn them in and just let them run for say 5 minutes while they are in their stall. not tied. once they chill I'll give a treat while they are running. then when that is not big deal I hold the clipped in me hands and stroke them with the back of the hand that is holding the running clipper. not tied . reward and remove. depending on the degree of stress I might do that every day for a week. only then do I touch the blade reward etc.

[StraightForward]

Rosette was super sensitive to clippers. I had some smaller cordless clippers and ended up taking the blades off to make them even quieter, then I would just leave them running in my pocket while I worked with her, then eventually I could touch the body of the running clippers to her body (by eventually I mean, several days a week for at least a month). Next added the blades and worked up from areas she was less sensitive about to eventually being able to clip her bridle path with my bigger A-5's. Probably not worth the fuss if you don't clip the jaw or do a trace clip or anything.

Last fall I bought some big body clippers and thought it might be a bit of an event doing a bib clip on Tesla even though she was easy to get accustomed to smaller clippers. She thought it was a massage and leaned into it, so I was worried for nothing, but then she leans into pretty much everything.

[blob]

I also do scissors for the bridle path also partly because i'm lazy and don't want to pull out the clippers for something so frequent, ha.

I like Chisamba's suggestion. I've also desensitized a horse to clipper noise/vibration using those little hand held massagers. Usually once horses get used to them, they transition to the clipper well.

[khall]

I like the wahl cordless clippers for bridle paths and my body clippers are the Lister battery pack semi cordless in that you have the pack on your belt. Both are so much quieter than traditional corded clippers. I won’t use anything else.

I’ve had to face working with a horse that had to be clipped for vet work (traech wash) and would strike at you even drugged with a twitch on. He responded better to a lip chain and we got the job done. His owner though did not want to face getting him accustomed to clippers got him as a young horse knowing he had clipper issues.

All of mine get accustomed to them early on using them like a massager initially. None have been very difficult using the approach and retreat method.

[Hayburner]

Scissors are so much easier for bridle paths.

One trick I learned when clipping close to the head was to cup your ha d around their eye(eyes)

My old gelding had to be clipped when he got up in years and had Cushings. He had never been clipped and the old owner said to never clip him as he was deathly afraid of the clippers.

My trainer was so patient with him, doing what you did by just going over him without them running, etc. he actually got to the point t of loved being clipped! But, we still could never get too close up his neck or on his head. But, covering the eye helped get us closer up the neck.
He loved getting all the long hot Cushings coat off! Miss him everyday

[SnowHorse]

Back when I was working at a barn, we usually cross tied the horses that were being clipped. Sometimes, with some horses, it was better just to "simple tie" them with just lead rope to the wall.

However, we got this tiny little QH mare in to be trained, and she hadn't been around people at all before that - so she was scared of everything, and the basic work with her took time and patience. When she got far enough to start getting clipped (just bridle path and other little stuff), even simple tie to the stall wall didn't help much. One day I decided to try how she'd do with not being tied at all - just let the lead rope hang down from the halter. To my grand surprise, she let me clip her just fine, no panic. She knew she wasn't tied, so she didn't feel claustrophobic about it. Never had a problem with her after that.
Sometimes the unexpected is what works



But yeah, our own horses have only ever known scissors - we've never had clippers, as there is no use for them. Tiny spot for bridle path (and not all of them even got that!), and that's it; anything beyond that is unnecessary.

[texsuze]

Like others, I use scissors for the bridle path. I usually put my oldster in x-ties in the wash rack because I usually end up cleaning sheath, trimming mane, reducing ergots & chestnuts, the whole shebang!

Years ago where I boarded, I would sometimes let my barn buddy's S.O. (a photographer and artistic-type guy) do a trace clip on my then-not-so-old gelding. He'd do some fancy swirls, or a swish on the hindquarters, really neat looking! This guy didn't ride or handle horses much, but then, my horse has rock star ground manners!

[Kyra's Mom]

I usually just use scissors even though Kyra is a gem. I don't keep the clippers at the barn and usually forget them so end up doing her bridle path and her jawline with the scissors. I might use the clippers on her 2-3 times per year to clean up her legs in the spring, late summer and any clipping for cooling purposes in early winter.

I introduced the clippers in the round pen. I just let her chill and did advance and retreat...and treats until she got used to them.

Today I tried to vacuum her. She started out fine...she doesn't care about the vacuum but she really cares about static electricity and after about 3 passes with the grooming head, she got zapped and that was that. I finally got her to stand for a couple really short strokes that didn't zap her and called it good. Unfortunately, that apparently charged me up too and I reached up to pat her (after having put the vacuum far away) and zapped her again. She stood there all tense with her lip sticking out, quietly snorting at me. I wasn't sure I was even going to get her groomed to ride. I got out the Miracle Groom and sprayed the brush and that did the trick. Lordy, she gets offended at static.

Susan