Clipper Problems

Clipper Problems

Written by: Bonnie Marlewski-Probert

"Dear Bonnie I am an experience horse person who always can do things with most horses that others can't. My yearling filly is a very large girl over 16.h and1000 Lbs. and does not want any part of being clipped. She had a problem with even brushing her lower face. I have spent a lot of time trying to get her used to clippers but to no avail. I finally resorted to a twitch and found she can strike with either leg! I got the job done, but I don't like to put my life at risk. Dormosadan (sp)has almost no effect on her and I really do hate to use drugs of any kind anyway. Any suggestions! I really do like what I hear you telling people"

Hi,

As for the clipping problem, the good news is that there are several things you can do to solve it and all of them are safe. First, let's look at things from your horse's perspective for a minute. Someone comes to you with a loud, vibrating thing that bites. They say stand still and proceed to shave you while often pulling your hair in the process and in some cases pinching or worse - and on top of all of this, the closer that monster gets to your ears, the louder the monster becomes. With all that in mind, let's now think of a way to get the job done without getting you killed in the process and without making it such a nightmare for your horse.

1. The first thing you can do right off the bat is to find the quietest set of clippers on the market.

2. The second thing you can do is to borrow a set of battery operated light clippers. You don't have to use these forever, but for now, while we are focusing on retraining your horse, the last thing you need is to be worrying about tripping on cords.

3. The third thing you can do right off the bat is to make sure your blades are sharpened professionally and well oiled. Most of the time that a horse decides to spook over the clippers it is because the horse owner has been using the same blades for ages and they are dull. The result is a horse who gets their hair pulled out, one hair at a time, instead of getting a clean, easy, painless cut.

Once you have done these things, I suggest you remove the blade from the clipper for training purposes. Put the horse on a lead line in the aisle (many horses panic when they are confined on cross ties and if they had the freedom to walk forward or back a step, as is the case with a lead line, most horses would calm down fairly quickly and pay attention instead of being blindly focused on escape). I suggest putting the lead line chain over the nose, just in case your horse decides to leave. The point of this exercise is to respect the horse's concern, but you never want to lose control of the horse because this will not only NOT solve the clipping problem, but it will add a new problem to the mix and that problem is about getting away from you whenever they feel the need.

There is an old trainer's adage that says, never solve one problem by causing three more. The classic example of this is the horse that bites. If you hit him in the face, he won't bite, but if you ever try to bridle, float teeth, brush his face, treat a wound on the face area or clip his face, you will find that you solved the biting problem and created four new problems! So, with the battery operated clipper's blade removed from the clippers and the horse in the aisle on a lead line with the chain over the nose, at an arm's length away from your horse, turn on the clippers so they are in full view and just let them run. You can give your horse goodies during this session to let her figure out that this is not a nightmare. As she stands for the goodies, slowly move the clippers to her chin area and lay the body of the clippers against her chin. This is a good way to let her figure out that the clippers don't bite and that the vibration is kind of nice.

If your mare has a tendency to strike with a front foot, I suggest that during this exercise, you have a helper who lifts one of the back hooves off the floor. The concept here is that a horse is a four-legged table and if you remove one leg, the other three stop jerking around because they know if one more leg leaves the ground, the table falls over. In your case, I recommend lifting a back leg because your horse tends to strike in the front. By lifting a front leg, you have in effect made it easier for your horse to hit you because her foot is already off the ground. Besides which, having a helper under foot at the front end can only increase the chances of tripping over each other, should the horse decide to make a move.

If your mare strikes in front, you can start working the clippers (no blade in them) along her shoulder as you stand to the side of her. This gets her used to the vibration and keeps you safe in the process. Give her a chance to understand that the clippers are not the monster and as she chills out, move the clippers up her neck, along the side of her face, around the muzzle area. Make sure that you keep the exercise fun (snacks) and safe (helper holding up the back foot and be sure to stay in communication with each other. In other words, if your horse is preparing to make a move, your helper will probably know it first because the horse will begin to shift her weight. At that point, the helper should raise the hoof up higher to shift her balance off a bit and get her attention back on the job at hand.) Additionally, the same problem that you will face with the clippers is the same problem you will face with brushes. I suggest that you invest in a soft, finishing brush, if you don't already have one, and take every opportunity you can to use it on her face, muzzle, chin, throat latch area and ears. The point of this exercise is to get her used to having that soft, sweet brush all over her head and the more you work with her head, the less of a problem it will be (provided you are safe and sensible when you do it.)

Always start on the side of the neck, work your way along the side of the cheek and stand along her side as you work the brush up her face. Standing directly in front of the horse as you brush or clip is a great way to get either kicked or taken off the ground if the horse rears up. In my experience, horses tend to be more defensive if you stand directly in front of them anyway. When the mare is quiet about the unbladed clippers, put the sharpened, well-oiled blade back in and start clipping the under cheek area and repeat the process as described before. If the mare starts to get nervous, you can move the clippers back to an area that she is comfortable with (don't stop the clippers unless you have no other choice - also, if she starts to get nervous, keep the clipper body on her, but move the clipper to a less stressful area) The point of this exercise is to let her know that you will respect her concerns, but the clipper is not going to stop, nor is it going to disappear just because she doesn't like it anymore. When you are able to do the muzzle, face and bridle path, you may find the ears to be a problem, but if you FIRST work with a soft brush on brushing her ears, the clippers won't be such a big deal. Most people never brush their horse's ears and when they turn on the monster clippers, they are shocked that the horse turns inside out on them.

Because most horses have a legitimate reason for fearing the clippers, it is wise to break the problem down into its elements and work on each of them individually. This means the soft brush all over the face and ears regularly. This means no blade in the clippers until the mare gets to enjoy the vibration of them against her skin. This means make sure the blades are always sharp and well oiled - nothing turns a horse off to being clipped quicker than dull blades that rip the hair out instead of shaving it cleanly. Finally, in the same way that a yearling doesn't learn to have a beautiful flowing trot after one session, most yearlings also don't stand like deadheads for the clippers after one session. The process is the same. It is a positive, safe, mileage exercise and one that needs to be done more than three times a year. If your horse is weak on the face, this is an area that you need to address on a daily basis for a month or more until she could care less what you do around her head. If you are willing to make this commitment, you don't have to make the sessions 2 hours long each day. 10 minutes a day is fine, but you need to do it everyday until the problem is solved. This may mean that you need to have a helper with you each day (hold up a back hoof and keep her mind off what you are doing). It may also mean that you need to find some wonderful snack that she enjoys that you can use to make the event positive for her. I don't recommend feeding snacks regularly, but in some cases, it is very useful!

As a trainer myself, there are many horses I have worked with over the years who acted up over the clippers. If we had the time to be patient, we did what I outlined in this letter, but there were times when the clock was not on our side and that meant the twitch and a helper. We would get the job done in 10 minutes flat and repeat the process for a few days, until the horse figured out that no one was going to bite her and that the more still she stood, the faster the hair cut would be finished. I don't like doing things this way, but when you have a barn full of horses that need clipping and a show coming up, you take short cuts.

The good news is that you are NOT in that situation and you can afford to take more time with your mare. The other good news is that as she comes to trust you in this situation, it will pay dividends in other new areas because she will learn to trust you, and that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing. If you have any questions after reading this, don't hesitate to shoot me a note and I would be happy to clarify. Incidentally, I don't believe there is anything wrong with using a twitch if it helps to solve the problem. In your horse's case, it sounds as though it only escalated the problem, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't work with 1000 other horses. In other words, there is value in most training tools or techniques, sometimes one works better than another on each horse and the trick is to learn as many as possible so that you can mix and match as needed.