07/07/2025
Feel like I have just written this post word for word. 🤣🤣
I have probably written about this before, but it's a question that I get asked a lot!
Every day I get questions like a taxi driver lol 😆
How many you got today?
Do you do clip humans hair 🥴 (this one is usually the Dad's of pony clubbers.....worst Dad joke/line ever 😆)
Does your back not get sore?
Do you clip right through Summer? (duh, I'm standing clipping your horse ffs 😆)
Will clipping in Summer will it ruin the horses coat? Nope it won't, it will actually make it look better
There are many more, but one question that is actually quite relevant is........I bet you get some real nasty ones!?
The answer is no! I do believe there is no such thing as a nasty horse! I am blessed that most of my horses, I have clipped for years, and they can't wait to get the clippers on them. However, from time to time I meet new horses, that are all different. Some can be 'tricky' but never nasty!
Behavioral traits when clipping are always a reaction to either fear/anxiety, past experience, breed characteristics, pain (ie.a horse may kick out if it had feather mites etc and it is sore) or sometimes dominating behaviour (they are a herd animal with a pecking order....some can be assertive, some are submissive in the herd, and sometimes they may display this behaviour with human, but I don't see that very often)
You can't tell someone having a panic attack to just stop having a panic attack can you?
Each one of these traits will have a different approach, but the key common strategy across all those traits, is to stay calm, collected, and try to slow things down. Reassure the horse. Never rush them. Talk to them. I will break this post down into several in depth future posts detailing my strategy for each difficult scenario . May this could help some ppl that are struggling, or at least make the situation a bit safer all round
Don't just dope horses! However, if all else fails, don't be afraid to use Domesedan as a tool to help your horse learn! I will go into depth on this later. Personally I recommend stay away from IV. We want the horse to learn....not be doped out of its head with a full sweat on
If you made it this far...........thanks for reading a very long post! Lying in bed on a Sunday morning, most ppl have a fry and a cuppa tay. I sit musing about horses 🙈
