The First Clip of the Year

Winter is coming. No, the weather hasn't really changed much here though it's definitely cooled off slightly the past few weeks. I know winter is coming because Goose suddenly went full yak on me with fuzzy ears, goat hairs on his chin and jaw, and an overall fuzzy coating all over his body. 

If you look closely, you can kind of tell how hairy he is here.

Delightful. 

Back in the spring, my giant Andis Progress HP clippers crapped out on me and I'm no longer able to get them replaced through Dover. The motors on those things sucked and that was my fourth pair, but when they turned on, they worked amazingly well. Goose is not only furry, but his individual hairs are so thick that he goes through blades like it's his job, costing me a fortune and more hours of my life than I'd care to admit. My normal Andis 2-speeds are awesome for most horses, but they just don't cut it for Goose. Literally. 

When I last clipped him in full with my little clippers last spring, I promised myself never again. I've been eyeing up the Lister Star clippers, but after I bought the house and a lot of stuff for said house, the $300 clippers just weren't in budget. When I looked for them used, I didn't find any but I did find a set of Oster ClipMasters on Marketplace, barely used, and only for $100. Sold! 

Saturday was my first clip of the year. I woke up early for a quick bareback hack, then scrubbed the crap out of furbeast. I went home to meet up with a friend for a few hours, then went back that afternoon to test out the new ClipMasters. As much as it sucks to clip my giant of a horse, he is the absolute easiest boy to clip because he stands still and patient the entire time, usually falling asleep and drooling in the process. He doesn't care if I crawl under or over him, he's a true saint. 

Is it even a field hack if you don't take a pic with the dogs?

Except when I popped him on crossties and turned these suckers on, he broke said crossties and ran away, snorting in terror at what was surely a chainsaw trying to tear his body apart. 

It took me a good fifteen minutes to calm him down to the point where I could clip him with them. My giant Andis clippers were loud but not on this level, and they vibrated far less than the ClipMaster do. Once he understood he wasn't the latest victim of a chainsaw massacre he fell right to sleep as usual. In hindsight, I really should have introduced them to him slowly, I just genuinely never expected he'd react like this to something he was already kind of used to from previous years. Horses are weird.

My clipping weapons.

The Pros: The ClipMasters let me get most of one side of his body and his entire rump done in about 35 minutes, minus his head, legs, belly, and detail work. They did the rest of him in pretty good time too. 

The Cons: They are HUGE. They are LOUD. They hurt my hands. They're cumbersome to clip with. They don't handle nearly as well as my Andis did. They're harder to do detail work with, though even with my Andis I always went in with my small clippers to the little areas. They get really hot, really fast. I kept having to give them breaks and cool them off, even with my cooling spray, which was fine because I could switch to my little clippers for detail work and then pick up the big ones again, but still annoying. 

All in all I freaking hate them. They do, however, clip him quickly and way more easily than my little Andis 2-speed alone. For that reason, they are worth the money I spent on them second-hand. 

Can we plz be done with the chainsaw now? I needs a snack.

As mentioned above, they're really hard to maneuver. I know all the big clippers are just that - big. But these are particularly cumbersome. I've used them before at other barns and truly forgot how awful they are. I don't recommend them, and when I've saved up the money I'll be giving the Lister Star a shot as from what I've heard, they're a little more comparable to the Andis that I had before. 

For now, the ClipMasters at least do what I need them to. All in, it took me a little under two hours to get his whole body and front legs done, and that includes the time it took me to get everything set up, fix the crossties he broke, and get him used to them. Now that we have the hang of them I think it will go even faster when I have to redo him in November. I ran out of steam and didn't do his back legs, so I'll finish those next weekend and also do his head. I try not to do all of him at once, because I end up losing patience with this saint of a horse at no fault of his own. For my sanity, I like to break it up. There's a lot of real estate to clip, after all. 

Goose's motto: If you've got it, flaunt it.

He seriously drops it like it's hot for every picture. 

I got a pretty even clip on him and was so thankful I did him Saturday since we went trail riding with Kalyn on Sunday. It's still up in the 80's and 90's during the day here, and this poor dude turns into a sweaty mess if he's not clipped early enough. 

As I write this I'm annoyed all over again at these stupid clippers. I wish the Andis didn't have so many motor issues because they worked SO WELL... when they weren't constantly breaking. Sigh, I guess we can't have it all. 

He just looked really cute here, so have another Goose pic. 

Still open to clipper suggestions if anyone has them! There's always the possibility that there's a brand out there that I've missed taking a look at.