November Clips: Double Trouble

 I love clipping. It's one of my favorite things to do. Hair flying, making its way into my eyeballs, nostrils, underclothes, and best of all, working its way into my skin so I end up pulling out hair splinters for days. It's totally delightful and is surely one of the greatest things about fall and winter, second only to the endless darkness. 

I clipped Goose back in early October (maybe end of September? I don't remember) and needed to clip him two weeks later he was so furry again. Alas, with scheduling and laziness, I didn't get around to it until this past weekend. You can't really tell from the below picture, but he had a significant layer of fluff covering his entire body and was holding so much dirt he was already developing skin scunge on his rump. 

Okay maybe he's standing weird but I'm obsessed with this blackberry colored Professional's Choice pad I picked up on sale for him. Also, looks can be deceiving because he's mostly clean but he is FLUFFY here. 

Alyson also wanted me to clip Pari, so we decided to bathe the boys on Friday during our lunch hours and they'd be hopefully clean enough to clip Saturday. I arrived Friday to a muddy beast thanks to significant rain Thursday, and shampooed him three times until the water ran off him clean. I only had about 30 minutes to let him dry before I turned him out, so while I checked some emails, he stood chilling in a patch of sun. 

Goose is a mud monster, yes, but often he won't actually roll right away when I turn him out after a bath.  I would have sheeted him, but it was 70 degrees in the sun and he was soggy, so he'd have to wait until that evening to have his sheet on. I was hopeful he'd dry before rolling and the show sheen would help the dust fall right off the next day. Ha. Hahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHA. 

Two minutes after turning him out. I have videos of me chasing him around the field trying to stop him from rolling, figuring eventually he'd just go eat and forget about rolling while he dried. Turned by back for ONE SECOND and he was flailing in the mud, like really grinding that dirt in there. 

It was one of those moments where my rational brain was like meh, he's a horse it's what they do. But the emotional side of me wanted to cry because WHY CAN'T SOMETHING JUST BE EASY FOR ONCE. Sigh. Pari, to his credit, had not rolled and was fully dry in his field. 

I went for a nice hike with friends Saturday morning and then headed to the barn to clip, arriving just after noon. I decided to tackle Pari first since blades cut through his fur easier and I figured he'd be cleaner. Pari is a super good boy, he's around Goose's age and Alyson and I have very similar goals with our solid older men. She opted for a full clip to help manage his TB skin, and I was a little wary about how long P would tolerate me clipping him. I've done him the past few years and he's good but not very cooperative when I've done his legs. Usually we do a modified trace, and he lasts for 20 minutes before wanting to murder me. I opted to do his head first, then work my way around his chest/neck/front legs, do the hinds, and finish up with the rest of his body. That way I wasn't working on anything annoying for too long at a time, and the legs would be done sooner than the rest of him. Clipping is a science, y'all. 

So unamused, but so handsome. 

My plan seemed to work great, and it wasn't until the last 20 minutes that he got that twitchy chestnut thing going and any time I so much as touched the clippers to his body he cringed away from me. The blades weren't hot, he was just being a dramatic redhead. He was actually SUPER dirty so it took a minute to get through his rump - it's so hard to get winter horses clean to the skin, and next time I'll recommend multiple shampoos to help combat the dander. I stuffed Pari full of carrots and tossed him out, catching my next victim and getting to work. 

Okay yes he's cribbing but look how cute he is.

My plan for Goose was to get as much hair off with the Osters as I could on one side of him, and then move on to my little Andis 2-speed to work on legs/head, going back in with the Osters on the other side once they cooled a bit. Goose is usually the easiest horse in the world to clip, but this time he came out of his field like a dragon. Not sure what bug he had up his butt but he was flailing before I ever turned a clipper on. This boded well for the giant, loud Osters. I was able to get almost one side of him done with the bastard clippers before calling it. I HATE them. I will never use them again. They're getting listed for sale ASAP and if I can't sell them I will throw them in the ocean and say GOOD RIDDANCE (not really I won't pollute, promise). 

I love that you can see his stripe when he's clipped.

Since Goose was clipped once already, his leg hair was actually really easy to get through with my small clippers. He was still a bit of an idiot to clip, but I got him done in record time even when only using the 2-speed. He was SO clean - there was some dirt on top of his hair but the base of his hair and skin was spotless. Multiple shampoos for the win! It's one of the worst clip jobs I've done on him, he's a bit liney on the one side where I hacked at him with the Osters and tried to fix it later, but he still looks really nice. 

I mean, not bad for a horse who turns 18 in March!

Lister Stars are my number one item on my Christmas list so I'll have them for any more clips that need to happen this winter and next spring. All in, it took me just over three hours to clip both horses, so not bad at all. I've said it before and I'll say it again: having a CLEAN horse down to their skin is the best way to ensure an even and quick clip. 

Sunday I hopped on for a ride, and he was a bit spicy. I put my leg on and he squealed and all four feet came off the ground for a hot second. His tantrums are really easy to sit so I just carried on and put him to work and in five minutes he was exhausted. He pulled something similar last night when I rode under the lights after work, but he gave me some really nice trot and canter moments so I'll take the extra energy! He's now being part-leased by my friend's mom who will ride him on Thursdays and take him on occasional field trips, so my goal for the rest of this week is to make sure he simmers down to take care of his Thursday charge. In the meantime, I'm still pulling hair splinters out of my hands. 

Cute look, amiright?