Trisha wren ~ Connect With Your Horse

It's that time of year again - our horses are getting woollier, thicker coats, and the first clips of the season are upon us. For some owners, now begins a traumatic - and often expensive - period. Already this year I've come across several horses who are either phobic enough about clippers to make their owners avoid the situation entirely, or enough to make sedation the preferred method of getting the job done. The aim of this article therefore is not to discuss when or if clipping is actually necessary, but to show you how the situation could be less of a headache for you and your horse.

If you do need to sedate your horse in order to clip him (or shoe him, or travel him - barring an emergency situation of course), then you may get the job done, but it's like putting a Band-Aid on a wound without attending to the underlying infection. His aversion, or misunderstanding, of the clippers is probably highlighting behaviour that can also be found in other aspects of your relationship with him, so that is worth considering before you go any further. My aim, at all times, is to help the horse understand what I am asking of him, rather than to trick him into something and worry about the consequences later. So, here's how I go about teaching a horse that the clippers are not going to kill him, whether he's had some previous bad experience, or never been near clippers in his life.

Pic 1 - Start by, at a safe distance (eg your horse in the stable and you outside) just turning the clippers on and letting them run, but don't let him see them at this stage. Some horses may find even this non-threatening situation hard to handle, but assuming he can't hurt himself or you, let him do what he needs to do and don't turn the clippers off until he at least tries to settle himself and be ok. Each time you break like this, feel free to pet and reassure him, or even take him for a little walk. Gradually, each time you switch on the clippers you should get less and less reaction from him, and you can start to let him actually see them and inch them closer and closer.

Pic 2 - When I start getting closer to the horse, I prefer to be in an open area, with him on a long lead rope so that he can still move around if he needs to (remember his flight / preservation instincts), but without endangering anyone. At this stage cordless clippers or even just a small rechargeable trimmer are preferable, so that there is no cord for either of you to trip over.

Pic 3 - If the horse should show interest in the clippers let him sniff them (switched off at first), but make sure you offer him the bottom end, not the clipper blade, so that there is no additional movement or chance of him getting nicked. Keep switching the clippers off when he has made a good effort, eg looked at them or kept his feet still. It's important to understand that if you switch them off when he offers undesirable behaviour, eg pulling back, then you have not just accepted but reinforced that behaviour and he will therefore probably offer the same behaviour next time. So, if he does for instance pull back, keep the clippers running and try to just stay with him without chasing him with them, switching them off the instant he relaxes and thinks about staying with you.

Pic 4 - When you are ready to touch the horse with the clippers as with the sniffing do it with the bottom end first. This will let him feel the vibration, so be careful not to hold them so lightly as to tickle him. Start at the neck or shoulder, and gradually progress to other areas. Imagine you are giving him a nice massage, with long firm strokes! Once he's ok with that, you are in a good place to actually clip one strip.

Remember to reward (by switching off the clippers, taking them away, or backing away) each step, and every big try your horse makes. Give your horse the time he needs and build up gradually; this whole process may take a couple of hours, or several weeks. If your horse has had a bad experience in the past you may find that he is fine on one side but extremely worried on the other, so remember to go through each stage on both sides of your horse. And don't be under pressure to complete a whole clip in one session - better to have a horse only half clipped but happy to try again next time, than one that you've forced to endure the clipping so that you don't lose face.