How to Clip a Nervous Horse

Understanding the Nervous Horse

• The prey animal instincts of horses make them cautious around new concepts, sounds, feelings, or sights. This includes all aspects of clippers: the cord, the sounds, the vibrations, the clippers themselves, and experiencing something new.

• Equines react in a few ways. They may flee the area, fight this mystery monster, or freeze as their bodies and brains go into a state of immobilized panic. It’s essential to recognize freezing as panic, not as understanding. You may see any of these behaviors when you try to clip a nervous horse.

Recognizing Signs of Anxiety and Fearful Behaviours

• Know your horse’s body language. If you are unsure, you can also check their pulse, as it will quicken with fright.

• Look for signs such as pinned ears, a swishing tail, tense muscles, fast breathing, and moving away from clippers. Many will widen their eyes, springload themselves on the hind legs, raise their heads, and otherwise prepare to launch out of the area to escape. Reactions can escalate if they are tied and sit back, or if they try to jerk out of the cross ties, in which case things have now escalated into a dangerous situation.

• It’s often a knee-jerk reaction to yank on a lead rope, yell, or smack them when “acting up,” in which case you have now successfully added another layer of fear and distrust in humans and what we ask them to do.

Common Causes of Nervousness in Horses

• It’s difficult to pinpoint precisely what makes some horses afraid of clippers. Let’s say it’s the cord, sound, or vibrations. Your job is to train your equine partner that the clippers equal a reward and a positive experience.

• Also consider the environment. Are they nervous about the grooming area? Or not seeing their herd? Or the time of day and the weird shadows?

Horse Training to Reduce Stress About Clipping

• When you start out using positive reinforcement, remember these things:

• • The goal is to make the scary thing the dispenser of treats and good vibes.
  • Work on these training steps for about 1-2 minutes a day. That’s all you need.
  • Train your horse in small steps. Go back a step if your current step isn’t smooth.
  • The main idea is to start slowly and reward them for good behaviour.
  • By the end of this process, they should be grabbing the clippers from your hands and trying to clip themself.

Steps to Train and Desensitize a Horse to Clippers

• Your horse should be comfortable and relaxed before moving to the next step. You may need to spend one day, week, or month on any step before moving on, before you can safely clip a nervous horse.

1. 1. Have the clippers around your horse.
   2. Keeping the clippers away, turn them on.
   3. Touch them with the clippers while they are off.
   4. Touch them with the clippers turned on.
   5. Clip a little test stripe. Gradually work up to clipping more of your horse per session.

• Many people suggest using an electric toothbrush as a tool for desensitization. A better option would be small trimmers, as you will never use an electric toothbrush to clip them. This adds a step.

Preparing to Clip a Nervous Horse

• Now that you have desensitized your horse to the clippers, you may still need to address general anxiety on clipping day. Prepping with a bath is one thing, but you must also prepare their minds for a positive experience. You can reinforce good reactions along the way, too. Just because you have completed all the steps doesn’t mean you should stop with the positive rewards.

Help calm a nervous horse

• Do these things on the day of clipping to help them settle. Make sure they:

• Have a full belly. You can even offer a haynet or hanging toy as distractions to keep their brain occupied.

• Are in a comfortable area with soft footing. You will appreciate that, too.

• Are you working in an area familiar to them, and can they see their buddies? New spaces and separation anxiety can add to stress.

• Have they exercised and played before you start?

Don’t tie your horse

• It’s tempting to secure your horse, but that can be risky. Instead, enlist the help of a friend to stand on the same side as you.

• Also, give your equine partner breaks to rest, get water, and poop or pee. You need breaks, too.

Try different clippers

• Different clippers make different sounds, so try some other brands. Check with your barn mates and see if you can try theirs. You may also want to switch to a cordless model if your horse doesn’t appreciate a cord. This also makes it safer for you.

• If your horse has an unusually long coat, the type of clipper matters. Use powerful shears or strong body clippers with a high RPM (like over 3500). Stronger clippers won’t struggle through a thick coat, and can make clipping more comfortable.

Clipping Tips to Ease Anxiety

• When you get rolling with the clippers, you’ll make everyone chill if you have done the prep work.

Proper prep for body clipping

• Start with a clean slate by shampooing or hot clothing. This helps your blades glide through the hair and reduces tugging and discomfort.

• Use sharp clipper blades. Dull and worn blades will pull and leave uneven hair.

• Use templates and lines to create an outline of borders when trace clipping. These guidelines help you avoid messing up the pattern and keep your attention on your horse’s behavior.

• Stop every 5 minutes to brush out your blades and add more clipper oil. Your blades should not be hot, as nobody is comfortable with heated blades.

As you clip

• Start on the larger body areas, such as flanks, rumps, or shoulders. These spots are usually less ticklish and sensitive, allowing your horse to adjust to the sound and feel.

• Squish and slide loose skin to make the clipping surface taut and smooth. This keeps your frustration level lower as the clippers won’t get stuck on wrinkles.

• Keep one hand on your horse to steady them and notice any anxious posturing.

• Take lots of breaks! You may even want to do the top or bottom half and save the rest for another day.

• Pop some earplugs into your ears to dampen the sound. Of course, you’ll need to train your horse to wear them. Sound-cancelling fly bonnets are another option to diminish the noise of the clippers.

Keep rewarding

• As you clip, keep rewarding your horse. For just standing there, being cute, or whatever. This helps reinforce the notion that clippers = a good time.

• If this is your horse’s first clip, make it awesome with plenty of kind words and whatever type of reward they respond to. Reinforce that positive association with the clippers.

Brush often to lessen itching

• Your equine buddy may find the itchy feeling to be distracting, so use a stiff curry or brush every few minutes to sweep away loose hair. If your horse insists upon rolling, you can cover them with a sheet to protect their clean coat and let them roll it out.

Does Your Horse’s Vet Need to Give Sedation?

• Better living through chemistry may be necessary for some horses, even after your hard work training and desensitizing.

• Sedation becomes an option when clipping is too stressful, despite your efforts over the previous weeks. You and your horse need to stay safe. Your vet can also advise you on supplements that may help, too.

• If you must sedate them for body clipping, consider having a friend assist you with the clipping. Depending on the sedation and your clipping skills, you may take longer, and you’ll want to avoid using more medications.

• Different drugs have different effects and stay effective for varying times. Have your vet help you decide if sedation is needed, and get the proper medications and dosages from them.

• Read more about sedation medications here and what might work to clip a nervous horse.