Clipping: desensitising tips please!

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Little_Mare

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Has any one got any tips for how to go about desensitising a horse to having specific parts clipped?

My girl is fine everywhere but her ears. She was clipped for the first time last year and I only managed half an ear and then was forced to leave it. I've always brushed her ears and have since made a special effort to touch them and she's now fine with that (she was never too keen) but when it came to clipping again this year she was having none of it!

I'm sure its a dislike of the noise and/or vibration when they touch her ear rather than a terrible fear and I'm confident that with work she'll overcome it I'm just not sure how to introduce the clippers to the process...

Thanks
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Can you use really quiet trimmers instead for her ears?

TBH, do you need to clip fully? I know I wouldn't have a chance in hell of getting near my horses ears with clippers! I just do the usual half face clip.
 
I use cordless trimmers on her face and they're fairly quiet but I suppose since their hearing is so acute they'll still be loud and buzzy to her when on her lugs! I had the vet sedate her for her first clip this year to get the worst of the fluff off. Luckily she's a native with a fairly big mane so that would disguise things if I don't manage it - as it did last year!
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As it is such a small area that you are having problems with, a hand clipper mightbe the way forward. They are silent! You can getthem for a few quid on eBay.

Other than that, get a cheapo electric toothbrush. Itmakes a noinse and vibrates! De sensetise the horse to the tooth brush, feed a treat when the horse tolerates it. With a tooth brush there is nothing that can hurt the horse and if it gets dropped or stood on it is not broken blades or clipper.
 
Thumper doesn't like his ears being clipped either - I was warned about it before I bought him.

Interestingly, I think that I could do them if I really wanted to as he seems very trusting of me.

However, as a routine I never clip the ears, and only ever do a half face - so don't consider it an issue.

Do you have to do them??
 
Oooh I like the idea of the electric toothbrush!

I've never used hand clippers - do they work like lots of tiny scissors? I might give them a try...
 
TBH they're still looking pretty tidy now after the first clip so maybe I'll get away with only doing them once a year. The thing with a half face is I'd be worried, with her being a native, that it would look a bit "basin cut" and since I've only recently stepped away from showing (and not completely) its hard to leave the aethetic aspect behind!
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Michael peace does a really good clipping DVD and spends a lot of time talking about densitising them to clippers.
and it really works... the first year i clipped ron i had to leave his face, ears and half his neck, and this year i did all his face and neck and only the tips of his ears had to be left!

last year i did his face and ears with the tiny whal pocket pro trimmer which seemed to do the job even if it took ages.
 
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