Clipping extremely scared horse

L

_Libby_

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Looking for any advice you guys can offer

I've had my mare ten years, the first year I got her a friend clipped her and she stood good as gold to be done.
Second year- livery yard were doing it and I couldnt be there but left my friend to hold her. Apparently groom runs clippers straight up her neck and she freaked (nervous horse) so owner decided best thing to tie her up to a metal pole and gave her a boot in the ribs, She has a phobia of being tied up since I got her but I have sorted this out, anyway..
she freaked pulled and pulled, burst headcollar, fell over and banged her head and burst her eye open. As you can imagine I was VERY upset that my poor horse had been treated like this.
Since then whenever she hears clippers she totally freaks before they even touch her, snorting and pawing getting up tight. She lashes out with her front legs and literaly would do anything to escape. I have tried to avoid clipping her unless I really really have to , and when she does get clipped she is sedated.
However this year as she is VERY hairy already i decided I was going to work really hard to get her over this fear. I've been using hand clippers turning them on to get her used to the noise around the stable. Getting friend to clip her dosile horse outside her stable, leaving the hand trimmer going next to her feed bucket while she eats it, but as soon as I touch her with them she freaks and twitches uncontrolably. It seems to be the feeling of the clippers combined with the noise. Any suggestions to help her get over this? Or should I just give up
 
hold your hand on her shoulder and put the clippers on the back of your hand so she can feel the vibrations but they are not as strong. but its going to take a long time to desensitise her to the feel of them!
 
Personally if she finds it that traumatic, I really wouldnt want to clip her, you cant really blame her, after the experience she had. The only way you could possibly do it would be to get the vet to knock her out completely (we had one that had to have immobilon?) was put on the floor in the indoor and then jabbed to bring him round when we finished.
 
My daughters pony who we only got in may and was told she needed sedation for clipping as very scared, well over the last month we have tried lots of different things starting with electric toothbrush, then a hairdryer and finally small cordless dog trimmers, it took alot of patience and finally two weeks ago we bought some very quiet liveryman harmony cordless clippers and over a period of a couple days managed to give her a chaser clip, this pony was really worried but with patience and taking our time she tolerated it enough to allow us the do the clip, even manged to get half her head off which is a miracle in itself, she hated having her armpits done but we didnt push it too much and compromised, so she has slightly tufty armpits but nobody can really see them. We were so pleased but are aware she will always have this problem with clipping and we felt we really didnt want to go down the sedation route again so we can only hope that over a period of time we will gain more of her trust. We found with our pony she was more scared before the clippers were actually put on her but as soon as they were on she calmed down and even seemed to relax for a few minutes at a time.
 
I've been there with problem clippees...and patience and perseverance are the only way. I have two sets - normal noisyish ones and Liveryman Trooper which are really quiet and don't heat up. I use them very gradually...
I'd suggest you clip a little bit every night...when she is having her feed if possible for positive associations, use quiet clippers, put a radio on too to drown out sound, and do a bit at each side....so when you finish it's always roughly symmetrical.
And remember the circuit breaker - potential lifesaver if the horse dances onto you and/or the clipper cables.
Good luck
S
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Ive just managed to clip my mare
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for the first time in all the years ive had her (10) without sedative, twitch or serious injury to me (the last time I clipped her she kicked me in the middle of my chest - cue exrays of chest etc
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).

I got help from my NH instructor and we slowly progressed to a full clip. My instructor believes she has been electrocuted and this is why she becomes so dangerous.
I tried all the tips that everyone has suggested and even followed Michael Peace advice but no help with her. She will happily let you run the clippers all over her body, but as soon as you go to clip she freaks.

Well we took it slowly, she had a FEW moments but nothing dangerous. When she was good we backed off and let her think about what was going on and if she started to get tense we backed off the area we were doing and moved to somewhere she was happy with. I had to keep swapping between my trimmers and my main clippers but I now have a fully clipped horse. Yes we have a few odd tufty bits by her elbows etc but I can live with that as the main thing was she was clipped and she had a good exeprience.
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Keep going with it. You will get there, you may need some help. Some horses are better being fully sedated than putting through a very stressful situation of being clipped.
 
Dont put her through the stress, just have her doped, it is also very dangerous for yourself if they are messing about, a good friend of mine lost his eye due to a horse throwing the clippers in his eye.
 
was that aimed at me or OP? just that I have turned a corner with my mare and we are getting to the bottom of her phobia and workign on it together in a safe environment with knowledgeable people.
 
Sophie - loads of good advice from everyone already. I'd just reiterate, take her right back to basics and start over. The toothbrush, hairdryer etc route is what thinking horse people like Richard Maxwell, Kelly Marks and Claire Lilley would advise. I'd even be happy with just a tiny belly clip, or a trace clip that takes 6 weeks to complete at a little bit per week. She is a lucky girl to have such a thoughtful mum and I wish you luck. Sedation would get the job done but never with your horse's co-operation. x
 
Thanks everyone. I am going to give it lots of time, praise and patience and hopefully we will get there. So guess where my toothbrush is going tomorrow night lol
 
My horse has never had a bad experience of clippers and stood like an angel the first time he was clipped as a 4 yr old, the following year now a bigger grown up boy freaked after Id done half of him. I realised it wasnt the clippers he was frightenned of but the cable. Two years ago I bought the Moser Avalon (I think!!!) its the cordless version anyway and is so so quiet. He was apprehensive but let me clip him and was fine again last year. Fingers crossed he is ok again this year.
Good luck and please be careful.
 
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