Frightened of clippers

Cassy

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I have a 10 year old irish sports horse bought this summer. She is a sensitive soul. Yesterday I tried to approach her with the clippers but she was terrified. After an hour she would let me stand next to her with them running but not sure how I will ever get to clip her. Any suggestions please.
 

Baileybones

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Michael Peace does a clipping DVD which is well worth getting. My mare would rear and strike at you if you turned clippers on. Followed this DVD and on day 1 had clippers running against her and following day I clipped her.
She now 'accepts' the process as opposed to forcing her.
 

stencilface

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Just put them on every time she comes in, and get her used to the noise. Turn them off and run them over her coat (following the hair) so she can get used to the feel of them.

Make it a positive experience, use treats if you want to, and if anyone is clipping, stand her next door to them so she can used to the process and the noise.
 

Pen

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Well worth desensitising your mare and solving the problem. Try an electric toothbrush starting with it running beside her as you did with the clippers and gradually progress to resting it on her shoulder so she gets used the vibration and noise. When she is happy with that start to move it along her neck and all other areas. When she is ok with being touched with the switched on toothbrush all over, replace with clippers and repeat process.
 

milliepops

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Just put them on every time she comes in, and get her used to the noise. Turn them off and run them over her coat (following the hair) so she can get used to the feel of them.

Make it a positive experience, use treats if you want to, and if anyone is clipping, stand her next door to them so she can used to the process and the noise.

^^ this, and also be a positive leader for her, be calm and deliberate in the way you handle them and her.
Often people are really tentative when a horse is frightened of something, and can end up making the horse more wary by not showing them how to have confidence in you.

Make sure you are rewarding the right things, too. Often a horse will react negatively to something so people take the scary thing away, but that teaches the horse the wrong response (i.e. spook and it will go away). You need to stick with it until she starts to show she is relaxing and accepting the noise or the feel, then take them away and let her have a moment. Calm quiet repetition is the key, and don't be too ambitious to start with. They usually come to accept it quite happily if given enough time to work it out.
 
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Ear plugs. So very many people realise that their horse doesn't like the noise but won't use something as simple as ear plugs. I swear by them with the racehorses.

You don't need to buy expensive ones. A chopped up jumbo sponge or a wad of cotton wool works just as well.

It's worth a try before going down the route of sedation,twitching, spending weeks desensitising etc.
 

GoneWithTheWind

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Sounds very similar to ours.
My 10yo tb x ish is a lovely gentleman most of the times but has his moments like they all do. He is very sensitive towards noises, the first time he heard the clippers with me (only had him 8 months) he freaked (snorting, backing up, turning away and even sweating) after an hour or so of me walking towards him and then away (with someone holding him) he let me stand beside him like yours did. The second time I did the same thing but he didn't react as much so I decided to stand underneath his neck while someone was holding him and treating him then with my free hand I would pat his neck on the other side then slowly move my hand (with the clippers in) onto his neck on the opposite side to let him feel the vibrations before slowly moving it further back and if he backed away I would start at the neck again until he relisead it wouldn't hurt him. Everyone thought i was crazy but after the 3rd attempt of doing this I managed to do a full hunter clip without any sedation but it just depends on your horse.
 

laura_nash

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sedalin? or a twitch?

Really? drugs or force are your first port of call on day one?

Well worth desensitising your mare and solving the problem. Try an electric toothbrush starting with it running beside her as you did with the clippers and gradually progress to resting it on her shoulder so she gets used the vibration and noise. When she is happy with that start to move it along her neck and all other areas. When she is ok with being touched with the switched on toothbrush all over, replace with clippers and repeat process.

This^^

Desensitize her using advance and retreat and something noisy that vibrates, like an electric toothbrush or something similar (e.g. a small battery-powered clipper). Do you have access to another horse that is fine with clippers? Being alongside whilst another horse is clipped can be really helpful, providing the other horse is good to be clipped of course.
 

stormox

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Really? drugs or force are your first port of call on day one?


.

It wouldnt be if it was my own horse and I had plenty of time. I would spend hours and hours every day getting her used to them, advance retreat, titbits etc. But usually people want horses clipped to go hunting the next day, or later that week, they dont want to take the time and if its a case of getting the job done without getting hurt yes I would.
 

laura_nash

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It wouldnt be if it was my own horse and I had plenty of time. I would spend hours and hours every day getting her used to them, advance retreat, titbits etc. But usually people want horses clipped to go hunting the next day, or later that week, they dont want to take the time and if its a case of getting the job done without getting hurt yes I would.


Well, okay, agreed there. Better to sedate or twitch than force the issue in a hurry, have a big fight and end up with someone hurt and the horse terrified.

I didn't get the impression from the OP that she was in a hurry or lacked the patience to train though, and was a bit worried about impressionable / inexperienced people reading your post and thinking that is the best course to take if a horse isn't easily clipped on their first attempt.
 

tase1965

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If you have an I phone there is a free clipper app - makes the noise of clippers and the phone vibrates so you can introduce gradually while grooming etc, really handy for a gentle introduction..
 

Cassy

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We tried standing her near a very sensible one while clipping but had to put her in the next stable as she was totally freaked out
 

WelshD

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I took the blades off my clipper and hung it in the stable switched on while I fed my ponies each evening
 

Llee94

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I use an old electric tooth brush on young horses or horses worried about clipping. They make a similar noise and vibration to a set of clippers. They soon learn to accept it and it doesn't matter if you drop it, unlike a set of clippers or iPhone! Once they are used to this I introduce clippers slowly.
As a last resort I would dope. Have never twitched my horses and don't think I ever will unless in extreme circumstances but each to their own on that one as it is dependent on your horse.
 

lannerch

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Full sedation by vet is the only way you can attempt to clip my horse. I have tried desensitising him over a 2 year period.

he was happy to have the clippers running next to him, happy to have an massager and electric toothbrush run rubbing his hair all over, but as soon as I try to clip the hair, even with small quiet cordless clippers he thinks I am trying to kill him , striking out with his front feet.

I have given up., he has a thin winter coat anyway, I may call the vet to sedate in January but for now he remains hairy.
( I also have seen Michael pearce dvd that didn't work either. )
 
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rowan666

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Our old sec B freaked out with clippers so we twitched him litterally for less than 2 minutes, took it off and continued clipping without it and he stood like a lamb, never needed to use it since either!
 

oldie48

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One of my horses came with the warning "do not try to clip without sedation", he was fine to have clippers running near him, would have the clippers run up and down whilst switched off, watched with interest if I was clipping another horse but was downright dangerous to try to clip. He was also rather uncooperative when having his teeth done. I just got the vet in to sedate, do his teeth and then we clipped, pulled mane and tail and that was his annual tidy up. Fortunately he had a fine coat and most years we got away with just one clip. I decided a long time ago that safety was the most important factor. When I sold him he went with the warning "do not clip without sedation"!
 

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My horse will try and stamp on your head if you clip him without sedation (and even then you want him knocked out on the floor type sedation!) He isnt scared he just gets really angry and escalates his communication to you when you dont listen and stop!

I keep meaning to go the desensitising route but I just never seem to have to time/ forget but I've just downloaded the clipper app (Its not just for iphones btw, any andriod phone will do) .. Im on my third download now .. each one has sounded like proper kick in the head material so sod that!
 

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One of our horses is 18 years of age & he's a wonderful horse. You can do anything with him & he competes BS & BD but he has always had one issue & that's clipping. Over the years he's got worse. This year was his worst year ever & he was rearing & running away. He doesn't want to hurt anyone but he suffers pure fear & panic. We've tried desensitising over the years but it didn't work. Sometimes you have to accept that you horse has a serious issue & ours is clipping & he only needs clipping once a year so it's no great problem.

We decided that we'd get the vet out to sedate him. We did this, he stood nice & calm, we clipped him quickly & when the jab wore off he was nicely clipped & was happy. It was worth every penny, he got clipped without the panic & no one got hurt. It's really not worth the fight with the horse, just call out a vet. :)
 
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smja

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Before you can desensitise a horse, you need to work out exactly what they're objecting to. Is it the power cord trailing? Is it the noise? The vibration? The sensation of the hair coming off?
 

Goldenstar

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Nothing wrong with using sedation I bought one that you could get into the stable with if he saw the clippers .
We used IV sedation and with time he accepted it was not terrifying in the end I did not even need a head collar .
I would always sedate if a horse is tricky is safer all round .
 

milliepops

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yes though they can sometimes snap out of the sedation if they are really worriers... still a good option for nervous horses but you can't ever totally trust that they will be snoozing away happily ;)

I find some of them sweat badly when sedated too, you need to get your skates on then.
 
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I find some of them sweat badly when sedated too, you need to get your skates on then.

Yup! I still always start on the shoulder to make sure they are asleep then I quickly do the head, neck and elbows both sides before kicking on with the rest of the body as that is where they sweat first.
 

Annagain

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I've been trying to desensitise my horse for 11 years. It's never worked. We can clip 90% of him with no problems at all, but the second you try to do the top half of his neck, his armpits or his nether regions he tries to kill you. Domosedan is my best friend at this time of year.
 
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