Getting a hairy monster horse clean enough to clip!

Spot_the_Risk

Spot_the_Risk

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How on earth do you get them clean and dry enough to clip! Tinner lives out, and in this warm autumn he's sweating standing still... This photo was after today's walk with a couple of short trots hack, and as you can see he's dripping. So how on earth do I get him clean enough to clip? If I bath him (we only have cold water) he's going to get cold and chilled before he's dry which will be pretty unpleasant for him, do I just rug him for a week and clip through the grease somehow?! I don't think I've ever had such a grubby horse to deal with.

Oh, and for those who've followed Tinners illness this year, he is in a good place, and last week we had 'normal' shoes back on all four feet, will be a long time before we're back to normal but we're on the right route.
 
Bite the bullet, have 2 pairs of sharp blades and just dive head on in when he is at his driest! For the damp bits brush the hair the wrong way with a plastic curry comb and leave it til last so it is as dry as possible.
 
I have exactly the same problem as you, made me smile when I saw your photo :) have someone coming to clip her on Wed morning so I have to get her clean and dry by then. She has stood in this afternoon to dry off so I could brush her this eve, it wasn't particularly successful and I still have the taste of the mud dust in my mouth....not good! I think the only thing to do is wait for a cooler dry day, give them as good a brush as you can and then clip them dirty, its been really difficult this year for the hairy types.
 
Can you get him near a hot water supply somehow? I clipped mine (who is the piebald version of Tinner) recently and gave him a bath first using buckets of hot water. I always worry about wrecking blades if theyre dirty. It took about 6 buckets altogether, and I had a rug on standby to cover him up where necessary but didn't need it until we were finished. Buckets of hot water, a big tub of animal shampoo and a magic brush!
 
Turn out brushed clean with a rainsheet on overnight to keep the worst off and then clip the next day before it start warming up.

I'm not clipping mine this year as he's broken, and he's filthy atm, its actually too depressing to post a pic!
 
It's still pretty warm in the day at the minute, getting up to 16 degrees! So I'd just bath him quickly and then towel dry best I could before sticking thermatex type rug on him to keep him warm.
 
Hot towels. You only need half a bucket of hot water so you could possibly transport it or boil kettles. Give a good brushing first to get worst off. Doesn't wet them too much so will dry quickly.
 
When he is dry give him a good brush, then just clip with heavy duty clippers and two pairs of blades just in case! A good heavy duty pair will plough through it all. I clip when it suits me and if horse is muddy then tough!
 
Heheh, I've always just cracked on in the past but I think the level of grubbiness is the worst I've ever seen! Clippers are heavy duty and just serviced, and both sets of blades are newly sharpened, so I will rug for a few days, get a new battery in the headtorch and get onto the job soonish, thanks everyone for your input, lamlyn2012, do you mean just rub him down with very hot towels? I could do that by using flasks of hot water.
 
Hi. Yes you could use flasks. I actually get the Naff 'love the skin he's in' product. Put a capful in half bucket hot water. You get a nice microfibre towel with it too. Wring out the towel and use a circular motion. I love it and think my horse does too. Gets out all the dirt and excess grease. It's great to use after clipping too to get all the loose hairs off.
 
Oh yes, it's NAF not naff!�� Would love to know what's in it apart from aloe vera as it doesn't say. I suspect some vinegar. My horse suffers with sweat scald so I use it summer as a cool wash down and winter with hot towels. Also good neet on bites and little itchy areas. If I was closer to you I'd come and get a bargain!
 
Groom him to within an inch of his life, use the metal curry comb to get the scurf and grease off your brushes as you go then it won't be transferred back onto him. Once groomed give him a thorough hot towelling and whilst he's still a bit damp spray with coat shine and brush it into his fur. Then put a satin lined lightweight turnout rug on! I have a minging native pony and he's had his rug on a week so I can clip soon and now his fur looks soo beautiful - shiny and flat :)
 
I wonder who actually does wash their horse before clipping? I have a native with literally 1in (or more) thick coat. There is absolutely no way I'd wash him once he's started growing his winter coat. In fact, I don't think there's any chance you'd be able to get scurf washed out of his dense undercoat, even if you tried. I just wait until he's reasonably dry (or put a rain sheet on for a day), brush as usual and start clipping. IME, his coat is a bit greasy and scurfy near the skin, but the mud doesn't actually penetrate that deep, so I don't think it's as hard on the clipper blades as one might think.
 
Oh gosh, some useful information here. I was wondering the same thing as my horse's coat is very scurffy and would clog up the clippers in minutes.
 
supsup said:
I wonder who actually does wash their horse before clipping? I have a native with literally 1in (or more) thick coat. There is absolutely no way I'd wash him once he's started growing his winter coat. In fact, I don't think there's any chance you'd be able to get scurf washed out of his dense undercoat, even if you tried. I just wait until he's reasonably dry (or put a rain sheet on for a day), brush as usual and start clipping. IME, his coat is a bit greasy and scurfy near the skin, but the mud doesn't actually penetrate that deep, so I don't think it's as hard on the clipper blades as one might think.
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Me! Mine doesn't have a very thick coat but what he does have is really dense so dirt gets traped right on his skin and there's no other way I can get the dirt out of him. It's a multi-stage process though. A week before (sooner if it's very wet as he's grey so I need to keep him clean) I brush him and rug him in a lightweight and remove the rug and brush every day. This gets the worst of it off. I then bring him in on Thursday night, bath him with plenty of hot water (luckily we have a hot tap on site) towel him off as much as possible and leave him in with a thermatex on. I then give him a really good brush on Friday morning (as he seems to produce more dirt as he dries) ready for clipping. There's still loads of dirt trapped in his coat but it's way better than it would have been without it. Rugging for a few days before seems to help remove some of the dirt or at least make it easier to brush off.
 
I must be the worst owner. I just plug in two sets of clippers with A2's on and crack on. When the first set get hot I fire the second set up.

When I have done I wash in hot water with a splash of vinegar in which takes the remaining grease off the skin.
 
I'm another lazy clipper... I clip about every 4-5 weeks and I get the worst off a few days before and just rug until clipping day, the rug seems to clean the last bits off and I save doing his belly til last incase it kills my blades cos I inevitably can't get all the mud off from under there.

Doesn't seem to adversely effect my blades too much I think they last about 4 full clips before needing sharpening.

When someone used to do it for me I'd go to all lengths to shampoo the day before and then keep them in, cos thats what I was told I needed to do and didn't know any better... now I think its all too much of a faff and a waste of time.
 
am I the only one that thinks he doesn't even look that dirty?

just looks like brown sweat?

My mare has a really thick coat and she used to have lumps of mud stuck on her neck/ by her ears and I used to be able to get the clippers through most of that! sometimes I have to brush it but by the time I got to that she would be dry!
 
In fairness clipping is just easier if they are clean, apart from saving wear on blades. When I used to clip the natives I didn't bath them first because the coats were too thick. Especially the cushings oldie. But if you can do it then it's worth it. Bath, dry under a rug, clip and then hot towel = clean horse which stays clean because it's now rugged. And mine live out 24/7.
Really not that much effort in the grand scheme of things, is it?
 
Depending how far you live from your field the plastic bottles that you buy milk in keep hot water hot for quite a long while. Our yard only has cold water so if I want to bath or wash mane and tail I fill about 6 of the 4 pint ones with tap hot water and they stay hot for about an hour, certainly hot enough to do the job!
 
Thank you Kezzabell, we don't have any mud in the fields here apart from an occasional rolling patch, so he isn't caked but the coat is pretty grubby, he hasn't had a bath for over a year and I haven't started rugging for winter.
Kezzabell2 said:
am I the only one that thinks he doesn't even look that dirty?

just looks like brown sweat?

My mare has a really thick coat and she used to have lumps of mud stuck on her neck/ by her ears and I used to be able to get the clippers through most of that! sometimes I have to brush it but by the time I got to that she would be dry!
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Thought about this thread when I got mine in tonight. He's sweating just standing in the field, horrible thing! I'm going to have to clip soon, but look at the state of him!
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Mine was a filthy pig who smelt vile! We knocked the mud off and just scalped him. No amount of brushing or washing would have dealt with the filth that was trapped under the hair anyway. 2 wheelbarrows full of hair came off! Then I washed him off and it took buckets and buckets of water to get the scurf off. I'd been rugging him in a no fill to keep his coat down and he didnt look to bad but he had about 4" of hair there, just flattened down!
 
Cinnamon, my old boy looks a similar level of filth to yours, he has longer coarse hair and as Frankie says, stinks! He will rarely be leaving the field this winter though so will remain unclipped for the first time, I will rug to protect him from the rain as needed though. Operation Tinner had best start tonight then, take the easy option of chucking a rug on him!
 
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