Horse is scared of clippers

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WackyWelsh

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I’ll try to keep this short..
My horse is petrified of clippers, more specifically, the sound. He was bought as a 7 year old from his first home, where he had just been a field ornament and never been clipped as far as we know, then he was sold to us a few months ago from his second owners as a 10 year old.
The only time they had him clipped was when a lady came out to clip his legs and he was nervous of the sound, so she sedated him, put a shank on him and had two other people helping to keep him still while she clipped his legs..so no wonder he’s scared really.
Anyway, I took an electric toothbrush to him in the field today and at first he flipped as soon as he heard it, spun and went cantering off and would not come near. After about 40 minutes I managed to rub it over him while it was on and he began to relax a bit, which was massive progress. I let him walk/trot off if he wanted to and slowly walked back to him, which 90% of the time he’d be okay with and he’d actually take a few steps towards me. If he took a step back then I would take a step back and wait for him to want to come forward again. I know tomorrow we’ll probably be back to square 1, but wondering about other people’s experiences of a horse like this and what you did?
 
Stuff either a big wad of cotton wool, a lump of jumbo sponge or decent earplugs in if you have them! Honestly taking away the noise is generally cures most horses fear of being clipped! I have a few horses at the yard that would literally jump out of stables if they could hear the clippers but take away the noise and they stand lovely and quietly!

When you put stuff in the ears hold tight onto their heads for a few mins so they don't shake it out. Once they have got used to having stuff in their ears they won't keep trying to shake.
 
Mine probably wasn’t quite as bad as that but he was pretty frightened of them, had to be sedated but couldn’t be finished because he was still bad! What I did was to turn on clippers briefly, give a handful of pony nuts, and repeated many times. He’s very food orientated so this honestly worked wonders! I then just built up the time they were on for and how close they were to him before he got a few nuts and he’s totally fine with being clipped now.
 
You can desensitise some horses to clippers & others you can't. We have one horse who has always been scared of the clippers & over the years we have tried all manner of things to sort it out. Eventually we gave up. This is the only issue this wonderful horse has so we live with it. Fortunately we can get away with only one clip a year & we have the vet in to medicate him for the clip. We figure that it's far less traumatic than trying to clip him without & scare him. He's 21 years old this year, he show jumps, does dressage at Novice level & does some arena eventing. He's a rock when hacking out, we love him to bits.
 
I have just bought a set of trimmers, so I have months to get Dave used to the noise before I have to actually use them. Up til now I have been using an app on my phone that makes the noise & vibrates.
 
WackyWelsh said:
I’ll try to keep this short..
My horse is petrified of clippers, more specifically, the sound. He was bought as a 7 year old from his first home, where he had just been a field ornament and never been clipped as far as we know, then he was sold to us a few months ago from his second owners as a 10 year old.
The only time they had him clipped was when a lady came out to clip his legs and he was nervous of the sound, so she sedated him, put a shank on him and had two other people helping to keep him still while she clipped his legs..so no wonder he’s scared really.
Anyway, I took an electric toothbrush to him in the field today and at first he flipped as soon as he heard it, spun and went cantering off and would not come near. After about 40 minutes I managed to rub it over him while it was on and he began to relax a bit, which was massive progress. I let him walk/trot off if he wanted to and slowly walked back to him, which 90% of the time he’d be okay with and he’d actually take a few steps towards me. If he took a step back then I would take a step back and wait for him to want to come forward again. I know tomorrow we’ll probably be back to square 1, but wondering about other people’s experiences of a horse like this and what you did?
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mine was clipped for the first time last year and she was nervous, in your shoes I would use every opportunity of fellow owners clipping their and have your mare nearby till she is used to them, failing that give her a sedative before and reduce it slightly each time.
 
I'm in the process of desensitising my 5 year old ID to clippers in preparation for the autumn. He is very food oriented which is helping. I can now put the trimmers on him while they are running almost to his ears. I just do a session of a few minutes most days.
 
Start with an electric toothbrush if they really are over reactive. And use negative reinforcement - stop the instant they stop moving.
I bought an elderly Dandyvac cheap off ebay which worked a treat because once it was on him he really enjoyed it, clippers were no problem afterwards
 
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Mine was and still is scared of the noise of the clippers (even if it is from a horse tied up being clipped a bit further up the yard). I have never tried sedation (I've see how she snaps out of that in an instant when she is scared when trying to load her on a box). I have also never tried using a twitch as I don't like them. I tried turning them on and off near her quite a lot but that didn't help as each time it was as though it was the first. If she was held or tied up she would break away as she is a very strong cob. In the end i bit the bullet, left her loose in her stable and armed with a packet of polos just went in, turned the clippers on and just got closer and closer to her with her moving around until she eventually stood still and let me put the clippers on her. I manged to give her an irish clip the first time and these days I can happily give her a blanket clip. Every year she is quicker to settle and this year she let me clip right up to the base of her ears and give her a nice neat jawline. I don't do her face though. I only do her twice each winter because it is stressful for her and a bit of a hassle for me as I have to do it when the yard is quiet. Getting the cordless Heineger Xplorer clippers 2 years ago has been a godsend though as it is much easier not having to worry about a trailing wire. I still bribe her with the polos though, lol.
 
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