How do you clip heads?

[Paint it Lucky]

Because I am not very good at it! Clipped one of the yard horses today and his owner wanted him to have a full clip with head fully off, so I tried my best but it took me about as long to do his head as it did the entire rest of his body as it was just so fiddly! I can't stand messy/liney clips so I took ages to make it look as good as I could but even then it wasn't very brilliant! Is there a secret to clipping heads well? I normally just do half heads as this is much easier but do sometimes get asked to do whole heads for people and obviously I want to do a good job. Does anyone have any tips?

 

[smac]

little trimmers and time!

 

[humblepie]

Was going to say pay someone else but that is not a helpful response. My old horse had a darker area of brown on his face and during the winter it was always more pronounced, looking like he had been part clipped and abandoned.

Sorry for unhelpful answer but am feeling frivoulous.

 

[dominobrown]

I hate doing it! I am parnoid they will move and I will clip their eye!
I hate half head left on when the horse has a full clip though.

 

[Luci07]

little trimmers and time!

not always the best option - speaking as someone who did just that for the first clip and the smaller clippers took far more off the coat then my bigger ones did. I ended up looking somewhat chewed around the cheek bones as there was a definate difference in the coat!

 

[smac]

my trimmers I can change the thickness of the blades/coats

 

[marinitagsd]

On our Pheeb! No chance so I don't even bother! lol
A horse that will let you........., I would normally use smaller clippers for 2 reasons, 1, they are better for smaller places and 2, they are usually quieter
x

 

[Liesel]

I clip the whole head and have always managed to do it with normal clippers. That said the Diva is very, very good to clip and stands still, although I have to twitch her for her ears, which I hate doing.

Just take it slowly and carefully and you should be ok. I remove the headcollar to around her neck and cover her eyes with my free hand when I get close to them and always have someone to hold her just in case.

I have trimmers too but find they trim to close no matter what setting they are on.

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Thanks guys, interesting replies!

I did use some smaller trimmers to do horses head today as he was objecting to the wire and loud buzzy mains clippers. He was fine with the little ones as they were very quiet, but they didn't cut very well at all and because the blades were very fine the bits they did cut were very short and so really showed up against the bits they didn't! Bit of a nightmare really as I had to keep re-doing everywhere in order to make it even. I have done faces before with big clippers and I think they are actually easier (so long as the horse behaves!) as atleast they cut the hair properly and get the job done a lot quicker!

 

[Spit That Out]

Hi...I'm not looking to start any sort of argument i honestly don't know and as you guys clip heads it seems an opportunity to ask why do you do it?
I understand clipping the body and the type of clip depends on the work load etc but why does it matter if the head is clipped?
Is it just an aesthetic reason or is there a purpose behind it?
Like i said, it's a genuine curiosity.
Thanks.

 

[Laafet]

We do mine with normal clippers, never really had a problem apart from if he has his jaw in a funny postion so the bit about his eyes is really hollow. I routinely twitch for heads, we managed to get half the head off this year, but then put on twitch for fiddly bits and ears. I take his head off as I think a full head left on looks awful with a full clip, also my boy is his most fluffyest on his ears and top of head. I suppose it is also partially for vanity as he looks like a horse with it off and a pony with it on. However he does get sweat marks and very sweaty head when we have our lessons so I think that this justifies having it all off, so I can hot towel him to remove the sweat. (although most people have no idea what I mean when I say I am going to 'hot towel' him, must be a racing/showing thing!)

 

[Paint it Lucky]

Sedgemoor chaos, hi! Some hores do get hot even on their faces (especially hairy ones in hard work) so it does make sense to clip them there. Some people just like the look of it. My own two horses both have quite fine coats so I just give them a half head clip, stops them getting too sweaty under chin/behind ears etc and looks neat, don't like to clip off all their face as worry they will get cold faces! Think it depends on the needs of the individual horse really and also what the owner likes/wants.