*If you clip your cobs feathers please read!!*

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jennie1000

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SUGGESTIONS FOR CLIPPERS!!??

I need some advise on clippers..... Im fairy new to cliping and have only started doing it myself last year. I use lister star clippers to do my mares body and love them. I have some WAHL mains rechargable dog/horse clippers also that I have been doing face, legs etc with.

My mare has a condition with her legs which means Im clipping them every 2-4 weeks to keep the hair really short. my WAHL clippers are really struggling to get through the already short hair and you cant have different blades for different lengths. It comes with plastic combs and these just bend. Yet the lister star clippers are powerful enough but just to big and clumpy. I end up nicking her and I cant get into all the skin folds.

SUGGESTIONS FOR CLIPPERS!!??

-can be mains or rechargable
-need to have a small head and clipper body so I can get to awquard areas
-low vibration if possible. shes good with clippers but fidgets with the heavy ones on her legs
-easy to maintain as Im new to clipping
-an option for fine/corse blades would be good.
 
which sort do you have because they make alot of different ones!!!

The saddlry are rubbish at comparing clippers and how powerful they will be so thought Id ask people for personal experience!
 
Have a look at Heiniger Progress clippers. They are very quiet/low vibrations and have a slightly different design to most other clippers which makes them lighter and easy to reach tricky areas. Not sure how good they would be for legs but I borrowed a friends pair to clip my girl last year and they were great, I couldn't recommend them enough.
 
Ive heard Heiniger Progress clippers mentioned a few times now so will def put those on my research list! Has anyone used these on legs? very hairy cob legs at that!
 
Thanks aniseed, Im off there to look at that website now! lol

Dirtymare...... how do you find the lister laser? I have the lister star but the head is too big to manage her legs really..... Is your mare hairy!?

normally I would get away with using horse body clippers but the skin folds mean I need powerful but very small head.

backright.jpg
 
Yes, she really is a hairy monster. I did have Heinigers, but they didnt seem to clip very well, as her fur is really thick and dense.
Lister Laser do have a large head, and judging by the folds in your horse's legs, you may have problems getting in and out of those folds with with the standard blades. I dont have the special blades for legs, but if you look at the website, you maybe able to see if they would be more suitable the the standard blades that the Laser comes with.
I got the Laser model as they were recomended for sheep dagging which is much akin to clipping my mare!!
 
ashF................
The condition is chronic progressive lympedema/ chronic pastern dermatitus. In that picture she does indeed have the early starts of mud fever outbreak. The vet thinks she may have previously had untreated mites as the back legs have always been lumpy like that since I bought her (over 2 years ago) The hard lumps have been biopsied and it came back as dead/fibrotic tissue. These lumps grow and new ones also appear. The front feet had no problems when i clipped then in march. However they now also have hard lumps/growths in the pastern and cracks in the skin. These appeared literally within a week with no signs of mud fever or mites. (she has dectomax and frontline regularly) I cant let the feathers gfrow again because the chance of infection in those sklin folds would be so high. (vet advice)

As for how I go about clipping..... The wahl clipper I use cuts to bare skin almost which leaves her open to the elements. If i used my lister star clippers id want the corse blades. I think it leaves 2.5mm hair. So with the WAHL clippers I have to use the number one plastic comb. I only clip to the skin where the creases are so I can get in to keep them clean.
 
Hi Jennie. Our TB mare is very prone to mud feever and after trying all of the ointments and potions which the tack shops and vets had to offer (without success), A racehorse trainer who runs a local XC course (Deer Park) suggested we use a covering of nappy rash ointment from the supermarket (Sudocrem or own brand equivalent). It works both as a barrier and antiseptic and also calms everything down - I thought he was joking but it is brilliant stuff and as soon as she gets any signs of mud fever, we use it :).

The problem with clipping so short is the abrasions from the clippers keep letting in the germs in to the site. We don't even bother to clip her (one pink) heel now, we just wash the site, and slap it on and keep doing this until the infection clears up (about 1 week)

It is a lot cheaper than any vet or tack shop potion as well.

As for trimmers, we have used these to clip stencils on numerous horses as well as feathers, and they are really very good (titanium coated and ceramic blades). Wolsley do a similar one as well for about £60, but the name escapes me.


http://www.robinsons-uk.com/products/ProductDetail.asp?ProductCode=46240&campaign=Basefeed
 
Aniseed said:
Have a look at Heiniger Progress clippers. They are very quiet/low vibrations and have a slightly different design to most other clippers which makes them lighter and easy to reach tricky areas. Not sure how good they would be for legs but I borrowed a friends pair to clip my girl last year and they were great, I couldn't recommend them enough.
Click to expand...

I'm another one for the Heiniger Progress Clippers. Admittedly they were probably a bit more expensive than other clippers but have paid for themself over and over again. If you shop around you can get deals on them. I have to clip my TBXCob all year round and usually every 4 weeks as he events and he has TB paces but the cob hair!!He is abnormally hairy!!He also gets shod every 4 weeks in the summer due to the rate of growth!! His legs are done no problems with these clippers and can get in and about very easily.

However..... as my darling decided to have white legs and a black body his last clip for his legs was done at the start of September and his legs won't get touched again until end of March. I learnt from experience after having suffered huge vet bills one winter and plenty of lovely potions/antibiotics later it is now best just to leave his legs!!

Alas I maybe use this as an excuse not to enter BD events over the winter due to sporting the bog brush look on his legs but it is a small price to pay trust me!!!:)
 
Thanks AShF I use sudecreme on the cracks as like you found nothing that I tried seemed to work. Will look into the element trimmers. Do you totally cover the legs in the creme or just the effected areas? Difd you see the picture I uploaded? Thoses folds will never go and will always leave the legs open to splitting/cracking. Do you think I should try letting the feathers grow back then..... or are you just saying don't clip too close to the skin? Im torn as to what to do for the best....
 
jennie1000 said:
Thanks AShF I use sudecreme on the cracks as like you found nothing that I tried seemed to work. Will look into the element trimmers. Do you totally cover the legs in the creme or just the effected areas? Difd you see the picture I uploaded? Thoses folds will never go and will always leave the legs open to splitting/cracking. Do you think I should try letting the feathers grow back then..... or are you just saying don't clip too close to the skin? Im torn as to what to do for the best....
Click to expand...

We pretty much cover all of the pink skinned area where the mud gets on to with Sudocreme when she gets an outbreak of it. It is a cheap solution to what (some) vets can turn into a very expensive problem. I'd use it as a barrier whilst you can see a problem, and try and keep yours on well drained ground when it turns wet.

We were advised to clip short like you and we did, but TBH found no real advantage to doing it, and disturbing a scab in an infected areas is just asking for a bigger problem.

When you push a clipper blade across an infected site, you put the germs onto the blade. If you then scuff the skin a little bit further over with this infected blade, you are then effectively creating a new infection point.
 
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