Katie Jerram's Modern Horse Management by Katie Jerram

Author:Katie Jerram
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908809643
Publisher: Crowood

If a horse has a fine coat, run the clippers with the direction of the leg hair growth, not against it.

However, it’s worth turning the clippers the ‘wrong way round’ and using them in a combing movement when tidying up awkward areas.

THE DIFFICULT HORSE

Horses who are nervous of being clipped can usually be taught that there is nothing to fear, but this takes patience. Safety must always come first and the handler and assistant must be calm, competent and wearing safety hats and safe footwear. In some cases, you may also feel it politic to wear a body protector in case a horse kicks or knocks you into a wall.

Horses object because they are frightened and there is no point in telling off – or, worse still, hitting – a frightened animal because you will only make things worse and put yourself in danger.

Nor should you make a fuss of or feed a horse who is objecting to clippers until he is allowing you to take a step forward, whether that be standing quietly whilst the clippers are turned on nearby, or holding them against him. If you try to bribe him whilst he is objecting, you are rewarding the very behaviour you don’t want. It gives a horse confidence if you are methodical and matter of fact, as in all aspects of handling. Horses are herd animals and you should be the leader.

Letting a nervous horse watch a quiet, amenable horse being clipped definitely helps, but there are also other techniques to consider.

If the horse is frightened of noise, then use the quietest clippers you can find to introduce the idea of being clipped. A battery-operated massage pad or hand-held unit can be an even better starting point to getting him accustomed to some degree of sound and contact. When you reach the stage where you can hold quiet, battery-operated clippers against the horse, walk with him if he moves around, keeping him on a short rope without forcing him to stand stock-still. Take them away when he does stand, so he gets his reward for good behaviour. This may be easier said than done.

If a horse who is used to me working him from the ground accepts his body being clipped but doesn’t like clippers on his neck or head area, I sometimes tack him up with a snaffle bridle and roller. I then pass a lunge line through the bit rings and clip it to one of the side rings, on the side I wish to clip. This gives me control over the horse’s head-carriage without force, which in turn makes it easier to control the rest of him. My horses are used to accepting direction this way and, because I ask them to stand quietly on the lunge until I’m ready to direct them, or when I want to talk to someone else working a horse in the school at the same time, that translates to other situations.

Some people use a twitch on the horse’s lip.

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