Maintaining your horse's grooming isn't just about keeping them looking their best—it's also essential for their health and comfort. One of the most important grooming tasks is trimming and clipping your horse's legs. This practice helps prevent issues like infections, injuries, and excess dirt accumulation. Whether you're preparing for a show or simply maintaining good hygiene, this guide will walk you through the process of trimming and clipping your horse’s legs.
Why Trim and Clip Horse Legs?
1. Hygiene and Health:
Preventing Infections: Horses, especially those with feathers (the long hair around the lower legs), can accumulate dirt, mud, and moisture, which can lead to skin conditions like scratches or mud fever. Clipping these areas allows the skin to breathe and stay clean.
Avoiding Injuries: Long hair can hide cuts, bruises, or other injuries. By keeping the legs trimmed, you can more easily spot and treat any issues before they become serious.
2. Comfort:
Comfort in Warm Weather: Horses often appreciate a good trim, especially in warmer weather, as it can reduce sweating and keep them cooler.
Minimising Irritation: Long hair can trap burrs, seeds, or other debris, leading to discomfort or irritation for your horse. Regular clipping helps minimize these issues.
3. Aesthetic Appeal:
Show Preparation: A neatly clipped horse presents a cleaner, more polished look in the show ring. It highlights their muscle tone and gives them a well-groomed appearance.
Everyday Neatness: Even if your horse isn’t competing, a trimmed appearance contributes to an overall neat and tidy look.
Tools You’ll Need
Clippers: High-quality, quiet clippers are essential. There are specific clippers designed for heavy-duty work and others for finishing touches.
Blades: Different blades are used for various parts of the legs. Typically, a No.10 or No.15 blade is used for general trimming, while a No.40 blade is used for closer work.
Scissors: A pair of sharp, rounded-tip scissors can help with areas where clippers may be too cumbersome.
Brushes and Combs: Use a stiff brush to remove dirt and debris before clipping, and a fine-toothed comb to lift the hair for an even trim.
Cooling Spray: Clippers can heat up during use, so a cooling spray is useful to keep the blades cool and prevent discomfort to the horse.
How to trim the legs
To trim the legs, use medium blades - No.10 ,No.15
Trim the excess hair from the lower legs by holding the clippers pointing down and running them down the leg, with the blades pointing in the direction of the hair growth. By pressing lightly and evenly, you will clip only the long outer hairs that stick out beyond the surface. Go over the surface of the leg several times, being careful to lift the blades gradually at the end of each stroke. Trimming this way thins the hairs and trims off the excess hair but does not change the colour of the trimmed area. If you press the blades down or take them off the leg abruptly, you will leave a noticeable line on the leg.
Trim the fetlock by picking up the foot and running the clippers around and under the bulge of the fetlock joint. The ergot ( the small, horny growth at the back of the fetlock, similar to a dew claw of a dog) may have to be snipped off close to the skin with scissors to allow you to trim the fetlock hair closely. Trim downward and backward, in the direction of the hair growth.
Reverse the clippers and trim the edge of the hair at the coronary band by clipping upward, making an even edge all around the foot.
If the horse has long hair of feathers at the back of the knee or hock trim this by running the clippers downward, in the direction of hair growth. Blend carefully!
Clipping the Legs- Booting Up
"Booting up" means clipping the hair of the legs closely, clipping against the hair growth instead of trimming by running the blades over the legs and downward. This makes the hair shorter and gives the legs a finer appearance, but may change the colour of the hair by exposing the undercoat, sometimes resulting in a raw "scalped" appearance. White legs are often booted up to shorten the hair so that it will not pick up ring dust. The clipped area must be carefully blended at the top, following the contours of the lower edge of booting up, fairly coarse blades should be used. Too finer blades will leave "clipper stripes" where the skin shows through and will leave the legs looking as though they have been shaved for surgery instead of trimmed for show!
Tip
Spray Clipit Coat Care Oil into the coat and feathers before starting to attempt to clip. This will help the clipper blades run through the coat smoothly. Find out more by clicking here
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