For best appearance and to prevent lines when clipping your horse, and to prevent clipping again too soon; it is best to wait until your horse's winter coat is well established and the summer coat is shedding. To prevent lines you have to start with a very clean coat. If you don't it will make for an unpleasant experience for both you and your horse.
1.How to prepare your horse's coat
The day before you want to clip, depending on the weather, you should bath your horse to help remove the coat grease. The coat should be allowed to dry thoroughly and the horse should be stabled overnight with a rug on to prevent him going out, rolling, and undoing all your hard work.
Helpful Tip!
If the weather does not permit you to bath the day before, then use Clipit's Clipping Oil that can be rubbed into the coat just before you want to clip. This will help your clipper blade glide through the coat easier.
2.Ensure you clip with fresh, sharp blades
Always make sure you only clip with new or newly sharpened blades. Dull, blunt blades will catch the hair and make it an unpleasant experience. One set of clipper blades can probably do several body clips if the horse is clean and the clipper blades are kept clean and lubricated. They will wear out on one clip if the horse is dirty, and the tensioning on the clipper is improperly set.
Helpful Tip!
Clipper blades are made up of two separate blades, a sole plate and a top cutter. They have to be sharpened together and used together. You cannot mix the blades.
3. Check your clipper's tensioning
To adjust the tensioning on your clipper, always refer to the manufacturers instruction manual. The tensioning adjusts the pressure between the sole plate and the top cutter. Use the lowest tension that will produce a clean cut. The tension setting may be increased as the blades wear down, until they become too dull to cut even at the highest tension setting. Setting the tension too high will cause the blades to heat up and will wear them out faster.
Helpful Tip!
Tighten the tension screw all the way down until it is tight and then rotate 2 1/2 times back. Less tension is better than too much.
4. Use plenty of clipper oil
To enable your clipper blades to run smoothly and cooler, stop every few minutes and brush away any excess hair and lubricate the blades. A high-pitched, labouring noise indicates that the blades are becoming clogged with hair and debris and need cleaning.
Helpful Tip!
Use Clipit Easy Oil while you are clipping, it won't leave an oily trace within the coat.
5. Work in sections
The most efficient way to clip is to work in sections, usually from back to front. You need to clip each section completely, brush it off with a body brush and then use a light to check your work.
6.Take short strokes
If you see "railroad tracks" - ridges of long hair left by uneven pressure or careless overlapping of strokes - or patches of longer hair, simply go over them again, carefully working against the lay of the hair, until they are closely and evenly clipped as the rest of the area. By clipping each part thoroughly, you will avoid discovering mistakes and missed spots later after you have finished.
After clipping Your horse's coat will show a mousy look because any remaining dandruff and scurf is now close to the surface and visible. Fine skinned horses sometimes show "clipper welts" caused by the edge of the machine turning up the hair, but these do not seem to cause discomfort and quickly disappear. A good groom and a hot towel treatment will quickly clean the coat right down to the skin.
With each stroke of the clipper, ensure to track over the next line with 1/2 width overlap, rather than full width. This will help remove unwanted ridges.
With each stroke of the clipper ensure to track the next line with 1/2 the width overlap rather than the full width. This will help keep the ridges at bay. Watch this video to see how...