I made it, guys. I made it without clipping until the third week of October. The last two years I've had to clip the first week of October due to summer hanging on indefinitely. Not so this year. We've had a more or less normal fall, aside from being stupendously dry.
I waffled a LOT about how to clip him this year. I've been having these nagging thoughts about clipping - about how I can't find hardly any published research on it, about how all of our current clipping styles are based on how people used horses 150 years ago and not actual science, about how there might be a better way to clip that looks weird but is better for the horse that we just don't know about yet.
In the end though, I A) couldn't find any research, B) didn't want to swim upstream, and C) concede that I'll be riding for more people than just my own trainer this winter and he should probably look socially acceptable. Plus D), he's never had a problem with his hunter clip, even down to -12 F. So I did my usual.
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| "You have no imagination, lady" |
One thing I did differently - I wet clipped. I've done this once before as an experiment and the results were good. This time, I wet clipped because I clipped on a weeknight and I didn't have time to let him dry between the bath and the clip. When you wet clip, you clip with them REALLY wet, like, just a step above soaking wet.
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| Them dapples |
Pros of Wet Clipping
- The whole process start-to-finish takes about an hour less because you skip that whole "drying" part
- The hair doesn't blow around and doesn't get on you quite as much
- It seems to leave less lines? The two times I've done it it's been with blades that had a few clips on them, and it still came out looking great. YMMV.
- My Lister Star blades don't get hot at all with wet clipping. Just warm.
- What hair does get on you is NEVER COMING OFF. IT IS PLASTERED TO YOUR BODY. But it's also less itchy. Until it dries. And then it's normal itchy.
- What hair lands on the floor is going to be next to impossible to sweep up
- Your clippers need to be powerful and sharp
- It needs to be warm enough that your horse doesn't die of exposure while you do it
- It's less satisfying. Hear me out. I find dry clipping oddly fascinating and soothing, the way the hair tumbles away beneath the blades. I don't get that satisfaction from wet clipping.
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| Looks like a lot less hair when it's wet |
Anyone ever tried wet clipping before?
Honestly didn't know this was a thing! Pondered it the other day, but opted not to. Good information!
ReplyDeleteIt is a thing! I didn't know about it either until a couple of years ago, I read about it on the COTH forums.
DeleteMy barn friend swears by wet clipping. I don't have a good justification for why, but I just don't like doing it.
ReplyDeleteShe sounds like my feelings on it. It's turns it into a less pleasant chore for me than dry clipping, but it goes faster. So it's a net neutral, depending on what kind of time you have for clipping.
Deletehm you had me at "clippers don't get as warm". I hate the standing around waiting for clipper blades to cool.
ReplyDeleteYou don't have to wet clip to avoid that. I have two sets of blades that I swap between while clipping. I'll clip with one set, take it off and wrap it in a cool, wet towel, and then clip with the other set. When I come back to the one in the towel, I dry it off, put it on the clippers, oil it and get back to it. But wet clipping works too.
DeleteI haven’t tried it before. Honestly I’m not sure if my clipper would hold up to it. I really need to order another set of clipper blades (or ideally find a place to sharpen them) but I’ve got my fingers crossed that the ones I have will work through this clipping season
ReplyDeleteI can't remember what kind of clippers you've got, but this is definitely not something light- or medium-duty clippers can handle. It takes more effort to get through the wet hair for sure.
DeleteOh! SO interesting- never knew about wet clipping! Too bad I already clipped Jack (or mostly, because he was as a$$hat...) but that would have saved me a ton of time!
ReplyDeleteUgh, doesn't he know it's for his own good?!
DeleteI usually give Cupid a bath the day before, and then pay someone else to trace clip him because I'm too afraid I'll make him look ridiculous!
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, just go for it! What's the worst that could happen? At least that's how I feel about it. If I screw him up, the only people that ever see him without a blanket are me and my trainer, and it's not like she'll kick me out of the barn for a bad clip job.
DeleteTried wet clipping a woolly mammoth pony last spring after reading that a friend who body clips multiple (cushingoid) horses 3-4 times a year does it that way. Agreed that it's quicker, easier on the clippers and I breathed way less hair. It's worth clipping just to reveal those dapples! ;D
ReplyDeleteCushings is the worst for clipping, so she should know! Agree, those dapples give me heart eyes when I uncover them
DeleteLOL I almost always wet clip because ain't nobody got time to wait for a pony to dry.
ReplyDeleteTIL! Haha. Usually I time my clips to where I clip on the last warm day, and it's usually windy ahead of a cold front, so he air dries fast. But I didn't have that kind of time this time.
DeleteI had no idea this was a thing. I just clipped Cosmo or the second time this weekend, and between the long thick hair that took forever to dry and his size (plus he gets a full clip, totally nakey that one) it took me 4 hours bath to sweep. I know I'll be clipping again so I'll have to try wet clipping. I like the idea of less hair blowing around, but I wonder if I'll be able to keep him wet enough while I clip (it usually takes 1.5-2 hrs just for clipping part). I guess then I could really do a wet/dry side-by-side comparison!
ReplyDeleteIf it takes you a long time you may want to consider re-wetting him halfway through. Connor is so small, it only takes me about 45 minutes to do all of him, and since I started with the parts that dry fastest (neck and chest) he was still wet enough everywhere else by the time I got to them.
DeleteI wash, let dry, then douse my horse in this magical mix of baby oil and showsheen. While it doesn't cut the time down, it DOES make the clipping way easier. The blades don't get as hot. The hair doesn't fly around into you mouth and in your clothes. And it makes clipping with less than sharp blades easy peasy. Supposedly it makes your blades last longer, but I don't know about that. The only bad part is when they roll after getting clipped the dirt sticks.
ReplyDeleteI've tried Showsheen and really wasn't happy with it. Not baby oil though! I did condition his entire body in his bath before I started and I feel like that helped. Anything that helps them glide better.
DeleteMy small plug for Equifuse as always haha: The EquiFuse rehydrinse leave on conditioner makes it easy to clip the hair off too!
DeleteI did not know wet clipping was a thing - though I'll be honest, I just keep paying someone else to clip my horses because they need to look halfway decent and I'm not good at it.
ReplyDeleteHe looks great! I had never heard of wet clipping until you mentioned it last year. I've gotten really allergic, so I pay someone else to do it now. But will keep this in mind in case I have to do it myself for some reason!
ReplyDeleteDo you re-wet him as you go? I have unintentionally tried wet clipping before (when I started at a dry section and reached a still wet sections) and I couldn't get it to work. Maybe my blades weren't sharp enough? I dunno, I do sharpen them after every use.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea you could wet clip! I learn so much from your blog.
ReplyDelete