At 15:46:52 on 14.03.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
Maybe try with a hand held manual pair of clippers first to get him used to it? We always start with these when we teach a horse that clippers aren't scary and it usually works then once he is totally happy with these bring in the electric clippers.

At 15:48:09 on 14.03.10, JessAndGrenville123 wrote:
By the way sorry if someone else already suggested this i didn't read all the comments :)

At 20:37:09 on 14.03.10, Dusty03 wrote:
I just think some horses don't like us taking out their hair. My gelding used to go nuts when I took scissors to his mane. I couldn't even think about pulling it. Dusty had been imprinted and clipped since he was born. He still won't allow me to clip against the hair in his bridle path without a twitch. Going towards his hears is tricky enough. Now I can lay the clippers on his neck all day long but the second you put the blade down he tweaks. Once I put a little twitch on his nose, he goes right to sleep and I can do anything to him. I do hate to twitch him and always give him a chance to be a good boy first. My mare on the other hand she has never been clipped until I got her at 4. I have clipped her 3 times. Everytime I get the clippers out she acts like they are going to kill her. She stands there trembling for about 1 minute. I let them run against her neck until she calms down. I start with her face which she allows quite easily. She does not like her bridle path done either, I only do hers an inch for the bridle. On a bad day she was throw her head at me and try to toss me into walls. On her good day she just stood there. On her bad clipping days after I tell her she can't throw me into walls she straightens up and just stands there. That what I get for having a boss mare. Twitches do not work on her, we tried to twitch her for her shots, and I thought she was going to attack us. She was growling at us as soon as the twitch was on. I always used to have to keep dusty twitched for his shots he was nasty. She is the same way, why do I attract horses who hate needles. Hopefully she grows out of it like him.

At 12:10:17 on 15.03.10, spotty boy wrote:
Thanks for all your thoughts. I bought a pair of the hand held clippers and can't get them to cut anything. How do you set them up? I've tried different tensions. Is it because I'm left handed? I've tried introducing the clippers slowly and last year got as far as running them all over him but as soon as the blades cut any hair, with or against the grain, he just wont have any of it. Have even resorted to using a comb and scissors - not pretty, he did tolerate this but you couldn't do any serious area lol. He even let me trim his beard with the scissors, thats an improvement, can't get near his ears though.

At 09:27:07 on 18.03.10, flashboy wrote:
hi hi might not like to feel of them on him if you can start them up and then put them near him put with your other hand go against his fur and if hes good tell him put just keep on trying

At 10:37:26 on 18.03.10, YasandCrystal wrote:
You could try a battery massager, they make a buzzing noise and obviously make the heavy vibration too and no risk of dropping and breaking clippers. My mare loves the massager!!

At 08:05:16 on 19.03.10, Flicka wrote:
The manual clippers sound a good idea to get a horse used to having hair removed-hope you can get them to work though Spotty Boy, they might be loaded somehow for a right hand person!! Think Yas's suggestion for battery massager though is a really good way to get them to associate the vibration with something nice. And if they don't like it you can always use it on yourself!

At 19:36:49 on 21.03.10, spotty boy wrote:
I like the sound of that massager, think I'd be getting somneone to use it on me first, just to make sure it works you understand lol. Are they freely available?

At 16:01:08 on 07.04.10, ToriSilverson wrote:
my horse is like this, hes an eejit tho. when we got him he freaked at getting shod, we used the twitch, and now he can b shod with just a bridle on. hes an angel for the vet. but those clippers! u may as well hav a chainsaw coming at him lol even when the cob mare in the stable next 2 him had her mane hogged he freaked. we eventually had 2 sedate him 2 clip him. he wont even let them near him to try desensitizing him to them =/

At 15:29:34 on 14.05.10, Sophiee wrote:
My horses was like this to begin with, it didn't help that the clippers were dead noisy, So i borrowed some quiter ones and he settled a little. He also hated the feeling to begin with, if he's fine with you running your fingers through his coat the wrong way he's probably just scared of the noise or the large vibrating thing you are sttroking him with. Maybe just try and do little bits at a time, Pop got more tolerant as I did more.. I didn't all the comments so soz if this has already been mentioned..