# Body Clipping a Cushings Horse for Summer



## MN Tigerstripes

My old mare has mild Cushings and has not lost all of her summer coat. Most of the long guard hairs are gone, but the thick "undercoat" type hair is still there and still pretty thick. 

Or weather has been really hot, humid, and just plain nasty this year, so I'm thinking I need to body clip her. Problem? I've never body clipped a horse before. It's really odd the areas in which my equine education is lacking eh? 

Any bits of advice? Good articles? 

Last year she lost all of her coat, except some long guard hairs, by the end of July. I'm worried that she'll end up having heat exhaustion/stroke if I wait for that to happen. Besides which I'm not sure if it IS going to happen. She seems to do a different hair thing every summer. Poor girl has been just dripping sweat on more than one occaision, I've actually gone out and sprayed her off and she just stands there with her eyes half closed. 

Thanks for the advice!


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## maura

Body Clipping 101 -

Start with a clean horse and a fresh pair of clipper blades. 

Have blade wash, oil, a brush for the clippers and clean towels readily on hand. 

Wear old clothes and eye protection (safety glasses or something similiar) 

Clip from the tail and go forward, clipping against the hair direction. Clip the legs last, and consider skipping them if your horse is fussy or the hair on them is light. Brush off the clippers, dip in blade wash and oil often. Check the temperature of the blades against your hand often. 

Anything that looks rough or uneven, run the clippers over again. 

Consider having a friend with a pair of clippers come and do one side while you do the other. Goes faster, easier on the horse and then you have someone to hold a foreleg out while you clip the girth area, bend the head and neck, etc. 

The horse will appreciate being hot toweled or rinsed off after the clip. 

That's the big stuff. The difference between a good clip and a bad one is usually about two weeks, not that it matters since you're mostly doing this for the horse's comfort. 

PS - I know several people who clip Cushing's horses in the summer, I clipped my Appy pony in April because of the heat.


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## MN Tigerstripes

Thanks! Do I use a blade guard or anything? Just lay the blade against the horse? I feel like such a twit for not knowing this.... Oh well, you can't know everything right?

I have a friend who is experienced (show world for many many years) w/ clipping and she's supposed to come help. But she isn't that terrible reliable and I'd like to get this done before I go on vacation for the weekend.


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## draftrider

No blade guard. If you don't want to take off quite as much, run the clippers WITH the lay of the hair rather than against.

Make sure after clipping you keep fly spray on her for sure.


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## MN Tigerstripes

Thank you. Hopefully I can get started tonight. Poor horse is just miserable. I had been a little indecisive too because she is more protected from the swarms of mosquitos, but it's getting too hot...


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## Starlet

i would recomend a fly sheet if you clip alot of hair off. it will protect from bugs and some fly sheets even protect the horses skin from sunburning.


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## MN Tigerstripes

I don't have a fly sheet yet, but she will be heavily bug sprayed until I get a chance to buy/make one. At this point I am way more concerned with her having trouble with the heat than with the bugs. She'll still have as much hair as my gelding and he's surviving just fine, even if he is annoyed... I'm pretty sure she'll be fine on the sunburning too as she's a bay.

Thanks for the response though. I will be attempting a trace clip tonight, figured I should start small and work my way up.


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## Starlet

ok i didn't know if you were doing an absolute super shave or a trim. sorry im just very protective of horses. even if they aren't my own:lol:


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## MN Tigerstripes

So am I, that's why she's getting clipped.  She has as much hair as my gelding does in the winter still. Poor girl is just dying. During the day she has sweat literally dripping off of her body. She's 30 yrs old, has mild Cushings, and is arthritic pretty much all over. Looks **** good despite all of that though.  I'm just trying to keep her as comfortable as possible. If I had the facilities and she wasn't arthritic I would maybe keep her inside during the day w/ a couple of fans on her and just turnout at at night. Unfortunatley with her arthritis that would be the end of her. I spoke with my vet and she agreed this was the best course of action, so here I am FINALLY learning how to clip a horse. Thankfully she's a patient girl and trusts me, so we should be fine even though she's never been clipped before. 

My parent's bought her as a weanling shortly after I was born, so we've spent our lives together besides the short time I was gone for college. Mom always said I was her favorite and that when I moved home her whole personality brightened. Sorry I get a little sentimental sometimes.

If I seemed a little snappy earlier I apologize, I just get a little defensive when people question my care of my darlings. I'm quite a bit more educated (in some areas, namely nutrition and elderly horse care) than your average backyard horse owner and I do a lot of research before making any changes to their lifestyles. So I hope I didn't offend.


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## MN Tigerstripes

Well, I got a trace clip done last week. She's definitely more comfy, but she looks terrible.  The clippers got really nasty really quick with her sweat soaked hair. I ended up using a #5 blade on part of her because the #10 took off almost all of the hair and I thought she would get eaten alive. 

Of course, now she's starting to shed more hair off the rest of her body. I might clip some more of her this weekend though. Our heat index is supposed to be like 103 today. I'm a little worried about her. Hopefully I can get off early and go home to check on her.


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## maura

MN,

Your reference to #5 and #10 blades make me think you're using something similiar to an A-5 clipper with snap-on blades? Really not truly a body clipper? Which is a good way to ruin an expensive pair of clippers. What you need, even to do a trace clip on a full coated horse, is something like this:

Dover Saddlery | Oster Variable Speed Clipmaster Horse Clipper .

the important feature is the adjustable tension on the blades.


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## MN Tigerstripes

Yes, I am using a snap on blade clipper.... I didn't even know there were different types. I feel like and idiot now. Well next time I'll get even more specific with my questions. My friend (who body clips her dogs) told me that these clippers could handle the job, she paid like $200 for them. The other horse friend told me they would do it too.. But that would explain the overheating in like 10 minutes probably huh? 

I'll have to save up then and buy some good clippers. Thanks for letting me know.. At least I learned something new and didn't kill her clippers!


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## maura

I should have been clearer - some of the really expensive snap on blade clippers can do a body clip; but on a horse that is clipped regularly, like a show horse kept under lights. We used to use them to do the head and neck clips on foals. 

When I worked at hunt/show/event barns, you always had two sets of clippers - the big, heavy duty body clippers with the tension screw like I linked to and a smaller set for trim work. The smaller set was sometimes a just an ear and head trimmer; the better arrangement was if the smaller set was the snap on blade type like an Oster A - 5. You could use them for legs, the head and any touchy, ticklish areas, not just ears and muzzle. 

Sooooooooooo....

If you clipped your Cushing's horse frequently, before the hair got long and coarse, you'd probably be okay with the snap on blade type. 

But if the horse has a lot of coat, you want the type I linked to. It's also *tons* faster. 

Also, the snap on blade type, even with a 5 blade, clips closer than the body clipper, not necessarily a good thing in the middle of summer. 

HTH

And bless you for going to all this work to make this horse comfortable.


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## MN Tigerstripes

Thanks Maura, really it's easy to do all this work for her. I've had her forever and she put up with so much crap when I was a teenager going through those "run fast, ride hard" years. Not only do I owe it to her, but I love her, so it's a pleasure to see her doing so well now. She had a couple of really rough years where she was morbidly obese all her hair fell out and my parents thought she wouldn't make another year. I moved home, put her on a diet, started hand walking her and the difference is amazing. After her brother died (that was sad, they'd been together like 26-27 years never a day apart) I brought Soda home and I swear it was like turning back the clock. Anyways, I'm rambling a bit, but I'll take some pics of my motheaten girl this weekend and post them. 

Oh and I'll definitely get a pair of those clippers, thanks for the advice!


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## wyominggrandma

I used to clip my daughters cushings horse with an Oster clipper with a 10 blade. Just kept the blade cool during the clipping and traded them off alot, had two or three on hand. The clippers did a great job and never had an issue with ruining them.


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## Mingiz

I have used my 15 yro andis AG clippers for body clipping and they did fine just took longer...Just had to stop to let the clippers cool some...:wink:


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