# Clipping my horse's ears???



## Breella (May 26, 2012)

Why are you using clippers on her ears?


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## Hannah N Holly (Jun 13, 2012)

I am using the clippers on her ears for our show


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

You don't _have_ to clip the insides of her ears, you know. It won't count against you in the ring.

When I was showing, I just clipped the outside of the ears and the hairs sticking out to give them a cleaner appearance.


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## Hannah N Holly (Jun 13, 2012)

she even hates it on the outside of her ears and anywhere near them. But all of the shows i have been to, you get extra points (you could say) if you do the inside of their ears because my instructor is a judge. I wish that wouldn't matter though lol!


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## donovan (Jun 11, 2009)

You should not actually clip in their ears as they use the hairs to keep dirt out it their ears
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Eileen (Aug 25, 2010)

One reason they don't like clippers is because they sound like a very big bug to get away from.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

I understand about the showing, and I personally prefer the look of a cleanly clipped ear, though I don't do it often for my mostly pleasure horses. 

First off, start by thinking about this from the horse's point of view. There's just no reason that they should tolerate having clippers near their ears (from their point of view.) They seem like nothing else but the world's biggest, loudest biting insect trying to get inside their ear. Besides being loud, and vibrating, they smell funny! 

Try putting cotton fairly far down in the horse's ears, below where you clip the hair, to minimize the noise factor.

The rest is just classic desensitization. Use the clippers and work closer and closer to her ears, praising lavishingly when she tolerates the clippers a little closer. Give her a treat and quit. Repeat daily or even more loften, leaving the clippers on longer and getting closer each time. Keep the sessions brief and reward often. You want her to associate the buzzing and tickling with GOOD things. 

It may take you several weeks or longer to improve her clipper behavior, and you may end up going to some shows with partially fuzzy ears until you've completed the desensitization.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

Putting flame suit firmly on; IMO and IME, the hair in a horse's ears is remarkablely ineffective at providing any protection. I've never bought into the whole "It's cruel to clip the ears because you're removing the natural protection" idea. It may be cruel because the horse is convinced that the world's largest bumble bee is attacking their ears, but not because you're removing the hair. 

I've experimented with leaving the ears natural and clipping during the summer months and the inside of the ear gets just as raw from gnats and no see 'ems either way. Personally, I prefer the clipped ear, because if you try to put Swat or petroleum jelly in the unclipped ear, you make an unholy mess with the hair, blood and insect grit. I also prefer the clipped ear because I'm immediately aware when they're getting bitten up and know when to reapply SWAT. 

If a horse was going to be turned out 24/7 and not have anyone look at it for weeks, yes, I'd leave the ears fuzzy. If they're being checked out even weekly, I'd still clip the ears. 

If my horse hated it and through a temper tantrum every time I tried to clip ears? I'd do the best I could with scissors first in order to minimize the amount of time the clippers were on, but I'd still clip ears.


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## Eileen (Aug 25, 2010)

Boy are you brave to use scissors I would be afraid I would cut the ear,


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## stingerscricket (Oct 3, 2011)

To get my mare used to the clippers, I started out using an electric toothbrush and just pet her all over her neck and face/ears while holding the toothbrush. The sound the electric toothbrush makes is not as loud as clippers, so once she could care less about the toothbrush being near her I moved on to the clippers and she was very tolerant.


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## Eileen (Aug 25, 2010)

Good idea I'm going to try that.


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## maura (Nov 21, 2009)

That is a great idea, Cricket! Brilliant, in fact!


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## stingerscricket (Oct 3, 2011)

why thank you  Hope it works well for you guys too!


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## Spirit Lifter (Apr 23, 2012)

I use scissors and it puts her to sleep. Snip, rub (thumb on inside of ear), snip rub...she loves it!!! I just won clippers at a tack auction so we'll see how the scissors to clipper transition goes!


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## SassaSavvy (Jun 14, 2012)

A human hand massager is good for desensitizing. While desensitizing my horse one day I accidentally clipped her mane just a bit. Also I hold the ear closed with a firm grip to stop the vibrating down into the ear. No wimpy grips or my horse starts shaking her head because it tickles. I don't do the inside, but you might be able to grip the ear between your thumb and forefinger lower than you are clipping to stop the tickle.


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

Horses have hair inside their ears for a purpose - to keep flies and dirt out of the ears. 
It should never be clipped out and if you had ever had to treat a horse that had a hay see inside its ear then you never would.

As said it will not count against you at a show if the ears are just tidied up by trimming any hair sticking out.


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## Eileen (Aug 25, 2010)

After looking back at pictures of my horses I noticed that I didn't clip inside their ears but around them to clean them up a bit. I do remeber being told that the hair inside is important not so much for keeping dirt out but bugs like flies and any buzzing but out of them.


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## faye (Oct 13, 2010)

Actualy the vast majority of show horses in the UK have stripped out ears.

Never heard of anyone whoshorse has gotten hay in thier ears. do you still feed fromhay racks that are above the horses? if so that is not only very unnatural for a horse but encourages all sorts of respiratory issues.

I cant stand hairy ears on horses.


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## spurstop (Mar 22, 2012)

Do you have someone who can help you twitch her? 

My horse is clipped regularly and doesn't care to have her ears done, so she's just twitched. Way easier than a fight.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

To be totally competitive, you need a peeled out ear, looks neater, sharper, and yes, judges notice. Great tips with the electric tooth brush, but come show day, if your horse fidgets & his ears looks ragged from him moving around while you are trying to clip, twitch him to fix it up. After a few years, they finally give up & stay still. My horse did, I even worked with him as a foal on the de-sensitizing with clippers & ears. He was fine & stayed still except with his left ear (his sire & 1/2 sister were the same with same ear, odd?), now he just lets me & even lowers his head & tilts his ear towards me. Guess he decided he didn't like twitch. Good Luck!


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## MidsummerFable (Jun 18, 2012)

I clip about 10-20 horse's for each of our shows. We used to twitch them all and get it over with quick with no fight. But now I can clip many of them with no twitch and on the naughty ones I have a helper hold the horse still. 
I've tried stuffing cotton in one of our horse's ears but that annoyed him too much and just shook his head till I took it out.
If the horse is super bad (rearing, kicking out, pulling back, etc) we may give them a little ace and twitch them for the first time and get it over with quick. The second time they'll be better with it and we'll use only a twitch, once they get to be better about it i'll start them without the twitch and if they're still naughty I put it back on.
It helps the most if you can have a helper to hold the horse's other ear so they're not moving away from you continuously. Then right before I go inside deep in the ear I will tell my helper and they hold the ear a little bit harder and then release the pressure when I'm done or the horse relaxes.

It's a lot of give and take on the helper's part, cause they are training the horse to know what behavior is good and bad. While I clip I try to be as fast as possible, and i've found if I hook a finger into the back lower outside of their ear they sit still a lot better.


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## Palomine (Oct 30, 2010)

Using clipper blades that are not sharp can be one of the problems here. If you haven't had your clippers oiled, cleaned and blades sharpened, do so. They will need to be taken care of well, so as to be less aggravating or even painful.

Also, use of a product like Kool Lube, or something similar helps keep the heat of the blade from being so hot. Clean and oil your blades before storing in between times too.

A twitch helps, and the more often you do this, the better. I've only seen one Saddlebred that had to be tranq'ed, and there are a couple of QH's.


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## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

For years we used the old hand clippers for the ears. They make very little noise and it's not a buzzing sound.


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## horsefan3000 (Jun 13, 2012)

:rofl::happydanceO NOT USE CLIPPERS ON HIS EARS!!!! the hair inside the horses ears help protect ageist bugs:rofl::happydance:


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## HagonNag (Jul 17, 2010)

We don't show and our horses have hairy ears. We just clip it even so it doesn't stick outside the edge of the ear. Show horses sure look nice, but every time I hear what they have to put up with, I'm sure ours are just as happy to avoid the whole mess.


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