Question:
My Pony HATES clippers!!!?
JokesOnYou
2009-02-17 16:39:15 UTC
I own a 9yr old 14.1hh Appaloosa Pony. He wasnt ridden for 3 years, his owner got too big for him and lost interest in him. A person at the barn rode him like 1x a week for only a month though. When the owners got him, I guess he was really trained but the ex owners just wanted to ride for fun. I show in Hunter and love it. Ive been riding for 4yrs? I started leasing my pony in Nov. and my parents bought him for me for Christmas. Were now schooling about 2'6 and he's amazing on the flat and jumping. My trainer has helped me so much, shes the best trainer Ive ever had out of like 8. lol Im her only student and get one hour private lessons. Hes improved so much, he gets his leads right and loves to jump, he tucks his knees right in and keeps his ears forward. Hes SOOO ADORABLE, I just want the judges to see how cute he is too. It took awhile to clip his chin and he wont even let me near his ears. I have the WAHL silent ,cordless clippers too. I want to show him alot this year. We already did a show in Nov. and he did amazing 3 blues, 1 second, and 1fifth (which was my fault). A girl at the barn clipped his chin and ONE ear. They had to restrain him and could only get one ear done. I have a show on Sat. February 21. Were doing the 2' course and w/t/c. I really need some advice to get his ears clipped. I tried feeding him treats to distract him while clipping but it didnt work so ANY advice would work! THANKS!

P.S -
My mom REFUSES Twitch him which we did last time and she doesnt want to sedate him either. So theres prob not many more options but please any advice will help!!!

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-TqRwiAGc
Seven answers:
PeaBee
2009-02-17 17:05:35 UTC
Unfortunately, the person who forced him to clip one ear made the problem worse. Now you have to work thru that issue instead of doing him cooperatively.



You have to retrain him to give at the poll quietly in a halter while you handle the ear without the clipper. You must give release when he drops his head. Roll your hand from the mane forward and ask for a poll drop. Progress to rubbing the inside of the ear. Then work the clippers at a distance and ask for the poll drop. Move the clippers to the neck and ask for the poll drop. Let them vibrate in increments up to the ear. This won't be accomplished in a few minutes. If you don't understand this method, print this and find a horseman who does and let them help you. Otherwise, everyone will tell you to twitch or force the clipping and that absolutely does not help you to train this horse to accept the clippers. Working it in stages with the poll drop and relaxation does.
love beatles
2009-02-17 17:03:43 UTC
well i was going to recommend twitching him, but your mom refuses. what kind of twitch did you use on him? was it a metal one or a plastic one? did you use it on his top lip, bottom lip, or both? and does your mom realize that when you twitch a horse you're not hurting them, you're simply numbing them and putting them in a more calm state? we used to twitch my horse because he had some serious issues with his ears (previous owner was careless and put his cribbing collar on too tight and it caused some nasty embedding into his skin around his ears/throat latch, so he had some issues with people even touching he ears) and when we twitched him, he was totally cool about the whole clipping ordeal.

now besides twitching, you need to not feed your horse treats when you're clipping him, especially if he's is behaving badly. because then you are simply rewarding bad behavior, so stop giving treats during clipping, only give them after the clipping is done and only if he was a good boy. If he was bad, then no treats period.

what i also found w/ horses that are problem clippers putting a chain over their nose works out pretty well. the trick is to have both a chain over the nose and a regular lead rope attached to the halter in a normal way. hold your horse primarily with the regular lead rope and keep a lot of slack with the chain. when the horse acts up, pull on the chain so the horse understands that what they did was not ok, and then give them the slack back. (get two people for this, but you should probably have two people no matter what, just in case)

the best thing you can do is to keep working with your horse so that eventually getting clipped is no big deal what-so-ever. try to clip him once every other week, just getting random stray hairs, but not full on clipping the horse. this will get him used to the noise and hopefully your horse will be cool with clipping.
Stephaniieee =]
2009-02-17 16:51:21 UTC
the best thing to do is to turn on your clippers and hold them near his ears and face. chances are he's more startled by the noise, rather then the actual clipping. make sure you do this daily and handle his face and ears whenever possible. (rub inside them and play with them and all that) also, when it does come time to clip his ears, do it after he's had a nice long workout. when he's tired he won't be willing to fight as much.

why doesn't your mom want to twitch him?

sometimes that's all a horse really needs to get through a clipping.

i can understand not wanting to constantly sedate him, but twitches aren't exactly bad.
Learning Daily
2009-02-17 17:03:43 UTC
don't clip his ears or his whiskers. He needs that hair to help keep bugs and things out of there. If you feel the need to "clean him up" for shows. use scissors and trim the hair back flush with his ear opening. Most horses will allow that.



As for his whiskers, He can not see his nose. A horses whiskers are just as sensitive as a cats and tell the horse what is around his muzzle, how close he is to something, if it is hard or yielding. They are important.



there is alot of pressure to clip everything on your horse. ears, chin, fetlocks, goat hairs. But honestly except for in hand there is no point reduction for not trimming . Many of the riders on the USET dont trim whiskers and some dont trim ears even.
?
2016-09-11 09:59:47 UTC
It seems like your gonna must re teach him ALL another time! Best guess is that if you'll be able to discover a teacher. And if you happen to cant do this then the opposite matters identification let you know is, both promote him for whatever you might desire or if you happen to might desire to teach him do exactly something at a time like sooner or later simply paintings on lounging and getting him in ahead movement do this till he will get it!! dont out him away till he does it proper or just about proper, however whilst u dont desire to pissed off him both so if he does get pissed off then stroll him across the area a few times and check out once more! But dont placed him away until u get what u r watching for or near.
HM
2009-02-17 16:50:49 UTC
With my horse i tie him tight and put my fingers under his top lip and my thubm on the outside and flip his lip out. he normally sets back on the rope but then he will let me clip him
?
2009-02-18 11:24:21 UTC
Tell your mom to go away and just use the twitch.


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