Acck Clippers!!!

Deuce has really taken everything I had introduced to him this past year in stride, the jumping, the trailering  the lessons, the dressage  the blankets,  the mane pulling and braiding....  He really has stetted into the event horse life quite well. However there is one thing that he has not wanted any part of  whatsoever and that was CLIPPERS! (insert dismal sounding music here)

I learned early on that the sweet, mellow easy going horse became a very worried, very alert 'fraidy pants as soon as the clippers clicked on. In fact, the first time I showed him clippers, he through it in reverse and ran backwards down the barn isle and out the door. Poor guy! So.. I slowly oh so slowly started introducing the noise to him on and off early last year. Then I sorta stopped for awhile. He had gotten slightly better about being in the same space as the clippers but he still was a loaded canon waiting to exploded if I got near him with the buzzing. So I put clipping on the back burner and figured I would do his whiskers and other long hairs with scissors and if we went to body clipping we'd slip him a little cocktail to take the edge off.

Well, I didn't get around to body clipping this year. He's actually got a thinner coat and my routine of riding him first then working with Flash while he cools out and dries off under a cooler works out pretty well.

Anyway... tonight...was salon night. I was doing some mane pulling and braiding practice and then I decided to cut his bridle path. I went to get my scissors and saw my bag of carrots sitting on top of my clippers box and thought  "hmmm maybe tonight I'll try clippers and carrots and see how far we get".

Deuce LOVES carrots so my plan had potential to work.
On the clippers clicked...  He gave the spooky eye and thought about backing up a step but I presented a carrot and the carrot won over the fear of clippers. So while he munched I turned the cliipers off then on again and got them closer to him... and another carrot he got. I did this over and over as my bag of carrots got smaller and smaller and Deuce was getting sorta happy when the clippers came on. Then I was touching him with the clippers. Once they were on him, he was totally fine. So I proceeded to clip his whiskers and trim up the winter wool around his head. He's so tidy now and over his fear of clippers! Woo hoo!