Yes, I have another clipping question :-)

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Cayuse

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I know, just what everyone wants to hear about. ANOTHER clipping/coat question. So I will thank everyone in advance.

Here goes. My new mini was body came to me just starting to shed out, so I body clipped him. He looked great. This was about two months ago. I wormed him with Panacur 10 days ago and about five days after he starting shedding heavily, currycombs full of hair. Now his coat has thickened up and he need to be clipped again. He is still shiney and it is not a winter type coat, just thicker, denser.

So, my question is do minis usually need a midsummer clipping or could the coat change be from the worming?

I have heard that sometimes horses big and little will drop their coat after being wormed, but this has never happened to me before.

Thanks!
 
Some of our Shetlands would shed off in the spring and be really short and glossy, then denser, short hair would come in during the "dog days" of summer. I always figured it was a "silver" thing - because I only noticed it on some of the silvers and that it was protection in the heat and humidity as it always seemed denser at a time like this when we've had steady temps in the mid 90s and higher + 85 - 100% humidity. Others have such fine coats that if they rub at all or even when they roll in the sand, the hair sometimes disappears! Quite weird.

When body clipped, I have noticed that the coat eventually comes back in much denser on any of them - sometimes with "guard hairs" as well (eww). The guard hairs show on this mare (not as well as I thought) - but she is only trace clipped and this is March, so we didn't reclip her, but just groomed like mad!

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Sometimes we re-clipped them, depended on how they were doing and what we were doing with them. Other than 2012 & 2013, we haven't shown ASPC/AMHR and those ponies were clipped by the trainers handling/showing them.

I imagine this is why so many folks clip their minis before every show, though I don't know that for sure. If you aren't showing, I would think that clipping again would be totally up to you.
 
Thanks for the answers. I was suspicious of it being a "mini Thing". I just finished clipping him and he has gone from bright bay with dark points to a almost buckskin color. He has a black strip down the side of his neck, and a black patch across his bum (almost like a dorsal strip on the side of his neck and then the "donkey cross marking on his heiney instead of across his withers, if that makes any sense) He has the dark masking on his face, too, that some buckskins get. I think he just missed being one. Or if he is one, everything went

"a little bit sideways"

He was a good little man for the clippers. Had him done except the legs in less than an hour.
 
When you clip, you are removing the shaft of the hair - where most, if not all, of the color is located. So, yes, a body clipped horse will sometimes look very different. Our black looked "blue" or maybe "gunmetal grey", some of our silvers looked blue and some looked "pink" - w/ one decidedly pink looking, LOL. Chestnuts often look orange. Bays are every shade, but usually a dull color until their coats come back a bit. Bays do often have "counter shading" - making them look like buckskins when clipped. Or they could be carriers of the "wild bay" - which will definitely have counter shading, often barring, and the cross - just like the original wild horses that were bays and buckskins or duns. Color geneticists are changing how they think about bay - and that it's not a modifier on black BUT instead is the "original" color and that w/o it, you have the modified colors of black and red... It's an interesting concept - that's sure.

In 2010, I joked about my blue shetland baby and the pink shetland baby (both were stud colts and both are now geldings). I took pictures at a point that wasn't such a good idea and then didn't get more. The Shetland Pony Forum folk thought I was so "cruel" to post these photos. We were trying to figure out the real color of the "pink" fellow (pretty sure he's a smokey silver - Ee, aa, nCr, nZ, tt - but never actually had him color tested. His dam is EE, aa, nz, tT and sire should be something like this - ee, ??<bay>, nCr, n?<silver>).

Our "blue baby" is Cupid - hours old with his dam - in February. Cupid was tested before gelding him - he is homozygous black, no agouti(bay), single silver, homozygous tobiano.

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2 months old -

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Don't know when we clipped him - but he's now 4 months and he hasn't been clipped long. We did eventually get his head/throat latch area, belly, stifle, gaskin and forearms done. Never did do his lower legs... Wish I had before/after pics the day of clipping -
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And our "pink baby" is Ranger, born on May 1st. 4 days old with his dam (like Cupid's dam, she is homozygous black, no agouti, single silver, single tobiano)-

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Don't his legs and "britches" look pink????

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This is the 15th of June, so he's 6 weeks old. Again, not sure exactly when we got him done...

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Ranger (pink baby) - in Oct 2010, after his baby coat grew back -

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In May 2011 - after body clipping to treat for lice and dealing w/ an eye injury (flying debris during those tornados)...

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Shed out in later Aug 2013 - no clipping.

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Already getting his winter coat! He hasn't been body clipped since 2011.

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Full winter coat - not even letting it go yet!!

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Slick and shiny and shed out (for a month or so)... Didn't even do a lot of grooming!

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Clem and Major shed out almost slick in May/June, now they are growing thicker coats too. I'm planning on driving Clem heavily this fall after my son starts school so I think I'll clip her down in the next week or so. They never seem to have a hard time growing winter coat. Can you say YAK??
 
Consider doing a trace clip - their backs stay warm in cold/wet weather - yet they have major muscle groups below the traces (hence the term - "trace clip") free. Makes groom simpler (they can still get a sweated wet coat "up top" if not conditioned or if worked too hard on a hotter winter day).
 
The other bonus to a trace clip (which I think I will do so thank you for the suggestion) is that non horse people think you just like to shave your horse in a really strange way
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Thanks for the pictures of Ranger wearing his pink panties! And the color explainations, too. I hope his eye healed up well from his injury. He has a sweet face.
 
Actually, his eye didn't and now he is pretty much blind. It doesn't seem to bother him except when it drains excessively at times. The vet thinks a pine tree got him? There were lots of punctures in his eye... He's doing well, happily adjusted and goes to events sometimes. I've got plans to get him going in harness and never quite manage to get 'roundtoit'. If you find one of those 'roundtoit's, let me know, I need more than one!!!

Here's what it looked like when he was first injured. I didn't caption the photo - But wrote this under it in the google album - "17 May 2011 - Ranger's left eye is totally red & draining. It appears to be shrinking."

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"25 May 2012 - left eye 13 months after injury."

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He still runs with the boys!

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He does have a sweet face and he's a good boy. Thank you.
 
I had another post started and was just too tired, but when I wrote the other one a little while ago it disappeared...
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Here is our black stallion (homozygous black, homozygous tobiano) - when he was clipped in 2000.

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just about finished with his body clip in 2005...

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about 2.5 months later - right after the 1st of a series of open shows where he is presented as a hunter pony along with some of his offspring. He had turned 13 in May. He was with us for another 7 years and we've very much enjoyed his last son - who has just sired his first son!

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and when you combine trace clipping with a pinto coat - the colors are quite wild. I have pics of Arabians, 1/2 Arabians (some 1/2 shetland), ShetlandXs and purebred Shetlands all trace clipped - riding horse folk REALLY think you are crazy when they are trace clipped. If you want to see more pics...
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and sometimes, when the kids involved, the trace clips went a little "high". LOL.
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That's a shame about Ranger. I had a POA mare loose partial vision in her left eye. She had a fungal infection that "outran" the treatments and ended up having a conjunctival graft done on the eye. We never knew what she did to the eye initially. It presented as a scratched cornea and we treated it immediately, but within 48 hours she was at the clinic. It was a long haul with eye drops for months after and for six weeks she had a small catheter inserted through the lower lid to administer the meds through. She adapted to the partial loss just fine.

You should get a "roundtoit" and start him, he is cute. I bet he'd like a job.
 
Eye injuries...uhg. A nightmare.

I clipped my Dapper Dan again today. He was rubbing on stuff and seemed uncomfortable, even after thorough brushings. I got a 5 gallon bucket of hair off him. And there were tell tale little black spots, which usually mean fungus, so I'm glad I clipped again. We have had a really wet year so far here. I used the fungal shampoo for his bath, since I am out of Granpa's Pine Tar shampoo. On the list to order... I think I will do Rowdy next week before the parade.
 
Yes, eye injuries can be awful. We had one mare that routinely got eye infections - also her left eye. And our Arab mare got a scratch on the cornea of her right eye - which then went to an infection. We must have stuck our tongues out right and crossed our toes, 'cuz we caught it and were lucky to not have to do a drain or take her to the vet hospital. We were treating it and flushing it 5x a day (human 'scrips that the vet prescribed) and sometimes that was ROUGH - but she retained her eye and full eyesight till she passed peacefully at 21 years of age last year.

And then Ranger in 2011 and Bit. Bit was actually sold to me as blind in her left eye in September 2009, but we checked her out and she was A-OK. However, she has gradually developed cataracts (? - can't remember if that's what it is?) and her left eye has also shrunk and become 1/2 what it was. Due to her age (born in 91 - so 25 this year) and she doesn't appear to be in any pain, we've opted not to remove that eye (talked about it with 4 vet hospitals last year - price ranged from $450 - $1,250 depending on where). She is now starting to develop the same blue spots in her right eye that she got first in her left, so not sure how long she'll be able to see and what, exactly, we will be doing with her when we reach that point. Right now, she's happy in the pasture with the JR mares and her sister. One of our granddaughters has started riding her...
 
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Help! I am new to body clipping. What are the best clippers to use? We have an older Wahl that we use for bridle path and other trimming of our big horses. I am wondering if I need something with a little more zip for a body clip.

Has anyone used Andis Excel 5? If so, what are your thoughts? Advice please...

Thanks
 
I have Double K clippers that have the motor separate from the clippers and they work pretty good. I also have Wahl clippers, KM10's I think, and they do a great job body clipping.

If the Wahl clippers you have are the smaller ones, you will need something more poweful to body clip with or you will bog down and get nowhere.

I am not familiar with the Andis Excel clipper that you mention, so I'm no help there!
 

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