Shaving Heads and Necks in the Winter

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(and in this case much too harshly).
Oh brother! This is why I (and many others) are now rarely posting on here. An opinion was asked - and argued against, which is why the response. Forget the fact that I have over 45 years of horse experience - and many others with even more. Won't be posting any more as I sure would't want to damage anyone's psyche.
 
I do not post as often as I do either, Jean....and this thread is a great example of why. If you read the rest of what I typed, I did mention the great advice and experience of you and others that responded. No, I do not agree with the delivery of it, however. I hope you have a great day.
 
Everyone needs to remember this was a child asking for help. Not an adult with lots of experiance.

She was told one thing and asked if it was ok or not.
 
Funny. I asked the same question about clipping the face only (not ears) a month ago, also live in Texas and had gotten way more positive responses. Either something is in the air getting everyone grouchy or this is an entirely different group of people who responded. I clipped my minis face, just the head and excluded the ears. I also don't blanket period. This is a whole different topic with the blanketing but both of my horses are happy and fine, have plenty of hay to keep them warm and a stable where the mini is indoors all night and during the cold, windy or rainy times during the day. She's very protected in there as the stable door is very high. My big gelding can go in and out as he pleases with 3 protective sides.

To the OP, maybe go locate the thread where I asked, the responses were much nicer.
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Thought I would post. The other posts I did we're (I thought) answering people's other posts. If I had good shelter or what the presentation was about. I didn't mean for it to sound like arguing. Jean, please don't let my thread keep you from being on here and spreading info. I'm sorry this thread turned out the way it did. If I could, I would delete it so that there wouldn't be any negativity in here!!! I appreciate all of the advice and concerns everyone had. And today I realized that the horses don't have any coat to shave off anyway! So, with that, I'm sorry everybody, really.
 
We live in TX also, and yes, we WILL be clipping heads in January for the Stock Show. You are even farther south than we are, I wouldn't have a problem with clipping heads down there. As long as they have shelter and you have a way to cover them should it get really cold, I'd say go for it.
 
Field of Dreams, our horses shelter comes before our own
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we are fully enclosing the barn so I don't think we will have a problem. I have a question, when you say shave, are you doing the head and neck or just the head? And what blade would you clip with? Thanks in advance
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We all have our horses best interests at heart
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.. and yes that hair coat is there for a reason, absolutely. Lots of horses are clipped before spring though for stock shows, etc and as long as you can provide appropriate shelter I wouldn't sweat head and necking them too much. Be aware, when you body clip in the spring you will probably have a visible line there for quite some time. We used to do stock show and quit mostly because I don't want to body clip this time of year. Horses were cold and it took months for their coats to come back in right. Show horses don't live in a natural environment, period. We take their hair, cover them up, keep them in stalls... in our climate head and necking is not a big stretch, and it's pretty easy to keep them covered up. When it's cold here too, it's usually cold in short spells - we don't get below freezing and stay there for days/weeks on end, we may be 25 for a couple of nights and bounce back up to 75. I do some creative clipping in winter on all the horses I work, otherwise they sweat and then don't dry.

Jan
 
I was brought up old school- if you clip, any part, anyhow, you blanket. That was it.

If you blanketed the horse properly, with a full neck (not hood, they really are not safe for any length of time unsupervised) you would be OK, but without blanketing and stalling at night, I just would not do it. I am itching to get the clippers out, but I am not going to, I shall just have to sit on my hands for another month or so.

For what it is worth, you did come over as having already made your mind up, and I can see why Jean responded as she did.

Now let's just forget it, shall we, life is too short to allow things like this to upset anyone. Jean. please don't go, we need you!!

Shalako, keep asking questions, please.....
 
Just one thing I wanna add (correct) to my previous post - I do blanket only after I body clip my mini in spring once the temps get up to around 80 during the day where I can see she's miserable and hot in her Alaska style wintercoat. Then I blanket overnight if it's still too cold.

Texas is a place where I have seen the craziest weather... From freezing water buckets in the AM to being out in shorts and sweating in the PM, I feel sorry for those horses that are blanketed 24/7 around here because the owners think they have to do it to protect them when really they're doing more harm than good once the temps rise during the day. A horse has 17 "natural blankets" by being able to adjust their coat to whatever the need is. Of course this all applies to UNclipped horses.
 
Field of Dreams, our horses shelter comes before our own
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we are fully enclosing the barn so I don't think we will have a problem. I have a question, when you say shave, are you doing the head and neck or just the head? And what blade would you clip with? Thanks in advance
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We will do a "show clip" but only down to their shoulder. The last few years we did a full clip, but it just gets too cold sometimes. We use a 10 or 15.
 
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Just a note on this subject that does not have to do with temperature but with hair color. We have head and neck clipped early in the season and later when we did a full body clip, the head and neck were a totally different shade. It looked like we put two different horses together the entire show season.
 
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Ok just a thought here on this topic. I live in Alaska where we have such short summers that our minis can't shed out fast enough but over heat with all that hair. What kind of trim should I do for her a full body cut or something else. I am going to cart her so I kind of need to know the different types. And if there are cord less clippers I could look for. I swear her hair is 1 1/2 inch long at least .
 
Yes, the head and neck shaved will affect how warm the horse will be. I am in the Northeast and winters are cold so we don't clip at all after September 1.
 
Ok just a thought here on this topic. I live in Alaska where we have such short summers that our minis can't shed out fast enough but over heat with all that hair. What kind of trim should I do for her a full body cut or something else. I am going to cart her so I kind of need to know the different types. And if there are cord less clippers I could look for. I swear her hair is 1 1/2 inch long at least .
I don't want to take away from the original poster... but I can give some examples here.

We live in NC and deal more with heat and high humidity during the winter BUT then will have extreme snow storms and cold (due now...aren't gettting hit like TX is) with ice.

I've not always had the availability of a barn. So during the winter, with horses/ponies that we were riding or doing a lot of ground work with - we did some type of trace clip. We removed the hair from the throatlatch and the underside of the neck, down over the whole chest, and along the side of the horse and the whole belly. Mane was left full and long - but usually braided during the winter. The flank was clipped over the whole area and then around between the hind legs to the butt cheecks. We usually braided the tails up, too. This wasn't for showing - just to have more time for working the ponies, get them groomed quickly before saddling or harnessing, worked - keeping them cooler and drier and then put up ON PASTURE. The first 7 years - we didn't have a barn at all -but in extreme cases of weather did have a run in shed area that when wasnt full of hay, could set up a stall for ponies/horses that needed more protection. A water resistant turn out blanket or two worked as well. Keeping manes/tails braided meant the girls (and other kids that rode w/ us) would leave them alone - meaning more time for working cooling out the pony.

Since we moved - several of our paddocks and pastures have roofs (but no windbreaking sides) and we have a barn w/ a couple of stalls, couple of pastures have trees for cover and windbreak... Still do the traceclips on most of the ponies that I work - saves me time and keeps them so much cooler when they work OR if it hit's 80/90s when in January (like expected this weekend). This year didn't get them traceclipped due to a lot of reasons - I will have ponies and full size horses w/ their heads hanging, lathered with sweat and panting this weekend and will add extra min salt and water to their feed to make sure they all drink. I don't usually do the first year weanlings/yearlings - as they aren't usually working hard enough to justify traceclipping them. Will do twos & threes, tho...

Clippers - so far have been what I've had. I currently have 2 sets of Laube's, one set of Oster A5s and a very old, well used set of Oster Clip Masters. There are other clippers out there that are good - there are other posts that have been done on them.

Some of the traceclips I've done have been way too high! I didn't measure right or check as going along and took off way too much hair. Those ponies needed extra protection when it turned cold and looked really funny, too. Even missed a sale (supposedly) on a pony that looked "bad" due to too many "colors" - from his own pinto coat combined with his traceclip (was a client of a trainer and pony would have been in upper echelon hunter/dressage rings...colors mattered. He sold to another, quite possibly better, family that DID take him and qualify him for the Hunter Pony Championships held in KY each year...). Here he is in March when his original clip was done in Sept the fall before... And I will correct part of what I say later - this pony has had the side of his jowls done as well as his lower jaw. His legs also had some work done - to make his fuzzies more presentable... His legs were not clipped against the hair or to the skin, tho. We had a relatively mild winter that year and he was never blanketed or put in the barn - stayed out on pasture only w/ tree cover. This pony is a 1/2 shetland and 1/2 arab. Registered 1/2 Arab and Pinto only - before the ASPC came out with the new cross breed registry.

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Both of these mares are purebred Shetlands - part of my draft hitch... When i take them to a Draft horse event with them trace clipped, I get lots of questions and funny looks!

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The 2nd pic shows about a week after clipping her. I clipped her mid Oct. The first pic shows in Jan - about 3 months after clipping a different mare w/ some growth of hair. I don't usually redo the traceclips. I have gone on in April and body clipped some of them...

a 2 1/2 yr old shetland/hackney filly and a 2 1/2 yr old 1/2 shetland gelding.

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Heads are not clipped off. They are trimmed along the jaws only. The ears were held closed and the edges trimmed up (that keeps the outer hair from attracting the rain and just looks nice w/o removing hair from the inside or outside "leather" of the ears). I trimmed the throatlatch up along the back of the jaws to the bridle path. As you can see - we don't do show style bridle paths (mini) but only usually the lenth of the ear at the most (and when showing in Hunter type shows - only 1" - 2"). I only use number 10 blades - it's close enough for what we do. I have one or two sets of wide blades but have a hard time with them on the smaller ponies and minis... I have a tendency to "hang them up" on the pony - causing nicks and scratches which I prefer not to do since that makes ponies unhappy! But I also don't like the real narrow blades on some of the pocket and ear trimmers. I use strips of Duct tape to mark where the trace clip goes, chalk doesn't work for me. I've never washed the ponies first - as I usually do them on a cold day for some reason. I've vacuumed them with a shop vac as well as using a lot of elbow grease w/ a curry comb - but still need several blades and plenty of blade wash and clipper oil.

In Alaska - I'd imagine you could use a clipper and hold them upside down (like a writing utensil) and clip w/ the hair. That will definitely shorten the coat but not remove to the skin. I suck at that type of clipping myself - so don't do it. Maybe the different combs that you can get nowadays would work - again - they don't for me, LOL. I usually do one traceclip in sometime between Sept and Dec and then only do BP, jaws & ear edges after that. I guess you'd do yours in the spring??

I have lots more pics - some unavailable on line right not and can't access them until later...
 
To the OP - You will have to decide what you want to do. I feel that in your situation you could easily clip the neck completely and "clean up" the head w/o completely clipping the hair off. I don't consider it cruel to do so and I don't really show in ASPC/AMHR shows yet (had several with trainers for the first time last year - they were clipped -but inside barns and blanketed and slinkied as needed).

Personally - you could also leave your mini/shetland with a haircoat and just "clean them up". This filly is only clipped where the girth goes becasuse she had developed sores; then cleaned up along her bp, jaws and ears. Also her coronet bands were done and some of the hair clipped along her legs w/ clippers pointed down and with the hair. I think I also took a bit off (to the skin) at her throatlatch to make the halter and headstall fit correctly w/o coming off. This was before I did any trace clipping. Here are some pics:

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And this is what the mare looked like 6 months after a full body clip but with her head recently trimmed. She actually keeps a heavier coat during the summer than most of my other Shetlands:

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and the rest of my post:

and a 1/2 arab/shetland colt "cameo clipped" in March for a show (he was born in January so he's 2 months old). We had mild weather for the balance of the winter and it didn't seem to bother him:

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and here he is 14 months later - head, necked and shouldered. I know I didn't complete the body clip as my clippers died that spring and by the time they were repaired, he'd been groomed to a short coat. Also, realize these two clips were done during the spring/summer, not at the beginning of winter. BUT you have a barn and stated that your guys were indoors at nite and could be blanketed. So... up to you!

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I ended up clipping 2 minis to take to kentucky this past october. I think that I will do it from now on too. Their winter coat is so much nicer than the ones that weren't clipped. The unclipped ones have that really long heavy coat while the ones that were clipped look more like a large horse in winter coat. If they get wet they seem to dry quicker than the unclipped ones. Now don't get me wrong, they have a very nice winter coat, just not yak looking. lol
 
Ok just a thought here on this topic. I live in Alaska where we have such short summers that our minis can't shed out fast enough but over heat with all that hair. What kind of trim should I do for her a full body cut or something else. I am going to cart her so I kind of need to know the different types. And if there are cord less clippers I could look for. I swear her hair is 1 1/2 inch long at least .
You can do a clip "with the hair" instead of shaving down the usual way. Info this all te time and am quite good at doing a neat job. Done in spring it leaves the horse with a rather 'normal summer coat'.

I use a Wahl Chromado or Arco clipper with the blade on the longest setting--which is a 7 or 8--this does a really nice job. I tried to do the same thing with my Double K clippers and a 10 blade but it wasn't the same--the 10 clips too close and the job came out rough.
 
The neck is one of the first places to get cold or to regulate a horses temp, so I would certainly not at this time. My neighbors shaved their horses heads and just a couple of inches of neck- the night temps were low 50's- I reached out to pet one and was shocked at how cold their face was!! No warmth there at all.

Years ago, had a foal that was running a fever. The vet told me to take water and rubbing alcohol and mist down the foal's neck on both sides- it's brings the temp down- so this would also be impacted greatly by clipping also. If I need to wear a sweater or jacket to be outside, I dont clip. Especially in the colder wee hours of the morning.

Just doing the bridle path and neatening up their beard makes a difference and can make them look presentable.
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