Clip or no clip?

[Joannr24]

I was given a 3 year old mini with a weight problem. He is 34" and weighs 350 pounds. I live in Tucson and he is horribly hairy. I feel like I can't work him with all this hair but next week our lows go into the forties. Should i clip him and then blanket or is it better to leave him unclipped?

 

[Marty]

Too cold to clip now. You can still do his face, jawline, fetlock hairs and bridle path to give him a more cleaned up appearence but 40 degrees is too cold for body clipping. You can try a head/neck type of thing maybe or a partial clip under the belly, something like that maybe but be careful with it. If you get him sweaty in cold weather, you will get him sick.

 

[MiLo Minis]

If you want to work him and he is going to get sweaty in his heavy coat you should clip him in a trace high or blanket clip - leave his legs, head, top side of the neck and back to help keep him warm but make cooling out easier, and then blanket him after working. You will need to be careful to keep him warm and never allow him to stand around damp after working whether he is blanketed or not. I find a blow dryer is helpful in cool weather with a sweaty thick coated horse - I walk them cool and then blow them dry. If they are going to be stalled I like to let them out in the paddock for a roll before putting them back in their stall - that is their way of drying themselves off.

 

[Joannr24]

If you want to work him and he is going to get sweaty in his heavy coat you should clip him in a trace high or blanket clip - leave his legs, head, top side of the neck and back to help keep him warm but make cooling out easier, and then blanket him after working. You will need to be careful to keep him warm and never allow him to stand around damp after working whether he is blanketed or not. I find a blow dryer is helpful in cool weather with a sweaty thick coated horse - I walk them cool and then blow them dry. If they are going to be stalled I like to let them out in the paddock for a roll before putting them back in their stall - that is their way of drying themselves off.

 

[Joannr24]

Just to clarify. Our lows at night are going to mid forties. Our daytime highs are mid seventies to low eighties.

 

[mizbeth]

Your profile does not say where you are? I would follow other suggestions as we know in the US it is winter - or at the very coming soon. I would clip only head/neck/bridle path. He will look much better, also daily brushing will help his hair to lay down so he does not look so fuzzy.

Good luck.

 

[Mominis]

Lucky you with that kind of weather. Personally, if it were me, I'd clip him and just be on top of blanketing him at night.

 

[Joanne]

The weight did not happen overnight and it will not disappear overnight.

I would increase his exercise as well as monitor his feed. Hopefully you know what he was fed that got him overweight and you can gradually decrease his intake.

If he is not used to exercise "working him" will have to be gradual.

 

[hobbyhorse23]

I have never understood that head/neck clip except for sale purposes.

To someone from the big horse world it looks STUPID, does not remove hair from the areas that sweat, and leaves the half of the horse that cannot be blanketed freezing when the temps drop.

No, thank you!

I agree with MiLo on all counts- you need to trace clip in some form and use a blow-dryer when he sweats anyway. My boys are both in full winter coats and normally that's not a problem this time of year as we rarely get out of the low fifties during the day and low forties at night but we've had a few days in the 70's

recently and I couldn't resist working my driving horse. He overdid it from sheer exuberance and came home panting and sweaty (happy, but sweaty!) and I found my colt had run himself into the same state while we were gone. The first thing I did was walk him cool then turned him out in the grassy yard to roll a bit while I got the colt out to walk as well. I was amazed how much drier his coat felt when he got up again. I then spent almost an hour on the back porch with both horses and my Double K animal drier trying to get those thick coats fluffed and dried. It was a nightmare! If I didn't know temps were going to go right back to fall the next day (which they did) I wouldn't have hesitated to clip out a line between their forelegs and hindlegs at the very least and probably an extremely low trace clip with a long blade like an 8 or 7F. As it was I finally sprayed the sweaty matted areas with show sheen in desperation and was amazed how much quicker they dried after that. Must be something about the silicon keeping the hairs separated that allows them to dry faster.

Anyway, you can either use a normal 10 blade and go WITH the direction of the fur in the sweaty areas or use a longer blade and go against the hair. That leaves enough natural protection in those minimal areas that you can usually get away without blanketing but it will provide the horse some relief. If he needs more than that, do the long blade with the hair over a larger area and blanket lightly when temps drop. In rainy Washington I always leave the topline completely furry from nose to tail and usually leave the belly for as long as I can since they're constantly laying down to nap in the damp mud. Doing between the forelegs, the girth area, and between the hind legs helps without doing much harm.

Leia

 

[supaspot]

Just to clarify. Our lows at night are going to mid forties. Our daytime highs are mid seventies to low eighties.

our summers are not that good !!!

 

[user 3234]

I also live in the Tucson area and I would not personally clip them. He will get sick. We had one a while back with the same issue. She was only 31 inches and 311 lbs. What helped us with the excess fur and sweating was getting a de-shedding rake and we worked on her coat every day until we actually got out all the excess hair. We also added a "teaspoon" a day of oil to her diet to help the shedding.

Like a prior person added all the excess weight was not added over night and neither can the animal shed the weight in a short period of time? Think of it like a person gaining and losing weight; the weight gain and/or loss was accomplished over time, same for the minis. We'll also assume he is very out of shape, so maybe just start by taking him for walks or a light round pen workout (walking, trotting) to build him up. But remember good grass (no Alfalfa) hay in regulated amounts will help. As with a person you don't give a person ice cream (Alfalfa) and expect him to lose weight.

Hope this helps.

 

[disneyhorse]

We have weather like that here in the winter (the coldest it EVER gets here is about 35 degrees for a couple of weeks) and I do trace-clip those who are working. At least the groin/elbow areas where they sweat!

You also don't mention what type of housing you have for your guy. If you have something like a box stall that keeps out wind chill, you can get away with a little more than if you just have open pipe corrals or pasture.

Andrea