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.
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!
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.
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...
