When do you body clip in the spring

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Never2Mini

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I am new to mini's had regular horses all my whole life but never body clipped any only trim clipped bridle paths and legs. My Mini's are hot with all there fuzz and shedding like crazy. It has been in the 70 during the day and 40's at night now for little over a week. They are calling for some 80 days next week. Now this is a bit unusally warm for here in Ohio for March. We could still get a cold spell. That being said I don't have any blankets for my mini's if it would turn a cold spell. So do you all think I should wait awhile yet or could I clip some of there body but not a full clip. Thanks any info and tips are appericated.
 
I live in Iowa, not too far from you, and its the same here. I have been bathing and clipping heads this past week. I am not however going to fully body clip until May. One of the popular sayings here in Iowa is, "If you don't like the weather; wait 15 minutes."

That being said, it may still snow or what not. I am going to wait until its above 65 during the day and above freezing at night. A week is not long enough to decide that.
 
The first year that I full body clipped I did so quite early and ended up keeping my mare under several blankets as we hit another cold snap. This year the forecasters don't predict the temps to drop much more, and we are in the mid 70s- mid80s consistently, but I still don't trust the weather. So I compromised and clipped my mare in my own form of a trace clip
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Again with the bad pic haha. Anyways there's enough hair taken off to make her more comfortable but she still has plenty left if it drops back down into the 40s. Anything lower than high 30s and she will probably have to have her blanket but that's fine with me, I'd be shocked if it got THAT cold again.

Granted, she still does sweat some with this but not nearly as bad and I can tell she's much happier like that. I know it's hard to see in this picture but the underside of her neck and the front of her chest are completely 100% clipped and we did the same behind her elbows and near her udder, as those places can lose heat quickly and so were priorities for a clip that was intended to keep her cool.
 
I have been doing head/neck/shoulders clipping here for a while now. Mine are rubbing and sweating too. I do a face clip, ears and all the back to the end of the mane, all the shoulder areas and under just behind the front legs and between the front legs. Mine have a tendency to matt up under their armpit like areas, so getting that hair out avoids sores later on. Because the flies come out here very hungry in the spring, I leave hair on the legs to help them keep flies from biting. This leaves more or less a blanket effect on the main body in case we have another cold spell before true spring settles in (often we do and it will dip down to the 20s for a while at night). We also fo a lot of brushing with a shedding blade every day once they start shedding on their own some. For butt rubbers, I shave their hind quarters too. I always have to laugh when spring starts and the wild haircuts are walking around for a bit.
 
Im in Ohio, and we did a full body clip yesterday on one of our mares. We were thinking about doing them all one or two a day, but rainy here now, so not today. Im hoping it doesnt get too cold again! Im liking this weather! I clipped with a 15 blade
 
We were doing head, necks and bellies to cool our horses and yet leaving a natural blanket unclipped. We are starting to body clip now as it is getting hotter in north central Florida. We are clipping with a 15 blade now. If you are still cold at night I would probably use a 10.

Barb
 
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Here in Michigan we're experencing well above normal temps. In fact, the last two days have broken records with temps in the upper 70's. As tempting as it is - and as sweaty as the little ones are right now - we'll wait to do full clips until mid-April at least. However, we will probably do some trace clips and blanket as needed when ole' man winter raises his snowy head again. And it's bound to happen - we've had freezing temps and snow storms here well into April in years past.

For our pregnant mommas, a week or two before their due dates, we'll clip a bit under their tummies so the babies can reach the milk bar without too much shedding hair getting in the way.
 
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If you don't have blankets I wouldn't clip.

It's got to be 60-70 degrees in your barn or wherever they live round the clock to not have blankets.

Otherwise, just clipping bridle paths, beards, and then using a good shedding blade will do the trick.

Clipping can't replace daily grooming with elbow grease.
 
For me it depends on when my first show is and who I'm taking. This year our first pointed show is on May 6th. I want to clip 3 weeks out so I can clean things up at 2 weeks and 1 week out as necessary. That means I'll be bathing and clipping the weekend of April 14/15th.

I will only do the two I'm showing. The rest will wait until later in May when I'm sure the overnight temps won't fall below 45/50 degrees or so. I don't have blankets for everyone since we don't usually blanket much during the winter (not needed). I want to avoid situations where blankets are needed whenever possible.
 
Well it's been unseasonably warm, no I revise that to hot, here in Southern Maryland the last week. I have four mares consigned to a sale the end of May and need to get pictures done soon. This is what I have done so far, it must be above 70 degrees, I have bathed three, and somewhat clipped them with a 7F blade. I left the faces and legs. Since their coats were so dense, I couldn't really get them clean enough down to the skin to get a nice clip. Looks like they were run over by a lawn mower, but most of the long hairs are gone. I'm keeping them in my indoor which is much warmer then outside. Next week the weather is going to be warm as well, I'll rebath and clip all over except legs. That way if the weather has a colder turn around I can blanket them at night. I would recommend keeping an eye on the weather report in your area and go by that. My arabs are shedding out by the globs, I'm using a shedding blade and getting coated in hair. If you don't have balnkets or heated area, I'd wait until the middle of April at least, but then again pay attention to your weather as it's been crazy around here, I just came in from outside and I'm sweating like crazy, so are most of my horses.
 
I agree with Terry. Too early to do a full clip.I ALWAYS do a really bad clip job for the first 1 of the year.Take the clippers and use them the direction the hair gropws-not against the hair.don't go really deep to cut.It looks really bad(I always tell them not to tell their friends who did their hair)Then when you give a bath it doesn't take long to dry.This type of clip removes lots of long dead hair but leaves protection against the weather.It also helps in natural shedding.I also use a shedding blade after this method.I have 3 IR Cushings mares so this works well for them since they tend to not shed at all.
 
I agree with Terry. Too early to do a full clip.I ALWAYS do a really bad clip job for the first 1 of the year.Take the clippers and use them the direction the hair gropws-not against the hair.don't go really deep to cut.It looks really bad(I always tell them not to tell their friends who did their hair)Then when you give a bath it doesn't take long to dry.This type of clip removes lots of long dead hair but leaves protection against the weather.It also helps in natural shedding.I also use a shedding blade after this method.I have 3 IR Cushings mares so this works well for them since they tend to not shed at all.
I had just been thinking about doing a trace clip on my driving horse, since she seemed uncomfortably hot the last very warm day we had, but don't want to have to blanket her if it gets cold again. I'm going to try this... maybe just on her belly to get some of that really thick hair off and to see how bad it looks (I board and don't want the other horses (and their owners!) laughing at her!!)
 
They do look Reeeeally bad, but are much more comfortable.If it rains they still have protection and if it gets really sunny you don't have to worry about sunburn.Guaranteed the other horses won't laugh at them-people might, but who cares.It's all about the comfort and well being of the animals.
 
They do look Reeeeally bad, but are much more comfortable.If it rains they still have protection and if it gets really sunny you don't have to worry about sunburn.Guaranteed the other horses won't laugh at them-people might, but who cares.It's all about the comfort and well being of the animals.
It was too chilly today for me to stand around and clip, but my parents in WI called to tell me it was 75+ on their patio, so I am hoping the warmth is headed this way! I will have to post pictures of the masterpiece when I'm done
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Thanks everyone. I will wait. I am just excited as I have not seen my Mini's with short slick hair yet being I bought them with there fuzzies well started. I did clip bridle paths and roach one of my colts mane that was a wreck. Woowee look out when I used the shed blade. lol ! I think I had more hair on me afterwards then they did. lol ! My one mare is getting mats near her arm pits I am thinking this week of just clipping her front arm pits some to get the mats off.
 

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