TC's First Full Body Clip

My riding schedule has been funny this fall and winter. I've said it a few times: I've backed off to riding only four days per week and just turning TC out, doing some light long lining or longeing, or just hand walking on the other days. I want to ride him more, I've just been a bit burnt out and something had to give.

I tend to ride Tuesday, Thursday, and both weekend days. I teach in the early mornings on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as well as in the afternoons on Wednesday and Friday. Then I also teach clinics at least half of the weekends. Tuesday and Thursday, I tend to try to work from home or work super late hours (think 11:30 to 7:30) so that I can sleep in a bit and take my time with TC. This means that I'm mostly riding him at 9am or later on most days.

Fuzzy ears

It's been in the 80s recently and every day I've ridden him in the last week, he's felt lethargic and blah. I've also had a few questionable hose downs in the later afternoons if I come out on a weekend after teaching a clinic.

He's been such a good boy and so quiet this fall, so I decided on Saturday to give him a full body clip for the very first time. I've generally avoided clipping him for several reasons:

1) in the past, I've ONLY ridden him in the mornings, even on the weekends, so he has time to dry off from a hose down (and it doesn't get so cold here that hosing him down and letting him air dry is an issue)

2) paying for blanketing sucks, if I don't have to take the time and spend the money, why do it?

3) TC is a very destructive horse, I was nervous that he'd destroy his blankets and that would cost me additional money.

Under the lights

I'm in a better situation now because I'm working so much and I really need to be able to ride him at any hour of the day or night to accommodate said work hours. I easily could ride him on Monday evenings after work to be able to get on him more frequently, but right now he'd be soaked as the temperatures drop 20+ degrees overnight.

So I decided to bite the bullet. Rico's heavy blanket fits him and Rico doesn't need it, and I have the money to replace it with an indestructible blanket if TC does rip it to shreds. Fingers crossed that he understands WHY he's wearing a blanket vs thinking that I've just provided him with a fun toy to play with. And I trust that he's chill enough now where if he does get tangled in the wreckage, he'll just hang until someone rescues him. We'll see. So far so good though!

Goodbye hair

So Saturday morning I clipped all of his hair off except for the following places:
1) a significant saddle patch because I wasn't sure if he'd be cold backed this winter
2) the insides of his ears because like my client said about her horse "he doesn't need to hear any better than he already does"
3) the outside of his left ear because he hates that ear being touched
4) everything between his left ear and his eye because he's dramatic

I then couldn't take how much hair had gotten in my clothes, in my bra, in my mouth, and in my eyes, so I went home to take a shower.

I didn't come back to ride until that night. TC hasn't been the best to ride in the dark, I can count on one hand how often I've done it since switching to riding in the mornings. Add to that his new clip and I was concerned.

But there was no need for concern! He was great! He felt way better than he's felt in weeks and only spooked once, not even significantly. Just a startle. I could tell he was a bit nervous, but no antics.

Good boy in the dark!

And the next day, he still had his blanket on! We'll see what happens when it actually gets cold and I have to ride him after a day off (and also we'll see what he's like at my lesson today, yay!), but I think our first foray into clipping was a success!

Keeping His Hair

I don't body clip TC (yet). There are a few reasons for this, and since today I was a huge slacker and forgot to write a post but then late in the day decided I did want to post something but none of my drafts are ready, I figured I'd talk about them very briefly.


1) I ride in the mornings
Since I ride in the mornings, he has ample time to dry off before it gets cold.


2) I do not have a death wish
I want one good winter without antics before I consider taking all his hair off.


3) We don't show in the winter
He can hold onto his yak status since I tend not to show until at least April.


4) TC is a nudist
TC hates wearing clothes. He takes off everything I put on him. I left him in turnout with boots on once and he ripped them right off. If I put polos on him to ride, I can't let his face near them or he'll grab them with his teeth and start pulling. He takes off his neighbor's fly mask every day (but he surprisingly will wear one himself). I'm 99% sure that any blanket I put on him will be destroyed and possibly he'll try to destroy himself while destroying it.

Also he really doesn't get that hairy

Eventually TC will be body clipped, yes. It could even be this year if he is a total slug all winter (unlikely since he's bolted three times in the last two rides), but I think it will be in another year or two. As much as I think that he should be able to handle body clipping, we've also only made it through one winter without me hating him. So I'm going to give it another year or more.