Okay, so just when you thought you had it all down pat, you get a curve ball.

This will make all you people up north scratch your head.  I know you are still doing Winter, but we in Florida are dealing with an above average temperature early spring.  Now that will make you crazy, or at least your horses who still have their winter coats.

My mare Friday gets a thick, plush winter coat.  Have no idea why.  Way too much hair for Florida.  She’s supposed to be a Canadian Warmblood (whatever that might be).  You look at her and say Thoroughbred.  Her brain is the only thing that says there is something else mixed in there, and perhaps her coat.

Now a friend picked up a Percheron a few weeks ago.  He came from one of the southern states but I can’t remember which one.  He had way too much hair, so she decided to clip him to resell him.  She’s been in business for years and is no stranger to working with horses.  So she went out and bought a new set of clippers for the occasion.  They didn’t work, so she brought them back and got a different set.  They didn’t work either.  She went somewhere else and got a third pair.  Nope.  She couldn’t figure out what she was doing wrong.

I didn’t give it much thought until I went to clip Fri.  Now I already have three Sunbeam body clippers, and six pairs of newly sharpened blades.  Been doing this whole body clip thing for about forty years and I was ready.  At least I thought I was ready.  Usually I would clip horses in the fall when we would go into Hunt Season.  Was taught never to clip them in the spring because their summer coats would be starting to come in and you’d mess them up.  Made sense to me, but watching poor Fri soaking wet every day just made me do it.  She was shedding, but not fast enough, the horse was suffering.

Got all set up with brushes, clippers, oil, blade wash, and extension cord.  Usually the clippers go through the hair like butter.  Went to make my first pass and they stopped dead.  Adjusted the tension, nothing.  So I changed blades.  Nothing.  So I changed clippers.  Nothing.  Got a few small cuts, but basically nothing was happening.  So I thought maybe when he sharpened the blades he didn’t do a good job.  So I called around looking for new blades.  Well there has been a run on blades and I finally found a set at my feed store.  Went down and found out that everyone is now using clip-on blades.  My clippers are older and need the old-fashioned screw on type.  But he ordered two sets for me and they would be in, in two days.  Hello, I have a horse standing there with three racing stripes on her neck.

So I went home and thought about the situation.  What was the problem here?  First my friend, and now me.  The next day I went out to the barn and started to run my hands over Fri.  She appeared dry and fluffy until you sent your fingers down to her skin.  She’s got that downy fuzz under her coat and that was damp, not wet, but damp.  So I turned two fans on her and got her neck and shoulders dry.  Clippers went right through it like it should, but stopped if I went anywhere near her ribs.  So her neck and shoulders were done, but that was going to be about it for the day.

Day three.  I got up early, turned the fan on her while she was eating to get the dew dry that was on the outer hair.  Put her on the cross ties, turned two fans on her and went to work.  If I hit and area that was not totally dry I ran the clippers in the direction with the hair and took off the top half of the hairs, let the fans do their job, and when the under coat was dry, took it down to the skin.

The longest I have ever taken to do a large draft horse with a patterned hunter clip was three hours.  This Thoroughbred took me three days, but I must say that I had a great learning experience on clipping a damp horse.  When I went to the hair dressers the other day I was speaking to her about my dilemma.  She said “Yes the clipper people have always told her that they wouldn’t work on wet or damp hair.”  Well duh, now you tell me?

I saw my first Robin two weeks ago, so they are on their way north.  When your turn comes to be blessed with beautiful Spring weather, and it will, enjoy it.  I am totally loving it here, and so is Fri since she’s sporting her summer look.

Nothing worth sharing should be taken to the grave with you.