It’s New Years Eve, I have the day off, and its unseasonably warm outside.  Perfect day to redo Simon’s clip job and go for a leisurely ride around the field.

Daisy hanging out in the barn.

Simon is a little bit sensitive.  The first time I clipped him, he was a demon to ride for about two weeks.  I couldn’t blame him, a saddle rubbing around on newly cut stubbly hairs has to be annoying.  He kept his ears pinned, bucked, donkey kicked, flicked his tail, stomped his feet, shook his head and had spells where he refused to move, it was terrible.

To remedy this, I leave a saddle patch when I clip him now.  I put a saddle pad on his back, and then I draw a line around it using a sharpie or a washable marker.  Then when I clip him, I clip the line off, but leave everything insideof the line untouched.  It solves the problem perfectly. I also don’t usually bother to clip his legs or the majority of his face.

Today I got about a 1/3 of the way into the clip job when the blades needed to be changed out.  I was expecting this because I had already used these blades, but they still had some life left so I wasn’t going to waste that.  But unfortunately this is when I discover that the other two sets of blades I had planned to switch to, were also in need of sharpening.  Awesome.

Oops, the blades are calling it quits

Three sets of unusable blades and a pony with a third of his hair removed. I should have checked to make sure I had a fresh pair of blades before I got started, but being the carefree, fly by the seat of my pants, type of gal I am, I obviously skipped that part.

This is his 'soul patch' aka blanket patch. You can see the line from his last clip job inside of the one I put on today.

Oh well, it’s not like Simon and I have anything to attend over the next few days and we will have to show up with a bad haircut.  And Simon doesn’t seem to care.  So I tacked up and we went for a nice relaxing ride around the field with Daisy bounding along with us.  I guess I’ll try and fix his bad hair cut on Monday.

Simon after our ride, waiting for his reward.

Happy New Year!