Making the decision to clip your horse’s winter coat off takes some consideration.  How much do you ride, how hard do you ride and are you able to blanket properly are some factors that should be taken into account.

I do ride in the winter, and sometimes I ride hard.  I have a collection of blankets in varying weights to best keep my pony comfortable all winter long.  One of the biggest factors for me is that I usually ride just before dark in the winter and my pony is then turned out in a field.  So if he gets all sweaty he is being put out into the cold and dark with a wet coat.  Not cool.

I also really enjoy the ease in grooming a clipped pony brings.  Having had many not clipped ponies over the winters, I am well aware of how thick coats pick up and hold mud and dirt.  It takes time to clip a pony, but the amount of time spent grooming a long coated pony compared to a clean shaven and blanketed pony is more than balanced out.

So today was clip day.

My tools laid out.

Simon is sensitive and is generally very itchy after I clip him.  He also does not like his saddle area clipped.  So I leave a saddle patch.  To help me leave as even of a patch as possible, I draw it on with a washable marker (or a sharpie on occasion).

Pre Clip.

This year I tossed around the idea of doing a medium trace clip, which is basically a strip along he side of the pony, including the tops of the legs and part way up the barrel.  I also tossed around the idea of a modified trace clip with a much larger hump around flank.  I was very sloppy drawing it on, and changed my mind several times while in the process.

Yes, I should have had a solid plan going into the clip job, but come on.  Clipping a pony is sort of like art.  And I like my art to have a bit of ‘on the whim’.  So yeah, I winged it.

some of my indecisive drawing.

I was also indecisive if I wanted to just end the clip at the flank or continue it around to the tail so I didn’t draw the line to the tail.

I decided to clip the minimum of what I wanted to take off and see what it looked like.

sorry for the sun in the background.

Its a little hard to see, but I didn’t like how it came out.  So I decided to do my normal clip  job and took off the rest of the rump.

all done

I left the saddle patch, the head and the legs, and done.