Written By The Horse Barber When it comes to clipping horses, having a good understanding of horses and horse behavior is key for avoiding potentially dangerous situations, as well as providing the horse with a positive experience going forward. A key element of horse clipping, is to understanding the horse’s responses and why they are responding in any particular manner. When working on different areas of the horse we have to consider anatomy factors and trigger points.
For example, sensory neck nerves, which are certainly triggered when we clip along the neck and head predominately. ‘What does this actually mean?’ I hear you ask. Sensory nerves feed messages back to the central nervous system, which in turn creates the ‘reflex’ and responses that we see. Some horses have seemingly no response, while others can be explosive and reactive when we clip these areas, striking, rearing and generally evading.
Understanding the reasons behind each horses’ response is key to tailoring the clip experience to their individual needs. This is all done by approach, understanding behavior, plus knowledge of the equine. Breed and environment are both contributing factors. May things can be done for each particular horse to assist in combatting the reactive behaviour which link back to the sensory nerve reactions.
Horse and Human do not ‘speak’ the same language, but if you listen enough you can begin to understand what they are trying to tell you. Experience is key to clipping processes, as well as spending time learning about your equipment. Hands on hours working with the clippers in hand is part of what it takes to perfect your craft as well ask seeking knowledge of subject area; in our case clipping horses!
The unique demonstrations and training days I offer are an opportunity to tap into 20 years worth of TheHorseBarber knowledge, thus giving you a good head start into your clipping career. Want to know more about this and other aspects of clipping? Look out for dates on Www.TheHorseBarber.Com for demonstrations, which are scheduled over the next few months. Dates and locations will be announced soon.
If you have a venue throughout the UK and would like to organize a demo in your area, please get in touch with your location details. Both UK and international bookings taken.
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