A Different Body Clip or Not Question

[Montanas_Girl]

I have a pony that I am considering listing for sale. I am trying to decide whether to body clip her. I'm trying to figure out whether it is worth it or not.

I cannot take pictures or a video to advertise with until she sheds out (usually not until mid-April with her) or I clip her. Right now she has a winter coat a yak could be proud of and huge clods of mud matted to her flanks and elbows (despite almost daily thorough grooming all winter - her hair is THAT long!) that no amount of grooming or bathing is going to remove. I do not have access to hot water, so repeated bathing is not an option. I've been trying to cut them away from her skin with scissors and haven't had a lot of luck. I do not have a blanket for her, so if I clip I will have to buy one.

It looks like my options are:

(1) Don't clip and wait until late spring to start advertising. I run a risk of it taking even longer to sell her than it would otherwise in this crappy economy.

(2) Don't clip and advertise anyway. Hope that buyers realize that young pony + winter + mud = pony is not going to look show-ready. Get nicer photos and video when she sheds. Might be wasting advertising $$ this way.

(3) Clip, buy cheap turnout off ebay, and get video and pictures out there. Theoretically it is cheaper to buy the blanket than pay an extra couple of months' board waiting for pony to shed. (Acknowledging, of course, that this may all be a moot point and it might take 6 months or more to sell right now!)

So, wise COTHers, what would you do in this situation? I haven't decided for sure whether I want/need to sell, but I'm trying to plan ahead!

[Personal Champ]

My personal opinion is not to clip, but tidy her up.

Logic is this - unless she is a SHOW horse, there is a distinct possibility she might go to a home where they pasture board and don't want to mess with blankets. A clip in that situation could be a deal breaker.

I would clip her muzzle, goat hairs under the chin, and the scraggly ones along the underside of her neck. Tidy the ears and bridlepath, neaten the fetlocks/hooves, and groom her to the nines, then advertise. I see you don't have hot water at the barn, could you use a cooler to put hot-as-you-can-stand water in so that you could hot towel her??

I know that Professional Auction Services also recommends in their sellers' literature NOT to clip, as well.

Good luck with the Yak! :lol:

[ThoroughbredFancy]

I agree with the above posters advice.

If you cannot transport hot water from home you could consider buying a bucket heater. It's a metal device that plugs into an outlet and you stick it in a bucket full of water and it heats it up nicely in about 15 minutes. You can buy them online or from TSC for around $30.00. It's very hand around the barn for me. We also don't have hot water.

If the horse was well groomed, well behaved and conformation OK, then I'd buy it regardless of it's winter coat. I'd rather have it to be my choice (the buyer) to clip then have a horse sent to me clipped. I really don't like a bunch of blankets and fussing over the fact if my clipped horse will be cold. That's just me, though.

[Montanas_Girl]

Those are good points I hadn't considered. And a bucket heater to give a warm bath with would cost about the same as a cheap turnout blanket, with the added bonus that I could also use it for my other horse.

[rmh_rider]

I also agree with the other two above posters.

When I lived in the NW I would run a hose out the window of our house, and bath horses in the front yard. Easy. Attach to any faucet, got to have the right thingy to screw in but that is very cheap. Not sure you are near any warm water source. If not why not ask a show barn how much to bathe your pony using their water??

I washed my labs out side also many times doing the same thing. I either ran it out the door or a window. Hey hoses can go a long ways, so choose the right place to hook it up. In the NW my laundry room was on the front of the house, so out the window or front door. Easy.

Show or not I would never clip to sell. Spring is right here. You don't know your ultimate buyer nor where the pony will go - pasture or barn.

Another thing to hurry the pony up to shed is put a couple blankets on her at all times. The big arab show barns do that, and they also put heat lamps on the horses. Poor dears. But, it worked. You walk through their barns and horses wore slinky's on their bodies, and necks, and double sets of blankets and double hoods.

My horses are shedding quite a bit right now. I live in N. AL. Clip all the long guard hairs carefully. If you do a super make over on the pony you would be surprised how the yak look goes away. Yak to you may not be yak to somebody else. Some like the yak look.