[MtyMax]

Coming from eventerland, I'm well versed in trace clips and hunter clips.

But for a full clip, how on Earth do you clip a face? What size clipper do you use?

Can anyone give a quick tutorial?

Thanks!

[Amage]

I just use a normal body clippers to do legs/head

[Renn/aissance]

Carefully. I use a #10 blade, and if the clipped and unclipped coat colors are similar, I just clip up to about where the cheekpiece would be, trim the ears, and leave the front of the face furry. This is partly because I'm lazy and partly because running a clipping machine near the eyes worries me.

[Zu Zu]

Helpful thread and posts ~ Thank You ~

[Koniucha]

i have use my oster A-5 clipper with a #10 blade as well. I have done the entire face before, but only on very cooperative horses. If not, I do like Renn does.

[Celeritas]

I do faces and legs with the body clippers, and use the A-5s with a #10 blade to get into the nooks and crannies. I always do legs, but will skip the head if I'm feeling lazy or if horsie is not being cooperative (unless of course he will be showing). I have to re-clip the beasts this weekend and they're not showing at all, so I'm thinking of skipping heads but I just hate when they get sweaty around their ears, so I'm still hemming and hawing about it. So I'll probably do a modified clip on the head like what Renn described.

[Jumper_girl221]

I just clip up to the forelock. my horses are good about closing their eyes.

for the tendons and nooks and grooves, just "stretch" the skin so you can get to that hair.


post clip (like, by an hour)

Pony...2? days after the clip

another pic, same day. yes...I'm "women" enough to ride a pony!!! although 5'10" and 13.3 ponies look a lil bit rediculous...but what else can ya do for a green pony!!!

Oh looky here....me on another (clipped) pony.

I just do a T-84 blade for the body, and a regular no. 10 blade for the legs/face and use my Andis clippers.

[winter]

I like clipping the underside of the head to the cheekpeice. They don't have that much hair on the front of their face and with this clip you can barely tell with a bridle on. You can see the line when their face is naked though.

Or, in the case of my mare you clip to 6" behind her head. Looks ridiculous but she apparently deosn't want those things anywhere near her face. :roll:

[joiedevie99]

It's not hard. Use a 10 blade (not the wide one). If there are folds of skin/bones that you can't get into- just pull the skin to one side and clip, then pull it to the other side and clip.

[Appsolute]

Yep, I use A5's with a ten blade - then I use my little recharable clippers with a 10 blade to get around the base of the ears - areas around the eyes etc.

I do like to make sure I have little clippers for the face and legs - I do not like to do them with my big ol' loud clip masters!

[KateKat]

also part of the camp that uses the same blade all over. I have the Andis Super 2 speeds, which uses the T-84 blade. Cuts hair to a nice length, so its able to blend the face pretty well. If I were to body clip and not clip the face, my horse would look so silly, since she's normally a bright redish bay with her fur, and a golden brown when clipped. Thankfully she was super patient about the whole thing (and actually, most of the ones I've done so far have been) because she was my first FULL clip. Relatively easy, just time consuming.

And I try to shield their eye when I'm clipping that area. I also don't clip all the way down to the eyelid, the hair there is very short and sparse anyway (and I don't want to clip off their little feeler whiskers in that area) so I stay about an inch or two away all around.

[Sandy M]

I do the entire body, leaving the legs as in a trace clip, then clip the face just up to the cheekbones with the smaller clippers, trimming the longer hairs along the jaw line, etc.. I don't bother with the full face or the area up to the eyes. I'm not likely to show in the winter months, and if I do, facial hair usually isn't that thick or obvious so it doesn't detract from appearance. My horse is chestnut, but he's not one of those that looks "orange" when clipped (more pinkish, since he's chestnut Appy) so the contrast between clipped body and not clipped face isn't all that obvious.

[PNWjumper]

I'll throw in my vote with everyone else. I use the same blades (and clippers) as the rest of the body. I have a set of Laube (? I think) clippers that have the motor in a separate housing that you clip to your belt, so it's easy to do the face with the same clippers. So that means I'm using either T-84 or 10s for everything (depends on what I find on sale each year!). I don't love clipping around the eyes, but my mare is a good girl and pretty non-reactive to it. What scares me even more is clipping around her sparse forelock....one wrong move there and oy, it would be a catastrophe (obviously not as bad as the eyes, but I'm not as close to the eyes as I am to the forelock!) Here's her full body and here's a close up of her clipped face this year.

With that being said, on most horses I just clip halfway up the face (about to where the cheekpieces of my bridles sit). But I usually clip my mare's face because her white face gets really gross looking, and she's super hairy, so she just looks better clipped.

ETA: I will out myself for the one spot I always seem to fail at clipping. Here are the lone surviving hairs on her body (aside, of course, from her saddle area that never gets clipped): http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/...68546630_n.jpg She's always losing patience by this point and I kind of like the sight while I'm riding