Monday, October 19, 2009

10/18/09 Clipping

I walked out to the paddock, put Ransom's knotted rope halter on him. Not sure if Mister Nice Pony, or the Evil Clipper Killer would be on the end of my lead rope. I walked him to the front yard, and stood him near the porch.

The wind was blowing, gently and irregularly. The clippers were oiled, I had all the necessary supplies at hand. I sprayed Ransom with "the magic pink conditioner solution", and deeply inhaled that awesome fragrance. I rubbed it in all over his coat, told him, "Well buddy, here goes nothing."

I turned the clippers on. I leaned them against his shoulder, blade-out, to see how he'd react. He didn't move. I turned the clipper blade towards his shoulder, looked one more time at the angle of his hair growth, and ever so gently let the clippers move towards the coat.

Slice. There goes the first batch of hair. Ain't no turning back now. I'm stuck with this, no matter how crappy I make it look. It'll grow in a week, right? Zip... there goes another patch of shoulder. Zing, There went some of his neck hair.

I touched the back of the clippers. Nope, not warm yet. Looked at my watch, it's been five minutes. I did all of his shoulders and neck, both sides, with a few breaks to spray the blades down cool.

I switched to my spare blades after working through his neck, chest, shoulders, and front side of his tummy near the girth line. Then I approached his belly on one side with extreme caution. I can only imagine that's going to tickle! I bet he moves.

He didn't budge.

So I clipped belly and up to his topline on one side, and part of his hip. Otherside, repeat. Adding cooler cleaner spray every so often, and going back over neck & shoulder every so often as well, to keep him from getting wiggly.

Stopped for a drink break for him, and a change of scenery. He grabbed a long slow drink of water, ate a little niblit of grass, and I got him back to work. By now, I've covered my shirt in horse hair, and the wind has died down.

I got the hip on one side, and hip on the other. I very carefully looked at his back legs, trying to decide how far down I was supposed to clip. Ransom kept tipping whichever leg was on the same side as me, which usually gets a lot of praise, as it makes his bum easier to scrub. Now, however, it was ruining that hip angle line, and making the "Where do I clip to" disappear. I finally got it (well, I hope so, because nobody else has seen it yet) after a few rounds of hip peek-a-boo.

By now, I'm covered inside, and outside, with horse hair. I approached his head, and, well, it all went downhill from here. I've learned a valuable lesson. Save the head and face for last, including touching up the rest of the body, and use the smaller battery clippers for the face. Body clippers were too big to get inside all the nooks and crannies. I did the best I could. As I approached his ears, I found a Ransom I didn't know I had - a head tossing dork.

I called in lead rope holding reinforcements. Up to this time, I had the lead rope laying on the ground, because Ransom didn't really move around that much. Sure, in some tickly spots he'd take a step or two, but nothing uncontrollable. On his face, and ears, however, he had the wiggly jiggly boogers. R came over, held the rope, talked to Ransom, and helped out. I ended up having to put some baling string in a twitch over his nose to get the ears. That frustrated the crap out of me, but I got them done, inside & out. Those will clean up as they grow in over the coming week.

Two and a half hours later, I was covered in horse hair. From the top of my noggin to the space in between my toes. On the outside of my tshirt, to the inside of my tshirt, and everything underneath it. Even in my ears, and my bluejeans pockets. I was coated.

Ransom, however, looks stunning. I have one picture I took, but my phone isn't sending for some reason. I'll keep trying.

I accomplished the task. I body clipped Ransom, all but his legs. What a sigh of relief.

4 comments:

Yankecwgrl said...

I wanna see the picture! I wanna See, I WANNNA SEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Mrs. Mom said...

Oh boy. Nekkid horse photos. I dunno if this is an acceptable site now...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~

Kiss Nekkid pony from me and slip him an extra cookie too!

Stephanie - Siouxzeegirl Designs said...

Oh what a good boy!! I have to give my bad boy a tranquilizer to get him done or else the back hooves will stat to fly. I hope you can post a picture. I love how sleek they look a couple days after clipping.
Too bad you can't figure out a vac attachement for the clippers, could make money of that one.

Jennifer said...

Tranq's? Seriously?! Argh...

I can't wait to see him tonight.. Hope my phone will cooperate with the one picture I took.