Zen Horse

Training Tip of the Week
By Clinton Anderson
Clipping your Horses Ears


At some stage of horse ownership, you will need to clip your horse. Remember, horses are prey animals and perceive anything new to be potentially life threatening. The key to having a horse that is easy to clip is to break the process into steps, teaching the horse that the noise and the feel of the vibrating clippers is not going to hurt him. When it’s time for me to clip my horse, I desensitize and prepare him for the process by following these steps:

Rub your hand all over your horse’s face and ears. Get your horse to accept your hands on his face, muzzle, ears and around his eyes– desensitizing him to anything moving around his head. Once you have accomplished this step COMPLETELY, move on to Step 2.

Take the clippers in your hand – turned OFF – and desensitize the horse to having the clippers around. Let him smell the clippers, then rub them over his face and wave them around his eyes and ears. Make sure that he will tolerate the feeling of the clippers on all parts of his face, eyes and ears – especially inside the ears. This may take working with your horse for a couple days before he completely relaxes. Make sure that the horse is showing no resistance to this step before you move on.

Remove the blade and turn the clippers on to let the horse get used to the noise. Without touching him, wave the clippers around the end of his nose, his eyes and his ears. Desensitize him to the sound and movement. Once he relaxes, turn the clippers off and pat him. Use my approach and retreat method: every time the horse relaxes and lowers his head, turn the clippers off and pat him. You are not trying to touch him right now with the clippers– all you are doing is getting him to stand still with the clippers on and moving around his head. Pay particular attention to areas where reaction is high – this is usually around the ears. You might have to spend more time here. Initially, it might take a couple of minutes before he relaxes his head when the clippers are near his ears. However, once he does, turn the clippers off. Repeat this procedure until there is little, if any, reaction from your horse.

Once the horse accepts the clippers around his head while they are turned on but not touching him, it is time to rub them all over his face, nose, around his ears and on the poll. The horse may act frightened again, but this is normal. Just keep rubbing the clippers around until he begins to relax his head. As soon as he relaxes, turn the clippers off and pat him. Remember, approach and retreat. In the beginning, you might want to work on one area of his head at the time. Start with the muzzle and work your way up. As he relaxes in each area, you can increase the places you are rubbing until you can rub them all over his head.

Once your horse is comfortable with all of the previous steps, you are ready to begin clipping the hair on his face and ears. However, if you are still getting resistance from the horse to any of the steps up to this point, you will only make matters worse by proceeding. Again, don’t start with the ears. Start at the muzzle and work your way up – under the chin, up his face, around his eyes, in the bridle path and poll area. Then start to work on his ears. It is a good idea to do a little bit of clipping and then go back and rub the clippers over areas that you have already clipped. Actually clipping the hair is another new feeling, and the horse may react to the sensation. If he gets suspicious or frightened, you can go back to the rubbing that he should already be used to. If you do a little bit each day, after a week or so you should be able to clip anywhere on his body with no resistance.


Happy Trails,

Danna