Clipping Tips For Grey Horses

There’s no doubt about it, grey horses are stunning, but aren’t they a nightmare to clip? Here's some professional tips to help achieve the clip you want.

Grey horses are typically pink-skinned, meaning achieving a perfect finish is difficult and often after the clip, you’ll see lines in their coat. Not ideal.

Often there’s no way to avoid this, it's just the nature of their hair, but there are definitely ways to minimise the lines left. Here are some professional tips that should put you in the right direction:

Prepare properly:

This is the best advice for any person looking to clip, clean and brush the coat to remove any grease or dirt (which is the main cause for dulling your beloved blades). Once this is done, you’ll find the blades sweep through the coat much easier and show much fewer lines. Watch our video made by Hartpury College on preparing to clip the night before here. 

Never clip a wet horse:

Not even a damp one. This will make it difficult to clip and even risk breaking your clipper because electrics and water do not mix!

Make sure your blades are sharp:

Using sharp blades allows the clipper to move through the hair easily. Ensure they are correctly tensioned, remembering with any Lister Clipper, to tighten the tension nut fully and then turn 1 ½ turns anti-clockwise. If your blades are dull, check them into a sharpening / repairs agent. 

Move the clipper in a smooth, consistent rhythm:

Try to keep the skin flat and not wrinkled especially around areas like the front legs or elbows (it will help to get another person to assist you with this while you hold the clipper). When you get around to clipping the neck area, look to turn your horse's head in the opposite direction, allowing a nice flat area to work with.

Overlap each clipped area by around 2cm:

This will ensure you don’t miss anything, and everything remains consistent throughout the coat.

Look to use medium blades, like our A2F Medium Blades. These are best suited for pink skins as finer blades can irritate the skin on these breeds.

Let the clipper do its job:

As much as you think it might help, trying to get through the coat quickly will often lead to more lines being left. Have trust in your clipper!

Of course, with horses that are pink-skinned being more sensitive than other breeds, it's important to treat and soothe the skin, such as with a shampoo like the Wahl Aloe Smooth Shampoo. Using treatments like the hot towelling method will also help comfort your animal.

If you are still left with the same annoying lines in your horse's coat after looking at all the above tips we’d advise getting your clipper looked at by a repair specialist local to you as they may need a good service.

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