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Clipping The Body
When body clipping your horse, you will want to use at least a 10 blade. Begin by turning on the clippers, and rubbing them over your horse - if he has never been clipped before.
Personally, I go against the hair when I clip. I have found that it creates a lot less marks afterwards, and it gets a little closer. You will want to make sure you clip the WHOLE body including the legs, underbelly, neck and chest.
Next you will want to examine your horse to determine how long you want to bridal path to be. This is always a good starting point. There is no set length, it al depends on the horses neck length. For a short necked horse, a longer bridal path is usuallu considered and for those horses with a neck that goes on for miles, the bridal path is normally shorter.
Make sure to thin the mane as well. It shouldnt be overly thin, but it shouldnt be thick either. You want it to be able to lay nicely to one side. Just take your clippers and shave each of the sides, pulling out the hair as you go. If you are thinning the mane, you can either take a thinning comb, or clip the UNDERSIDE up slightly. You don't ever want to clip the outside. It looks ridiculous when it grows back in and is VERY difficult to tame. Dealer looks stupid right now, trust me!
The thinning of the forelock is not very difficult, but it is one of those things that takes a while until you know how to properly do it. You DON'T want too much forelock on a show horse. It needs to tuck over nicely and its its too thick, it will add the illusion of a wider forehead.
Here are a few more pictures of a correctly trimmed forelock. Please note that it has been growing out, and this gives a better picture of how much you need to clip out the forelock.
Now that we have clipped our horses forelock, and its nice and this, where it can lay flat against his head, we need to thin the mane. Once again, I reccomend that you DON'T do a clip on the outside of the mane. As you can see on Dealer's pictures, it looks quite ridiculous, and it doesn't help the mane to lay flat easily either.
THIS IS WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO DO TO THE MANE
If your mane is too thick, or puffy, it can take away a LOT from the neck. Notice in the bridal path picture how there is the "puff" up of mane at the end of the bridal path. It doesn't look to good. What you will want to start with is determining just how thick your horses mane is. If its really thick, you are going to want to clip high up on your horse. Start by flipping the mane to the other side and taking your clippers along the inside of the mane, puling out the hairs as you go.
Here is a picture of what it will look like when you have clipped the underside of the mane. Note : Dealers has grown out quite a bit in oder to show exactly the area you will want to cut. It does all depend on how thick your horses mane is. 
The "croup" or "triangle" of your horse is pretty important as well. It is used to make the tailset look higher. Even horses whose tailset is high normally show with one. There is not much technique to it. You really just clip a traingle above their tail.
Little Kings Buck Commander
Owned by Olive Branch Farm
There is however some technique about how long the croup (pronounced croop) should be. If your horses tailset is fairly low, you will want it to be longer and high. Just don't make it too high. You do NOT want it to be past the point of hip on your horse. Then it starts looking like an amateur was clipping around a slice of pizza!
 
When you want to clip your head, it should be one of the last part that you clip. Your horse should be nice and calm at this point. You will want to do a VERY smoothe job with the blade you have been using on the body, or some even use a 30 blade on the face. Then most will take a 40 or 50 blade and clip over the eyes and the muzzle. Then we begin a process called Razoring, or balding. This is where we remove all the hair on the muzzle and above the eyes to create a more "Arabian" look. |
