that body clipping a chestnut horse that wrings his tail and kicks out with simple BRUSHING is a death defying act. He was a ROCKSTAR 2 years ago when I did a trace clip using my friend's Wahl Stable Pro clippers. Stood quiet as a mouse while I clipped him up. This weekend, I did a full body clip with big body clippers, and he tried to kill me on multiple occasions. My horse has never grunted so many times in 3 hours. It was pathetic; HE was pathetic. I feel like it was a total waste of time, too ... he just did NOT hardly have a coat at ALL to clip off. Oh well. At least he'll be naked for the HT. I'm indifferent about the tiki ... my husband says it doesn't look good and I should shave it off. I'll think on it; I may.
SO! Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, Friday! Well, I ended up jumping again since I hadn't done much of that lately. I thought it would be a good idea since Tiki hangs his knees sometimes to jump a low, wide square oxer. I'm not a huge oxer fan ... ESPECIALLY wide ones, lol. But I sucked it up, and set a 2' tall 3' wide square oxer. The others were 2'9. Jumped a hunter course first, and he was perfect up to the oxer ... and then he got in long, so I added ... he jumped ... then looked down and went, "OH CRAP!".:) Bent my fingernail back, owww! He cleared the jump no problem, and heart pounding, I came in again. Got a better distance this time, clucked, leg, and he JUMPED. Did an easy course, and this time got in long again, but went. Ugh, it felt AWFUL. Jumped the oxer again alone, and it was decent. Decided my final course would be jumper-ish, so I planned the cav stack oxer (high), inside turn to a vert, tight turn to the outside vert/cabinet line, then finishing with oxer. Got in fine to the cav oxer, but he knocked it so hard, he landed 3 legged. Walked him until his back ankle stopped stinging, then tried one more time. He jumped the cav oxer so hard I could NOT make the inside turn. Jumped everything else fine, then really NAILED the wide oxer perfectly, so I quit there.
Actually rode Saturday with my friend Becca. Warmed him up on a TOTALLY loose rein, w/t/c. Did a little leg yielding, a little canter circling, a little toth, then warmed up over the cabinet a few times in my 2-point. Jumps were down to 2'6, and the wide oxer was now a fan jump (which I haven't done with Tiki yet). Becca jumped, then I jumped an easy hunter course. Didn't let him see the fan ahead of time, and he was great to it. Looked at it as he jumped it, but didn't stutter. Decided to try my jumper course from Friday one more time with the inside turn(cav oxer was low now). Made the turn, but he didn't land his lead, so I did a simple change on the rollback. Finished with the vert of the outside line, bending line to the fan jump. He was a rockstar, so quit.
Bathed him, and started clipping, expecting full cooperation like last time; he HATED the vibration and the loudness of the huge clippers. His skin was twitching like he was being attacked by bees; he was dancing around, kicking out, trying to bite me. Broke the crossties twice. NOT a happy camper. I will be investing in some SUPER quiet, smaller clippers for next year. This was NOT a fun weekend.
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