Patriot Revisits Clipping

Moving right along on this open house thing, I did finally get the email invitations out late last night. I think the timing is on the slow side but at least I have it figured out how to do it now. Over the next year I will build my email address book and see if that doesn't help.

It's interesting to note that I've received more responses from the emails than from the postcards that I sent. Not that most of those responses were people saying they were coming........but responses none the less. I wonder if that means the email invitations will be more effective in the future. I guess that time will tell.

While I did get my rear in gear and get those email invitations out, I am way behind on the clipping thing. I just couldn't give up riding all together this week. So spent the last two days working horses again. It's sure lots more fun to ride than to clip!

The plan was to get clipping done after the riding. However, by the time I have that done my energy is spent and it's been hard to stay focused. Instead of getting clipping done, I attended a Daffodil meeting last night. Then today I managed to get one horse completely clipped and another one started.

It looks like I'm having problems with blades. I thought I was set for this job but in tonight's ventures at clipping the blades were my worst enemy. I think I could chew the hair better than the clippers are doing.

Blades are not the only problem I'm having with clipping. If anyone remembers about my clipping exploits last year, neither of the weanling colts thought much of the process. My first victim was one of those colts.

It seems that Patriot has not changed his opinion of this process. Despite the fact I have clipped his bridle path and muzzle several times this year with little problem, clipping his face and his legs today turned out to be a challenge.

The poor horse twitched and jumped at the mere sound of the clippers. Then the things touching his face sent him scrambling away from me.
Clipping his legs, however, turned out to be the biggest challenge. The colt got in big trouble trying to kick me. I had to call Dave for help to get the job done.It's clear I'm going to need to spend much more time working with the clippers and this colt.

Now I'm a bit worried about what to expect from Andy. He was the worst of the two colts last year, if my memory serves me. Hopefully, he does better than Patriot.

I have a lot of horses left to clip and I really hope to get through most of them tomorrow. I really need to get bathing started by Friday if I'm going to get this stuff all done. It's this last stretch before the event that makes me wonder why I do this to myself.........about now, I think I have at least a couple of horses thinking the same thing.