Clipping as a beginner

Clipping yourself for the first time can be quite overwhelming and scary, especially when you compete and don’t want to muck it up! Event rider and Lister ambassador Flo Carter tackled the art of clipping for the first time this year using our Lister Star clippers; here’s how she got on!

With her two event horses being in full work all year round, it was essential they both maintain a short coat to prevent getting sweaty quickly during training sessions and overheating. Trying to organize and pay for a professional to come and clip both at least twice a year became quite difficult, leading to Flo wanting to learn how to clip herself.

Flo Carter-

“The first time I clipped I made sure I had somebody experienced on hand to help, which was brilliant as they could give me confidence and also demonstrate how to do some of the tricker areas of a horse in person. It helped me gain a lot of confidence to give it a go myself. The second time I clipped I made sure to refresh my memory by watching some of the videos on Lister’s YouTube channel which were really informative. It gave me the confidence I needed to tackle my first solo-clip and I was actually rather pleased with how it turned out!

I use the Lister Star clippers. They’ve been a dream to use, super straightforward and very lightweight (which is definitely important for a beginner, as it takes me just that bit longer to clip a horse and a heavier set of clippers would definitely make my arm tired!)

I actually think it was easier than I anticipated! I’ve been a little nervous about taking the plunge because I was worried I wouldn’t be any good at clipping. I think taking on any activity with a blade involved is a little unnerving! However, I definitely built it up in my head to be a harder task than it is in reality, as soon as I got going I realised that, as long as you’ve had a tutorial and adhere to all necessary safety measures, it’s actually a relatively straightforward task. I’d imagined it to be a far more taxing challenge. The only thing I would say is it definitely took me longer than anticipated to do my first full clip unsurprisingly, and I now know I’ll get faster with time as I know what I’m doing more.

I will absolutely be clipping myself from here on out! It was super satisfying doing it myself and now I know how much more manageable it is than I had anticipated, I’ll be clipping for myself from this point onwards!”

 

For more tips and tutorials on how to approach clipping for the first time, head over to our YouTube channel!