with Robyn Brown

Robyn Brown is one of Victoria's consistently most successful eventing trainers and riders, but she is also keenly in demand at that time of the year when trim taut athletes start to look like hairy Yaks - the time of the year, when you start to think about clipping.

Before you start:

Make sure you have a safe area, preferably an enclosed area with no junk lying around, check that it is dry, especially if you are using a wash area. Make sure all extension lead connections are wrapped up if you are out in the weather so they stay dry. The horse should be clean and dry, mud and dirt in their coats makes it harder for the clippers to cut the hair. You get a better clip if you wash the horse but in winter this is a little difficult so you just have to brush the mud off and make sure the horse is dry before you start, as wet hair is very difficult to clip and wet hair blunts the blades.

The advantages of clipping is that it is much easier to keep them clean and to dry them off after working and also it looks much smarter. It depends on your program of competitions when you decide to clip a horse. If you have a horse competing in the autumn and early winter then I will clip out fairly early in the autumn about April, as soon as the coat gets a little thick If they are competing I don't mind clipping them again if the coat gets a little thick and they are starting to sweat. Or you can wait until their coats are fully through and then clip them - but if you are competing early in the season and your horse gets really sweaty then it's better to clip them twice, once at the beginning of autumn and then again late autumn early winter and if they are competing at a three day event, I'll clip the second time about a week before the Three Day. I don't believe that the horse has to look terrible for a few days after the clip. A lot of people say you need a week for the coat to look decent again but I think that if you do a good job the coat should look perfectly fine the next day.

The most important thing is to take your time. Make sure you go over the horse two or three times each area, sometimes at a slightly different angle. That way you will get all the lines off all the excess bits of hair, make sure you keep the blades flat against his skin. The fiddly bits take a lot of time, you need to take your time and let the horse get over the ticklish bits, some are really sensitive. I don't mind doing a little bit in a sensitive spot, then going on to another area if the horse is getting upset and then coming back and doing a bit until you get the job done properly and not just give up because it is too difficult.

It takes about an hour to clip a horse (one that is quiet and behaves) or about an hour and a half if the leg hair has to come off. With regard to what clip to use you need to take into account the environment you are keeping the horse in and the type of work they are doing. I think if they are working hard they need to have all the body clipped, leaving a saddle patch. I leave a square where the saddle goes, it prevents rubbing and burning and pressure areas. If you are going to take thei legs off, the horse needs to be stabled or kept somewhere very dry. If the horse is going to be in a paddock or in mud, then it is best to leave leg hair on. Faces again depend on how the horse is kept. Some horses look better with the face off, if they are the woolly kind. For cosmetic reasons, if I take the face off, I also take the ears off, if the face hair is left on then so are the ears. I generally don't clip horses ears right out as I had a bad experience once where a horse jumping into water got water in his ears and got distracted and hit the next element and somersaulted. A trace clip or blanket clip are the standard when a horse is living outside and worked hard. This clip takes off the underneath of the neck and belly and hindquarters or you can take off the whole neck and again you leave the legs on. There are variations of this clip to make the job look a lot smarter. For a designer clip, the horse needs to have a fairly nice coat for that clip to look good, if the horse is hairy it doesn't quite come off!

Whilst caring for the clipped horse you will automatically have to put more rugs on, don't let him/her stand around for too long without something over his loins before or after you are going to work them. Always keep the coat clean, I usually shampoo weekly or brush thoroughly but most clipped horses won't stand being brushed. A cotton rug (which is washed at least every second week) against their skin all the time is best, and that just helps to keep the clipped coat looking good, it stops the splitting and the greasiness and scurf. If a horse is sweaty from working hard, I always hose off and then rug up straight away. I don't like not washing them because then the grease and dirt builds up and you end up with the coat rubbing. If you have a horse that is prone to rubbing in the hips and shoulders then you can put silk in those areas of his rug.

When you are clipping after you have checked you have a safe environment and that the horse is clean, then just let the horse get used to the sound of the clippers running. Start on the shoulder with the clippers running against the line of the hair making sure that the clippers are lying flat against the horse's skin. Always keep one hand on the horse when you are working - that way the horse knows where you are and you can feel how the horse is reacting to the clippers and you can sense if the horse starts getting upset or ticklish.

Remember to dip the clipper blades in kerosene at regular intervals. This cleans the hair out of the blades. Horses can be difficult for different reasons. Some haven't been clipped before and obviously don't know what it is about, some are ticklish and some don't like the feel of the vibration or the noise. Sometimes using a twitch can be of assistance and if you suspect a problem then it is wise to tranquillise first as this easier on all parties concerned, the horse, the handler and the clipper.

Quite often once a horse has been clipped and had a good experience then the next time they are usually better to clip. With horses that are likely to kick, I always blindfold the eye on the side I am working as they generally won't kick out at something they can't see. You can also use hobbles, but I would only use these on horses that are used to them.