The Art of Clipping

I have a show this upcoming weekend, so I am been trying to put off everything as long as possible.

I am a Class A Procrastinator. 

However, I have some pretty awesome friends.  One awesome friend volunteered to come over and help me clip the Semi Feral Filly (ahem--mare) which is major show task #1.

Now Chili has been clipped plenty of times.  But she doesn't enjoy some of the process, especially on her face and ears.  It used to require liberal amounts of Dorm, a twitch, and someone holding her to get things done. 

Fortunately, we have progressed past that point.  I did her bridlepath and feet without much fuss.  She then decided that whiskers were the devil, but after a momentary fuss she was good there.

Ears are always the worst part, but awesome friend had a twitch, because while I probably own every piece of horse equipment known to man-kind, I have no idea where my twitch is.  So Friend twitched her while I went for the ear.  Left ear was fine, right ear was a lot more fussing. 

Clipping Arabians requires some fancy face clipping.  The main goal is to clip a triangle to accentuate the shape of the horse's head.  If you are a skilled clipper, there is lots of blending to be done to essentially make the horse look like one fancy beast.

Well, I am not quite so skilled, but I did semi-accomplish a triangle that was mostly triangle shaped.  I don't go too crazy with the clipping since I dabble in the dressage ring, but I do think it is nice to accentuate some of the Arabian shape, plus I have to learn somehow.  ;) 

Who doesn't want to learn on their clipping shy, red hot chestnut mare?

After clipping, Chili was thoroughly sweaty, so she received a bath.  I couldn't resist throwing her out in the pasture and taking a couple of photos.

So what's the verdict?  Does my clipping pass the muster this time around?  It is certainly a work in progress.