Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Must be Cold in Austria Right Now


Janow grows a mighty fur coat. He has since he was four, probably sooner. He starts to grow hair and people always say he is predicting a cold winter. Yes, he is. "Winter in Austria will be very cold this year."

Without any clip, he stands in his stall and sweats. He hates it, and he doesn't dry before sunset. It gets colder at night.


He gets a clip. Usually an Irish trim, and then a second one in early December. This year he got a trace clip. I'm hoping he will not need another.

Denise did it for me and we took photos so she can advertise her clipping at Indian Hill. It came out pretty good.

I got to the barn early to wash him. Dirty salty hair dulls clipper blades, so it helps if he is clean. Then I walked him around until he was dry. No rolling! I hate washing horses and with Janow's endorsement I usually abstain. What more could a white horse ask for than someone who doesn't wash horses? In spite of our lack of practice, a bath in the warm water wash rack went OK.


Surprise! Freckles underneath.

It wasn't a barrel of monkeys, but it wasn't a bad day either.

8 comments:

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Haven't seen the trace clip before or the IRish trim, I remember hunter clips which were everything except the legs......He does grow a mighty coat!

Unknown said...

Wow. I've never seen that before! I guess we don't clip here, or I've been too sheltered. I'm curious about the style of clip - is the effect just to keep him cool?

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

What an interesting clip! Looks like he's wearing a holiday garland. :)

That is a long coat already. Reminds me of the thick coats that Icelandics get. Our friends who own one and live in New Mexico, on the West side of the mountains, down in the valley, where it rarely gets below 30 degrees for very long, have to trim their Icelandic every winter, just like Janow.
What have your temps been like there?

My mare has been growing her winter beard and is already thick and plush, but we've already had our first hard frost up here and our winds are coming back ,too, so she needs it.

~Lisa

OnTheBit said...

He looks so white! And Gen would LOVE to have you as a Mom...I need my white horse to be WHITE. Gen needs his white self to be BROWN. That is some winter coat on your boy! I have seen cushings horses with less fur! Good luck getting a horse that hairy to last through the winter on a single clip :P

Oregon Equestrian said...

Wow! Our horses are getting fuzzy, but nowhere nearly that fluffy. I've never clipped my horses and now that I can ride during the day and have time to cool out I don't have the need to (besides, Phantom never gets really fuzzy). Back when I was taking jump lessons in the evening after work it was the dickens drying out a horse so one could go home before midnight to eat and sleep!

Nice clip job and good advertisement. It's definitely an art.

bathmate said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

deleted another ad

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.