Talk to me about spring clipping

Okay.

You have all talked me down from the clipping ledge many times before.

So here I return, to ask further questions.

I'm seeing a lot of people doing spring clips to get ahead of shedding. It's warming up more quickly here in Vermont than I anticipated, and I'm holding back a bit on my rides because it's warm enough to sweat with hard work but not yet warm enough to rinse horses off.

remnants of winter's clip

So I find myself pondering a spring clip, to take out the winter fuzz and get us to the endpoint faster.

Realistically, I can't accomplish this for another couple of weeks, so it may all be beside the point.

But what should I keep in mind when thinking about doing a spring clip?

Is there such a thing as too late to do it? How about too early? (He's still wearing his sheet and we will continue to have a frost threat overnight until late May.)

Is there a setting I should use on the clippers - perhaps not go as close? Use different blades? (Pretend I'm stupid, and educate me in small words.)

Is it even worth it? Should I just stick it out with my shedding tools?

How do you decide whether to just let your horse shed out or clip him?

picture like 10x more hair; I took this picture 3 weeks ago

Weekly Blog Roundup

Waze for Horses from In Omnia Paratus
I laughed pretty hard. This would be a top selling app in minutes.

Review: Kentucky Bridleworks Leather Halter from The $900 Facebook Pony
I've been drooling over these halters on Instagram for a while now. Maybe for Christmas next year Tristan can have one.

Too legit to quit from PONY'TUDE
Please go and also drool over the hunt coat of my dreams. I would be wearing that beauty every chance I got!

Really gross, but... from Not So Speedy Dressage
Uncomfortable (on several levels) but important!

How do you choose a bit? from Patently Bay
I am a sucker for these bitting posts,

That time my dog's junk got stuck from Riding with Scissors
I laughed so hard I cried.

Non-horsey read of the week: Going It Alone, about hiking the Appalachian Trail as a queer black woman alone. Extraordinary read.

Blog Hop: Poetry Month

Trying my hand at a blog hop, here, for April as National Poetry Month.

What's your favorite poem about horses? If you don't have a favorite, do some Googling and find one you like! Song lyrics count, too.

Mine is Robert Frost's The Runaway. It's one of his earliest, first published in 1918. Frost is my favorite poet, and he often included horses in his poetry. He spent a lot of time in Vermont and he knew Morgans well.

Frost with a foal, c. 1930

Here's the poem.

ONCE when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,
We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, “Whose colt?”
A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,
The other curled at his breast. He dipped his head
And snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt.	5
We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,
And we saw him, or thought we saw him, dim and gray,
Like a shadow across instead of behind the flakes.
The little fellow’s afraid of the falling snow.
He never saw it before. It isn’t play	10
With the little fellow at all. He’s running away.
He wouldn’t believe when his mother told him, ‘Sakes,
It’s only weather.’ He thought she didn’t know!
So this is something he has to bear alone
And now he comes again with a clatter of stone,	15
He mounts the wall again with whited eyes
Dilated nostrils, and tail held straight up straight.
He shudders his coat as if to throw off flies.
“Whoever it is that leaves him out so late,
When all other creatures have gone to stall and bin,	20
Ought to be told to come and take him in.”

Wordless Wednesday: Muddiest Pony in All the Land

We hit mid 70s here on Monday & Tuesday, obscenely hot for this time of year, and Tristan had his first day outside without his blanket in many months, and boy, did he make the most of it.

Winter Gear Review

I've done some roundups of gear that gets me through the winter in the past (here's 2013 part 1 & part 2), and since this week we've officially hit spring (after snow flurries last Saturday, hahahaha, fuck you, weather), I thought I'd do a quick roundup of what worked really well for me this winter.

Breeches

First and best addition to the wardrobe: new winter breeches. I've been looking for a good pair of winter breeches for a long time; my old breeches were threadbare and wearing out fast.

That niche was admirably filled by the Noble Outfitters Softshell Riding Pants. These did absolutely everything I wanted them to: they held up to 5 days a week of riding, they were lined and warm, they cleaned up nicely, they came through the laundry just fine.

Gloves

In 2016, I spent a lot of time trying out gloves, both winter and summer. I had some abysmal failures, and some tentative success. This year, I'm happy to declare that the gloves I was happiest with in 2016 remained my favorites through 2017.

My absolute favorites were the SSG Fleece Knit Winter Riding Fleece-Lined gloves. They were warm enough and flexible enough to get me through. The caveat? They are not the sturdiest things. The second caveat? They're no longer made; I can't find the on the internet anywhere. Damn it all.

My runner up gloves, which were warm but not depths-of-winter warm, were the Equistar Ladies Fleece Winter Riding Gloves. Let's be honest: these are total junk. They have zero fancy upgrades, are not particularly stylish, and I honestly might be able to sew them myself given some thinking time. HOWEVER, with all of that? They're the best combination of warm, comfortable, and flexible that I found after the knit gloves, and at $5 a pair, I don't particularly care that they might not last more than two or three seasons. (For the record: my two pairs are still in totally fine condition after two seasons.)

Boots

My best-beloved and discontinued Ariat winter boots remain perfect. These will last forever, God willing, and even if they do finally go to the great tack closet in the sky someday, I am happy enough with their similarities to the new Ariat winter boot lines to buy those immediately and strongly suspect I'll be happy.

Layering

Alllllll about the layers. This winter, I could most typically be found in long-sleeved technical shirts of two kinds, depending on the weather. For warmer (20 degrees or more) days, I have a few that can double as sunshirts, made out of lighter technical fabric. For colder days, I have a few that are fleece lined and more in the style of compression shirts, most of the made by Nike. That was base layer.

I also had a nice rotation of sweatshirts or other thicker layers over that base layer, and topped it off with a Patagonia down jacket that was light and flexible but also quite warm.

Miscellaneous

One of my very favorite additions to my winter wardrobe remains my fleece helmet cover. It makes a HUGE difference in comfort, both as a insulating layer to keep my head from bleeding warmth and as a windbreaker to block the vents in my helmet. I freaking love it.