Confessions of a Clip-A-Holic: He’s a Ten

This seems to be the winter that Ax is truly embracing his Buffalo-ness. We are only two months into the season and I have had to clip him three times so far—we still have three months to go! Because of Ax’s persistent hairiness (and because a friend told me that these blades actually exist in wide and I had no idea) I chose to clip with the T-10 blades in hopes of getting a longer lasting clip. At 1.5mm I knew that it would be shorter than my usual 2.4mm T-84s, but HOLY MOLY HE IS NAKED. Wonderfully, beautifully, smoothly naked.

I’m super impressed with the T-10s. They left behind a beautiful clip with almost zero lines even after fighting with them when they started to get dull because Ax was a bit dirty. I’m not sure if they are my preferred length for a winter clip since it gets pretty cold up here (it is currently midday and in the teens), but they will be my go-to for the summer.

The downside? The clip took me almost twice the amount of time. Yes, I broke my number one rule of clipping a clean horse—Ax wasn’t the cleanest he could’ve been since it was too cold to bathe—but I’ve clipped dirtier horses and these blades got dull much faster than my T-84s usually do. Add the multiple breaks I needed for the blades to cool down and by the time I was onto the last section, Ax’s buttcheeks, they were completely dull. Next time I will be sure to have two sets of blades so I can swap.

So far, this short clip has kept Ax’s excessive perspiration at bay and he has stayed nice and cool while riding. I am a bit paranoid nervous about him being too cold but thankfully my blanket buying obsession and the amazing barn owner at the new barn has kept him toasty warm. I almost feel as thought I could have done a modified trace or irish clip with the shorter blades instead of my usual hunter clip with longer blades—maybe next year. Until then, I will cross my fingers that this clip lasts until it is almost show season.

After doing some research I found that some people thought T-10s clip much too short for the whole body while others claimed they preferred to clip even shorter—which made me curious, what length do you prefer to clip to?

-TC