Does anyone have any recommendations on clippers? Makes, models, brands, features, good buys? Any to avoid? Thanks for your feedback!
I’ve been clipping professionally for over 5 years. I do not like the Oster Clip Masters (big blue clippers)- they tend to blow the clipped hair everywhere.
I use Lister Stars and will never use anything else. They are light weight, heavy duty, and make it darn near impossible to leave lines. Downside is that the blades are very expensive (~$46), but I just get them sharpened. I’ve also used the Lister Legends (slightly larger/heavier), but prefer the Stars.
For smaller clippers- I use the Oster A6’s.
I too really like the Lister Stars, however before I got those to clip my horses for shows, I used the Andis AG2 clippers (~$150) and don’t have any complaints about those.
Before the Andis, I had a pair of Wahl K9 clippers, which lasted me for 8 years, however towards the end, they began to get hot very quickly.
I’ve never fully clipped a horse. I only do muzzles, chin, lightly on the ears, etc for local shows. I bought a little cordless Oster AMP a year or two ago and I LOVE it for working in the little tight spaces to trim muzzles, eyes, and whatnot. It’s got a lithium battery which I’ve never even had to change yet.
Wahl KM10. The clipper does NOT heat up. The blades will so just switch between 2 sets and you’re good.
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blades
[QUOTE=gumshoe;8013425]
Wahl KM10. The clipper does NOT heat up. The blades will so just switch between 2 sets and you’re good.[/QUOTE]
Brave new world. Thank you everyone. And the blades? How long do these last if you have a big hairy beast? Do you buy a set? I had no idea the blades were so pricey.
This for DD. She will only be clipping her own horse at first. Terrifying. :eek:
I don’t know how long the blades would last with a very hairy horse. I haven’t had to replace them after 2 (or maybe 3, can’t recall) clips. But the horse was clean.
Edit: I see no difference in the blades after 2 or 3 clips. I wouldn’t expect to have to replace blades after that many though. 
I can get 2-3 full body clips out of one set of blades with my Lister Stars. Horse needs to be super clean. I then use Manna Pro Pre Clip spay and show sheen to help the blades glide smoothly. Make sure your daughter oils the blades every 5 minutes or so, and use blade cool/wash as needed. I get my blades sharpened as needed and the local gentleman charges $8 a blade. It’s the upfront cost that will get you.
What will really do in your blades is a dirty horse. Even a marginally dirty horse.
I do a lot of clipping and can get at least 5 body clips out of a set of Lister blades. But the horses have either been bathed that morning or the afternoon before, and then wear a sheet/blanket and no turn out. I use the Lister Stars on the body and the Andis AGC on the face and legs.
I love my Andis Super 2 Speed - my horse is pretty reactive and with these I can clip with him loose in his stall with a flake of hay. This year, I got 2 full body clips, 2 hunt clips and several touch ups out of one set of blades. And one of the hunt clips was an uber hairy Arabian that resembled a woolly mammoth.
I used to use the Oster Clipmasters but vastly prefer my Andis. I have also used the Listers when I clipped a friends horse for her and they were pretty impressive too.
Great information. Thank you all so much!
Lister stars for the body, Laube Litenings or Speedfeed for legs/face.
I grudgingly used my Oster Clipmasters for YEARS until this year. I hated them because they blow hair everywhere…I even tried to clip the horse wet last year b/c the hair blowing all over was such an issue (and I used to body clip 6-8 horses each winter, some twice during the same winter).
this year my Osters started sounding weird and my Oster A5s (which I LOVE; dual speed and easy to use) just weren’t getting the job done. A friend had me use her Lister Stars to clip out 2 of her young horses…WOW. My Osters are going in a trunk for back up & I’m ordering a pair of Listers. The Listers are lovely to clip with - don’t blow hair all over the place, are smaller & lighter, and I had zero issues with the blades getting hot (I’m very liberal with the Kool Lube). I can’t imagine body clipping my crew with the Oster Clipmasters again.
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Body clipping- Lister Stars
Trims/trace clipping- Andis AGC
I will always get Andis over Oster when given a choice.
The Oster Clipmasters do a good job but they’re heavy, super big in my hand, and LOUD. So I almost never use them, I strongly prefer to work with the Lister Stars.
[QUOTE=Reminisce;8013605]
I can get 2-3 full body clips out of one set of blades with my Lister Stars. Horse needs to be super clean. I then use Manna Pro Pre Clip spay and show sheen to help the blades glide smoothly. Make sure your daughter oils the blades every 5 minutes or so, and use blade cool/wash as needed. I get my blades sharpened as needed and the local gentleman charges $8 a blade. It’s the upfront cost that will get you.[/QUOTE]
I do the same thing. That Manna Pro product is SUPER. I was sort of incredulous that it would make a difference but I did an experiment doing 1/4 of a horse with and the matching 1/4 on the other side without-- it absolutely made a difference.
Also absolutely SCRUPULOUSLY clean horse is key. I do a full bath. And then shampoo again and rinse like c-r-a-z-y. Then allow the horse to dry. Then DOUSE in Showsheen and the Manna Pro spray and then clip.
Wow, this is great info. I can see why clipping is so expensive! She’s had one clipping lesson where she did about half the horse with Laube clippers.
I’m wondering how you all learned to clip and how much coaching did you get before you tried it on a show horse? (Btw, she’s 19 so I’m not turning a ten year old loose on our guy:)) It’s definitely time she got this skill. That being said I don’t want her to butcher him. How long does it take to master it on your own?
Not to hijack the thread…but I will anyways ;)…what are the best trimmer clippers for fetlocks, ears, throat, etc. that don’t cost over $75, but will still last more than one year of use?
I’ve done several body clips with my Andis AGC2 clippers with the T-84 blade and I really like them. They’re smaller than most body clippers, but I don’t find that it takes that much longer to clip plus I can use them on the legs and face as well. They also don’t get hot as quickly as most big body clippers. I think my horse likes that they aren’t very noisy, too.
I did part of a body clip once with my trainer’s Lister Stars and I liked them a lot as well, but they were louder and got hot more easily.
I clip professionally, also. I traded in my Clipmasters 2 years ago in favor of the Andis 2-Speeds. I have one older pair of the AG’s and one newer pair of the AGC’s. I actually prefer the older model - feels like there is more power to the blade drive and hair doesn’t get trapped under the cover like it does with AGCs.
I run 8 sets of blades and use a freshly sharpened pair on every clip job. For particularly dirty or thickly coated horses, I will use 2 sets. I have the blade drive changed every 6 clips.
In terms of coaching, my parents paid for a full price bodyclip on my horse, but asked the clipper to watch/instruct me as I did it. I then asked 2 non-showing owners if I could practice on their horses with a free clip.
From there, I was asked to clip barnmates horses. My first outside client was a COTHer and my name spread from there. I did 90 clips last year. Aiming for 100 this year!
[QUOTE=TwoDreamRides;8016704]
I did 90 clips last year. Aiming for 100 this year![/QUOTE]
Oh I just got an all over body itch reading that! I’m aiming for 10 this year, lol…it’s not really my favorite thing in the world, but since I have the skills, clippers, and a little more free time now I figured I would pick up a few clips on the side and actually make some money for them (because the pay in my grooming jobs is just a cleaner, faster drying horse day after day :P).
I have used all sorts of clippers at various barns I have worked at. You couldn’t pay me to buy a set of Oster clippers…and I mean all their small models, not just the big hair blowers. For me, they have only been a powerless exercise in frustration. The Andis purplish clippers (I think the AGC2) are a great little all around clipper. They are super quiet, so good for the squirrely horse, heads and legs. For someone just doing their own beasts (or meticulously maintaining them like TwoDream) I certainly recommend them. However in big barns where they may not be getting all the love they deserve, I have many times seen them…fade…under the workload of repeated body clips (that said, probably after they had paid for themselves). What I ended up getting myself was the Wahl KM2. They are in the interchangeable blade family (read:light enough not to break my arm) but very powerful and really hard to kill (actually I’ve seen the power cord go before the clipping power most times). Kind of loud for their size, but not such a problem on bodies/most horses.
I use T84 (sometimes T10) blades on the body…they are a little more costly up front but the wide cutting area saves major time! I usually keep two sets rolling and swap them as they get hot.
Make sure she takes the blades off the clippers and meticulously cleans both before storing. Careful with how you wrap the cord.
As for learning how…well the best way is to just do it. Provided you aren’t prepping for some big event immediately following your clip, since it’s your horse, I would absolutely just “let her loose” on him. It’s nice to have someone around to show you the “tricks” for the tricky areas, like elbows, hocks, the mane line, etc (but YouTube could do in a pinch) but for the big flat areas, it’s more a matter of getting the feel down.
I remember my first week as a groom, my boss set me and the other new girl loose on her “for fun” horse since we hadn’t clipped before. He turned out to be a big jerk about it, and was left with hairy back legs and a strip up the back of one bum cheek! But the rest of him looked pretty good 
