I do too! But I still think her neck is a little short, and don’t want it to look shorter lol. I was going to go just a little smaller though - two tooth combs smaller than usual on my braiding comb. I could do a “couple braid” test run with a couple different styles, but no way am I doing a full neck to test it out 
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OMG. I won a body brush in a raffle basket at our year end gala. My trainer said “you have too many brushes”. My response “But this one is a tampico brush!” I get it.
Yea, 80+ degrees, I say clip now.
Same trainer as above says the pink stuff makes my horse smell like a french wh*re. But she doesn’t complain when his coat sparkles in photos. All kidding aside, I really like the lanolin in the product. I think it would help now and post clip.
ETA: maybe a curry, stiff bush to get the dander down, pink stuff, curry it in and then a medium brush again.
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Well that would be why I don’t like the smell - lanolin. After a few years shearing neglected sheep, I could never smell that again without gritting my teeth, or deal with the texture. I never checked the ingredients on the Pink Stuff.
shivers yuck
The pink stuff is my ole go to. Maybe there is something better? I think she will look great if you clip this week like you say regardless.
We are all so excited to hear how she does!
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No, I agree that it works the best. It’s the smell honestly that made me stray away from it. For the tail I just take some deep conditioner and cut it with 50% water and spray it every day as a leave-in thing. It seems to work pretty well.
Thanks to everyone who set me straight on clipping and dapples. My mate doesn’t get clipped, and her best dapples are in the fall, just when she’s starting to get fuzzy.
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I don’t even remember if she had dappled last winter. She gets them pretty prominently in the spring and then they fade away quickly.
If her legs look too two toned I’ll clip them too, though I really don’t want to.
Definitely clip. And when it comes to grooming, there really is nothing better than Haas brushes to bring out the shine. They are so worth the $$
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I’ve got their diva brush, that thing is amazing!!
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Our ride last night was short, but decent. I had 4 raised trot poles, and 3 canter ground poles. The trot poles she was occasionally getting up to them and then blanking on what to do - Dory. The canter poles, it’s crazy that I’m starting to be able to adjust her to get her to the right spot. A year ago that would have been futile - it was the “get a good canter and try to hold the rhythm” stage of a baby’s training. Now she’s understanding that my ask to sit won’t be forever, and her strength is so much better that she can actually give it. At any rate, it’s neat to think of the things we were struggling with before are so easy now.
I have made the executive decision that I am NOT going to put clips on the reins for her inspection. Reins and clips and metal-on-metal to the bit is something I hate to start with, and it’s not like they’re going to have to be put on and taken off all the time. If they’re in her pictures it will drive me batty, so the concession I will make is that I’ll be sure I use the reins with buckles and not hook and loop.
The order of go is free jumping/inspection at liberty (reins off), then inspection (reins on), then MPT (totally different bridle, so irrelevant).
I also ordered some quic black/quic color for our clipping this weekend. She doesn’t go full mouse, but I’m hoping it will deepen her color a little.
I feel so facetious right now. I have always been pretty OCD about cleanliness and things with my horses, but this is flat out a whole new level.
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I hate clips on reins too, the horse feels every little movement of them 
How cool that you can really see and feel the changes in her!
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Ok. Planning to clip tomorrow.
Can I leave a small saddle area, or should I just clip it all? I’ve never clipped it all off, what kind of problems would I encounter by doing that?
Cant think of any problems caused by clipping the entire saddle area, personally always clipped everything. And she is going to be “shown” on the line, IMO, the cleaner the clip, the better for this particular event. YMMV
Folks I know who leave the saddle patch are not showing on the line, rather doing much serious under saddle work all winter.
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That’s what we will be doing all winter. But I agree, for the line it’s probably all gotta go.
A lot of horses don’t like the prickly short clipped hair rubbing against the saddle pad with the weight of the saddle.
You could do a longer clip and clip everything, so the clipped hair isn’t that prickly short stuff.
I only have 10s (and whatever the clip masters clip at, which is just a titch longer) unfortunately.
When I groomed, we never left a saddle patch when clipping the FEI horses.
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That’s good to know. She’s going to have to suck it up, plus she’s not done growing this coat so it will get a little longer.
Last free jump Friday is complete. Bathing in prep for clipping is complete.
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I always did a full clip plus or minus legs. Showed, hunted, trained, no issues with it. Plus her winter coat is growing in so her coat will be thicker quicker. I think it will photograph better plus it’s just easier.
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Here is our final Free Jump Friday. I incorporated a painted plank, showed it to her ahead of time. She still hesitated and refused on the first try. I left my response in because I think it’s important to know that it’s not always perfect. Because we couldn’t easily exit the chute, I just dropped it to make it easy easy easy and sent her over from a stand still. After that, no issues with the plank. Dory.
I made some loud sounds at the end because after hitting the rail pretty hard on the second to last one she seemed hesitant.
I took down all the v poles etc. on the last couple go throughs, as I don’t think I’ll be allowed that in the MPT.
Not what I would consider a best last session, but all in all it was still a success. She’s still a baby, full of mistakes. 
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