If like me you are not blessed with a natural straight eye for things, trying to clip lines on blanket or trace clips can be a nightmare. My natural inability for straight lines is genetic. I blame my mother who left me at one point with a two inch fringe that made me look demented because every time she trimmed it she would declare it was crooked and take a bit more off to straighten it.
Ironically I am rather OCD about clipping and can’t cope with crooked lines or uneven sides. So I developed and use this method to mark out the lines I need before clipping them whenever I am clipping a blanket clip.
You will need:
An unclipped horse:
Some Makeup
Why make up? I used to use chalk to mark lines on horses but it doesn’t show up on a light grey. I also used to use marker but that doesn’t show up on dark horses and if you use permanent by accident it doesn’t come off light horses (oops).
Make up on the other hand shows up on pretty much all horses (unless you have a beige horse. If you have a beige horse use chalk). This is a tube of stuff I had at home but you don’t have to use L’oreal even if you are worth it. Any cheap liquid foundation in a shade as close to Essex girl orange as you can get will do the trick.
You will also need a saddle cloth. If possible use one that the horse or pony in question actually wears because it means you will be left with a clip where the line will run just along the end of the saddle cloth and look nice.
Directions:
1. Place saddle cloth on horses back. (this cloth doesn’t belong to this horse I just used it for illustration purposes!).
2. Use your finger to dot some make up along the side of the saddle cloth
3. Remove the saddle cloth and you will have the first part of your outline
4. To complete your outline you will need something to measure with and someone to give you a hand. I use an old stirrup leather for this bit. You could use some baler twine either. Place one end of the stirrup leather where the last dot of make up was, just under the dot. Have your helper hold it in place with one hand and holding the leather flat and straight against the horse bring the rest of it around to the tail. Have your helper hold the stirrup leather in place while you mark along it with the make up.
5. Now place the stirrup leather against the side of the top of the tail and lie it down flat. have your helper hold this in place and mark along it with make up.
6. Once you have finished this you will have a template marked out.
7. repeat this process on the other side of the horse so that you have both sides marked out.
8. Clip along the dotted line
9. Remove the remaining make up with baby wipes.
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Equestrian Reality 
This is BRILLIANT! I tried chalk on my black horse this year without luck.
thank you 😀 I used to use chalk too but find make up so much easier. I do get some funny looks when people see it in my grooming kit!
Great guidelines – I’d never have thought of doing any of that!
PS: Has something happened to S2S?
I can’t access the forums or website anymore, 😦
Hi Aoife thanks a mil. Yeah S2s is down at the mo, they are looking into it hopefully it will be back soon, I miss it! L
Oh phew – I was afraid it was just my phone/pc acting up – I haven’t been able to get on since sometime in Dec. Admittedly I didn’t have time in early Dec & then when I tried to catch up over Christmas it was down and I still couldn’t get on today – so your clipping post was well timed, 😉
PS meant to say that I LOVE the make up idea & the quote about the horses being worth it had me sniggering at my desk in work! 😀
The paint pens work very well I find 🙂
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try the old fashioned way of marking the coat with a bit of dampened saddle soap
I hadn’t heard of that but must try it. I think the method I use will work with any marking implement / type
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Ah brilliant – I haven’t been responsible for a free meal before – hope it was great!! L
I am late to the party, but this is genius! Do you have any tips/tricks for a trace clip?
Thank you for sharing your wisdom!