Greetings,

Well, 4-H shows are nearing and we are preparing for them. My three preteen children have already passed the stage of Quality Assurance and Skill-a-Thon testings with flying colors.

Next? Clipping our goats for show. Last year was horribly hard as I only had cheapo clippers (3 pr) and one LaMancha kid with an angora undercoat. Took my 9 hrs(over three 90+ degree days) to get her clipped. The other three goats only took about 45 minutes each :oP

This year my husband who took compassion on us- bought us an Oster Clipmaster-one speed. I am delighted, but.... These seem so huge, and loud!

My question:

*Can the clippers be used on sensitive areas(udder, ears) -with care? Or does experience rule out that smaller clippers that are ~waaay~ quieter work better? I'm afraid of cutting or tearing esp. this close to showtime.

Our goats will freak for a minute or two but then will settle down and enjoy the attention-least I'm hoping for that!

Any experienced information will be gratefully accepted!!!Thanks

Wendy *Already trimmed hooves-may just need cleaning up a bit before showtime.

-- Wendy Hannum SE Ohio (wendy@skywardinternet.com), July 24, 2002

Answers

Yup, body clip with the big ones. Face, ears, legs with the smaller. Surgical blade(close cut) on the utter. Good luck at the shows!!!!

Oh, and use lots of cool lube, don't want to tear up those new clippers! :-)

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), July 24, 2002.

Well, daughter and I got out our sweet little hairy Saanen and began to clip. Unless, I am grossly misunderstanding something-there are no settings/clip on comb guides on these clippers so she got shaved down to less than a quarter inch. She looks naked. I worried about sunburn so I slathered on sunscreen on her back- was that dumb?

Our show is on Aug. 12th so her hair will have time to smooth out (I think...)

Is it supposed to clip that short? The saanen looks rather ...uh...pink without much white hair.

Did I goof big time?

-- Wendy Hannum SE Ohio (wendy@skywardinternet.com), July 24, 2002.

LOL! That does seem short!? What size blades came with it? The standard ones should be fine. No, no guides, it's different blade sizes with these.

Don't worry, she should look fine! I think we have all done this, it's a classic! Black goats look the worst, like skinned rats! Some folks even mist them with spray paint, I wouldn't recommend it though! ;-)

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), July 24, 2002.

A quarter inch sounds about right to me. They should be clipped several days before the show- always do black or dark goats first so they have a few days to grow out a bit. I use my clipmaster on the body, head, everything except the udder. For the udder, I tried Nair but my goats broke out in blisters and it did nasty stuff to my hands, too! You can use a safety razor for udders or a small clipper. I found that the Clipmaster is actually much gentler on the goat than the cheapo clippers even though it looks and sounds intimidating, it doesn't nick them as much. For the head, restrain the doe in the stand, put something in front of the stand that you can stand on- make sure it's stable, and straddle the doe to clip her head. I start on the neck or cheeks and work up to the face, they take it better hat way.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), July 24, 2002.

Thanks for all the information- it gave me confidence.

Well, I took the "plunge" and went and clipped the Saanen on down to "zip" during the relatively cool morning hours. We got us a pink goat runnin' around the place! :o) Sweet doe behaved like a gem the whole time, though. I, on the other hand ended up with pokey little hairs ~everywhere~!!!!!!!!!! What came off her- landed on me and stuck (hair,mouth,nose,eyes,bra,between the boobs, well- everywhere...) I know y'all know how it goes!

Our new Clipmaster clippers kept getting so hot despite the fact that they are not supposed to get hot and need less oiling. I oiled freq. anyway. Still- it took quite a while to wait on cool downs to get that fringy/bearded doe show clipped. She's got two weeks to grow a bit of hair so's she doesn't resemble a "peeled onion".

After all was said and done- I slathered on a high spf sunscreen to her whole topline/barrel/poll areas to abate my feelings of guilt. Hey- at least she smells like "summertime pool parties" LOL! Three more goats to go (less hairy ones).

-- Wendy Hannum SE Ohio (wendy@skywardinternet.com), July 25, 2002.