Can you use a human hair clipper on your horse? why/why not?

Question

i have 2 normal human hair clippers, would i be able to use them on my horse?

i know i can just use it for the whiskers and ears etc, but do i need an industrial one for the body??

why or why not?

Answer 1

you can use them for the body.. with a guard of some sort to make sure you don't make your horse totally bald.. But  the whole issue is really human clippers have a 2 inch cut.   Equine body clipers have a 4 inch cut.  And a more powerful motor, blades that are not going to go dull before you finish half the horse, and they wont get so hot you cant hold the body of the clipper.

human clippers work for 5 minutes  on a human head, and can stay coolfor that,  horse clippers will work for the 45 minutes to a hour it takes to clip a horse and stay cool

Answer 2

My mom is a hair-dresser & we use human hair clippers on our guys...they are fine...equine clippers are barely different...they can be a bit quieter than human ones...but if your horse doesnt mind...its good exposure to noise :) Our guys are fine with it! But I dont clip my horses body....you should prolly buy horse clippers with a 4 inch cut for the body...for the face & fetlocks human clippers work fine...but for the body, you want heavy duty ones!!

Good Luck!

PS: I bought a Wahl Peanut clipper for my horses nose...its a human clipper, but its small, so its easier to manuver under the chin and in small spots !! Plus...its pink...(dont worry im not a pink obsessed freak...but its really cute!!)

CNSDUBIE: Wahl & Oster make Human clippers...thats where they started out...they made equine clippers after they made human ones...they are good quality all around....and you can get cordless human clippers too...

Answer 3

Well, you CAN do a lot of things, you can use a high heeled shoe to drive a nail instead of a hammer, you can use a rolled up newspaper instead of a flyswatter, but it doesn't necessarily mean that's the most effective or even a viable substitution.

I tried using human clippers on my horses.  They are considerably noisier, which is a problem up around the head, and they are not as durable as a good cordless, quiet Oster.  They are a fraction of the cost of a good set of clippers for a reason.

They also get much hotter much faster.

By the time you burn up several human clippers, you could have paid for a quality, nearly silent cordless Oster or Wahl that was designed for heavier use.

Answer 4

  Yes you can but equine hair is much coarser and dirtier than human hair. The clippers manufactured for human use are not heavy duty enough so you will get a shorter life span from them. Also they tend to operate at a lower RPM and the blades are closer together inducing clogging. The dirt collection will shorten their life too.

  So the answer is you can but they will not be as efficient.  

Why would you want to anyway since they make clippers especially for equine use?

Answer 5

I don't see why not, i do it. other then having a stronger motor there's not much difference. but take a break every 15-20 minutes to let the clippers cool down. make sure the horse is dirt and dandruff free before you start though, horse clippers are a bit tougher then human clippers which is why they are more expensive.

i use my dads when needed and i have never run across a problem, well other then when my dad found out, he was very angry lol.

Answer 6

You can. You would need to use a guard like number 2 or whatever and they will get hot and then you'll have to leave them to cool down before you do any more.

The problem is that they are not built or designed to be used for any length of time and clipping a horse takes a lot longer than shaving someone's head.

You would be likely to break them/burn them out and end up with a half clipped horse.

Shop around for second hand ones if you can't make the new price but I'd definitely go for horse clippers instead.

Much less messing about and you know you'll be able to get it all done in one day.

Answer 7

Regardless of any clipper you use, if you use it for a long enough period of time in a row, you should use clipper cooling spray (which is basically isopropyl alcohol), so in a pinch, you can use that too.

But yes, most human clippers are the exact same thing as equine clippers, they are just marketed differently, and might have different attachments.  A regular sized sert of clippers for a horse's muzzle (the ones with the 2" long blade), made by Wahl, is the exact same unit as the human hair clippers with a 2" blade, also made by Wahl.  

For horses though, you will find that body clippers (the much larger clippers), are a specialized tool, and will cost a lot more.  They don't make giant human clippers!  And it would not be a good idea to try to body clip a horse with the smaller clippers because of overheating, uneveness, and "rug burns".

The tiny tiny clippers that they sell for trimming small areas like inside of ears, are also sold for human products as sideburn trimmers.

Some of the equine or animal marketed products specifically are going to be quieter running, but not all.  And human clippers also have the cordless feature, so this is not an animal-only convenience.

Now, if you have a man in the house, he might not appreciate having his trimmers for his beard/hair used on your horse though!!!!

Answer 8

Yeah you can. My dad is a barber and he has hair clippers and i use them. They are a little louder and freaked out my horse but he got use to it quick. U should save for some clippers cuz my trainer says that they are better, but the barber clippers work just as good. i use them on the chin, ears, feet and nosa, and they ork fine