Although he accepted the massager fairly readily, prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt, he was adamant that he wouldn't accept the clippers themselves. You can see why we stand to one side...
Actually attempting to clip the hair led to an even bigger reaction...
...and so we went back a stage to ask him to accept the clippers just buzzing against his neck (this photo was taken earlier in the session when we were using a smaller set of clippers). Today this seemed like the best note on which to end and will be just above our starting point if his owner and loaner decide it is worth carrying on. Neither are keen to have him sedated (and anyway he is likely to react to the jab) nor would they ever consider twitching him.
The good news is that we made more progress on handling his feet where he can be inclined to snatch them away.
This normally good natured pony, who is a joy to ride and jump, has never had a bad incident with clippers. The only significant events in his life that may have led to this behaviour were being drifted and put through the sales (but he wasn't branded), and daily medical treatment following being caught in barbed wire. It was during this latter that he first attempted to put people off doing things by escalating his behaviour.
