# Boer does - hair length question



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

I clipped my first goat today....she was a hair mammonth NOT KIDDING...and a 'possible' 4-H doe...possible..heh...
I did a chop job, but I've never clipped anything....I did my son's hair once or twice back in 2004 - it looked good though...LOL

Her hair was about 2 inches long....even though it's not a great clip job, she does look so much better. I experimented with the different guard sizes on one side, and because her rear end, belly and legs were a mess of long hair I shaved those shorter than her body... poor dear...hehe!!!! My biggest problem is evening up the hair...and hair length...

I 'see' pictures of the girls that people show/browse the internet and they all look like they have very short hair....but then I hear people say that you barely clip a doe....

So how long exactly should the hair be? I am going to have my husband try to clip one of the kids and if he's better at it, then he gets to help with the youngsters we plan on using for 4-H. He clips his hair/our son's hair all the time....and I think he clips horses once in a while..

I am 'guessing' the two 10 week old kids hair is about an inch long? I know they need to be clipped...but I don't want to do anything drastic like I did on hairy mammonth girl :slapfloor: She was such a good girl though! 

I figured I'd ask as I just don't know, and don't know if we can even get to a show before their first show! I do have an email address of someone that I might be able to take the girls to and she'll show us how to body clip...but it's hard to get over to where she lives in the evenings, and we need to do this very soon.

Thanks for any help! I WISH there was a video on line that shows how to at least do a general clip....


----------



## KW Farms (Jun 21, 2008)

Well for boers i'm not totally sure. But when i've showed for a gal with boers, she had clipper blades that just barely trimmed the legs and tail down (can't remember what size blade)...other then that she would just give them a good bath. However, she had like 30 to show at a time so maybe she just didn't have time to do a full clip job. But I think Boers are ok to go without being shaved down. Just "touching up" is usually good from what i've seen. But I'm not a Boer expert. 

And don't worry...the more you do clipping...the better you'll get. And even if your job is choppy...the fur grows out and quickly evens up. :thumb:


----------



## AlaskaBoers (May 7, 2008)

I notice a lot have clean shaven necks, so I tried that with a doe this year and it's growing out nicely, looks good and gives them refinement and really shows off the brisket.
I usually just clip the entire belly and trim up on the back legs, square up the tail, around the hooves and legs.


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

Thanks so much!

Okay, so looking at these girls should we just trim the long hairs on the body, clip up the neck/face/legs/belly and tail? And just brush them continuously every day? They are both 10 weeks old
Their hair is kind of wavy.

I'm so afraid of messing their hair up 










This one's hair is more wavy than the one above









Here's the hairy mammoth... :laugh: Poor girl had sooo much hair! It was hard getting it trimmed. I'll have to get an 'after' picture...poor girl...LOL I think she'll look good with an evening up trim in a couple of weeks - and once the lines are gone. The kids say she looks soooo much better --- 'cleaner'










I 'think' it will be easier doing the top two because their hair isn't as long and thick. The bottom one's hair was long, THICK and uneven everywhere...

I want us to practice on the doeling that won't be shown before we touch the top two girls...


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

My husband trimmed my daughters doe this afternoon. She looks pretty good IMO for a first trim considering we are new at this. She'll need evening up on the belly/legs for sure, but she looks so much better!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get the last doe done.

Oh....it was HILARIOUS watching this youngster rejoin the others....mama was inspecting her like....WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO YOU? LOL I think the other kids were laughing at her.....I warned them I might trim them up just so I could get some practice in.....and they'd all look like chop shop girls LOL!!!!! <they are bucklings, haha!!!!>.


----------



## GoatGirlMO (Aug 13, 2010)

Funny story about clipping... we clip our dairy does down in the spring. One of our does was a typical brown doe, but the bottom part of the hairs was black. When we clipped her, she went from a solid brown doe to a solid black doe. The other goats FREAKED. It took us a while to re-introduce her... and I'm sure she had no idea why they were being so weird to her!


----------



## HoosierShadow (Apr 20, 2010)

LOL How funny! But poor doe! Her friends must have been sooooo confused!!! So I couldn't imagine how bad it was for her, hehe!!


----------

