Baker training session 36 - more clipping

I worked with Baker for 30 minutes on Friday.  He was quite sweaty, thanks to this warmer than usual weather we have been having, so I started out by giving him a bath.  He thoroughly enjoyed it, and stood very still while I hosed him down and scraped him off.  Then I moved him into a stall, and, since it was close to dinner time, I went ahead and fixed his dinner.  I wanted to work on desensitizing him to the clippers up near his poll again.  One of the best ways to desensitize a horse to something, is to combine it with food as a reward.  So, I put his grain meal in a feed pan on the ground in the stall.  I turned the clippers on and let him have a bite of food.  Then I approached his poll with the running clippers.  He was nervous and tried to get away from me and the clippers, but I held on to his halter and managed to touch the clippers to his poll.  As soon as he relaxed for just a second, I pulled the clippers away from him and allowed him to have another bite of food.  Then, I moved to the other side of him and did the same thing all over again.  I repeated this process MANY times, probably near 100, before he finally allowed me to touch the clippers to his poll without reacting.  As soon as he did that on each side, I ended the session for the day.  Throughout the entire process, I was very careful to keep my head off to the side, in case he swung his head around to get away from the clippers.  I was also very consistent at keeping my hand on the halter and the clippers touching his poll until he relaxed.  It is very important, when you are desensitizing, that you not allow the horse to get away from whatever it is until they relax.  This is so important, that if you are not up to the task yourself, you really should ask a professional for help.  However, Baker did end on a good note this time, and I will definitely be back to work on this again with him until he can stand very still the entire time.