Three novelties, introduced one at a time
A clipper asks a horse to accept a strange object, a buzzing sound and a vibrating touch, usually all within the same thirty seconds, and often on the day the clip could not wait. That is why horses who hate clippers are usually horses who were introduced to all three at once. Teach them separately and the problem shrinks to size. The first session is the object alone: clippers switched off, in your hand, while you groom. Let the horse sniff them, then use the body of the machine as a brush, with long strokes over the shoulder, neck and quarters, until being rubbed with clippers is as interesting as being rubbed with anything else — which is to say, not interesting at all.
Sound next, at a distance he chooses
The second stage adds noise without touch. Switch the clippers on across the stable while the horse eats hay, far enough away that he registers the buzz and returns to eating within a few seconds. Over that session, and the next if needed, halve the distance in easy steps: clippers running on the yard while he is groomed, clippers running in your hand while you stand at his shoulder doing nothing with them. Pair the sound with good events — hay, a scratch in his favourite place — so the buzz becomes something closer to a dinner bell than a warning. If he stops eating or fixes on the machine with a high head, you are too close or moving too fast; distance is a dial, and the horse is the one who sets it.
Vibration, then the first real strokes
Only when sight and sound are boring do you add the third novelty. Rest the running clippers against the back of your own hand, then lay that hand on his shoulder so the vibration reaches him muffled through you; most horses accept this within moments, because your hand is familiar and trusted. When he stands through that with a resting hind leg, rest the machine briefly on him directly, a few seconds at a time. The first strokes with the blade go somewhere easy to defend: the shoulder and mid-neck, in short passes, stopping often for breaks where the clippers go off and he is scratched. Keep the blade flat, and check its temperature against your wrist every few minutes, because hot blades teach more clipper-hatred than noise ever did. End the session mid-success rather than when he has had enough.
Building to a full clip, and knowing the limits
Grow the clipped area across sessions the way you grew the introduction: barrel and quarters before legs, legs before anywhere near the head. Tricky zones — elbows, stifles, the line between the hind legs — can be left short of perfection on early clips, because a slightly hairy horse who stood like a rock is a better outcome than a perfect clip on a horse who now needs cornering. Clip a clean, dry coat; dirt and sweat blunt the blades and pull hair, which hurts and is remembered. Some horses, despite honest gradual work, remain genuinely dangerous to clip around the head and ears, and for them the right answer is a conversation with your vet about how that small job can be done safely on the day — that is responsible horsemanship rather than defeat, and it keeps clippers a non-event for everyone involved. Because clip training is a ladder of small stages, KinsLe Care Teams can record which stage the horse has reached as duties are completed, so the next handler resumes at the right rung instead of starting the argument again.