More equine body art - clipping and quarter marks.

While most of us are still struggling with keeping the lines straight, there are some real body clipping artists out there. Not to mention people who are really handy with a stiff brush, a comb and some water!

I've found a few more examples to inspire. The good news is, if you make a mistake you can just shave it all off or, in the case of the quartermarks, brush them out and start again.

The person who did this said they were done free hand, without a pattern. Wow!

Quarter marks as equine body art

Not brave enough to go free hand with your clippers? No problem! There are a number of stencils available to help make your pattern (almost) fool proof. In fact, if you don't want to clip a pattern into a horse's coat, you can also brush one in.

Quartermarks are the patterns that are brushed or clipped into your horse's hind quarters. Generally seen at dressage competitions or events, traditional patterns include diamonds and checkerboards but you can also get stencils to help you make more complicated shapes.

The technique for making quarter marks is simple. Perfecting them takes time and practice.

Here are a few tips:

• Start with a clean horse.
• Spray the hindquarters before you start combing. Some people use water; but the pattern will hold better if you mix in some hair spray, fly spray or something similar.
• Brush the hair on the hind quarters toward the tail with a stiff body brush.
• Take a fine toothed comb, cut to the size of the pattern you want to make downward through the damp hair to make the marks.
• To make a Sharks teeth pattern, brush the hair downward with a body brush then do sweeping movements toward the tail to create the effect.
• If you use a stencil, place it on your horse. Then take a clean, stiff brush and brush the hair straight up.
• Without moving the stencil, brush the hair backward against the way it naturally lies.
• Remove the stencil and spritz with spray gel again to "set" the mark.
• Finish up by brushing down all the hairs away from the stencil so it doesn't look framed.

Video demonstration: