Meet Jillian hairdresser to the horses

Have you heard the one about the horse that thinks it’s a leopard?

This is neigh joke thanks to the extraordinary talents of Jillian Scott.

The 27-year-old, who runs Peatside Equestrian in Longriggend, near Airdrie, clips horses’ coats into amazing designs.

She hasn’t been doing the horseback and sides fur-long only a few months in fact but already her talents are attracting lots of mane-stream attention and requests to turn four-legged friends into styled horses.

Jillian doesn’t like to be reined in, so does all of her designs freehand using different-sized clippers.

She said: “I’ve worked with horses all my life and I’ve been clipping them since I was 14. I used to do little designs like love hearts and stars in their coats, but at the beginning of winter I tried the full coat for the first time.

“I did a zebra design and posted pictures online, which received a lot of attention.

“I’ve so far entered five competitions for clipping designs and have won four.

“The first time I did the zebra clip it took me around three hours, but it now only takes 90 minutes.

“It would usually take about two hours for a normal clip. Some horses need to be sedated when they’re being clipped anyway, but they’re generally fine.

“The cut remains noticeable for around eight weeks.”

Despite not drawing an outline on the horses’ coats before clipping, Jillian says she hasn’t had to bale herself out of any night-mare mistakes yet.

“I used to draw quite a lot, but I’ve broken my hand a few times over the years and it became quite painful to hold a pencil. It seems to be fine when I’m holding a set of clippers though.”

As well as the leopard and zebra designs, Jillian has transformed brays into a giraffe, Pegasus and has also etched boyband logos on to their sides.

“I cut the One Direction logo into a pony for a little girl. I also clipped the band members’ autographs into the pony as well I’d never tried anything like that before, but it worked out well.

“I’m a big Boyzone fan and I clipped their logo into a horse to mark their 20th anniversary.”

When it comes to making horses hot to trot, Jillian wins it at a canter!