Clipping whiskers off!

what a bizarre yard rule!

My horse has his beard and whiskers trimmed. He is very opposed to ear trimming so usually just try and neaten with scissors.

The old mare and two ponies are left au naturale (read scruffbags!) as they are basically large domesticated rabbits!

I do see peoples arguments about the whikers etc being feelers but i have never noticed a difference in any horses that we've trimmed.


MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
So if nature has provided something, I wouldn't feel right about trimming it.
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No offence but nature also created women with hairy legs and armpits! (i know its not the same as its more for body warmth but now we have clothes its redundant. i suppose now most horses are stabled with lighting and no longer 'roam' and are in the same fields etc there is less detective work or 'feeling' to be done therefore most seem to not have a problem without them.)
 
I used to take Bronson's nose whiskers off when I was clipping him. Couldn't be bothered the rest of the time and he wasn't a show pony :o

Wilby is too thick for me even to contemplate taking his whiskers off - he needs all the help he can get!
 
It may seem a bizarre rule to some of you, but that's just the way it is here. And frankly, I've been on more DIY yards with sillier, more complex, and more numerous rules than that one! If that's pretty much the only rule, I can live with it, and at the end of the day, it's only me and the other two which do have to live with it.

See below....

Ahl. A, 1985. Veterinary Research Communications 10 (245-268). The Role of Vibrissae in Behavious

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k438303108l38260/

This is a starting point, a link to an old journal, one of the original published on this matter. There are many subsequent papers, detailing the deficit left by removing of vibrissae from animals, and mammals. Search Gustafson, he has written several research journals on the subject, and there are several in collaboration with Felbrain-Karamidas.

Another interesting one is

Brecht.M et al. 1996. Behavioural Brain Research, 84, 1-2. Functional Architecture of the Mystacial Vibrissae

http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...6b788c2a44bab6391462a0b0939b5769&searchtype=a


So, although many of you claim not to have noticed a difference, how many of you can say you watched your horse all through the night in the dark, and that he did not bump into things? Likewise, how many of your trials were conducted as scientific research. I dare say, you probably didn't notice a dramatic increase and change such as your horse smacking his head again the door frame, but that doesn't mean to say there were not minor differences, nor that they were necessarily insignificant.

Certainly, I've trimmed whiskers in the past, but not since understanding the complex role of such external proprioreceptors.
 
Does anybody else just love the word 'whisker' ?! I've been smiling all the way through this thread :)

Personally, I leave my horses' whiskers on because I don't like the stubble feel when I snog their noses. Small reason but a worthy one :)
 
LoNatalie said:
mum qualified search for a star a few years ago and went to the prep day they ran, and they said ears have to be completely trimmed inside, NO EXCUSES and nose hairs OFF with no stubble at all.
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If I was told that at a show with Phil, sod the rosette, I simply wouldn't!

I do trim Phils whiskers only because they are very long and look nice all trimmed but would never remove them completely, nor the hair inside his ears.
 
sorry.100% disagree...a welfare issue is when horses dont get fed, dont get mucked out, get left in hock deep mud and ***** all winter, are left in badly fitting rugs and headcollars etc, feet no trimmed, no water! lets tackle the biggies and then worry about the issues that are in no danger of killing any horses- such as whisker trimming.
 
Hmmm, I don't clip mine as I'm not that bothered about looks - cos they're so damn handsome anyway ;) :D But we do have a lot of flies around here and I think they help just an incey bit in the fight against them!
 
Whiskers off ( inc eye whiskers) , mane and tail pulled, beard hair trimmed, ears and poll trimmed. My horses are fat, can find their feed, no where the wall is and can get through a door without a problem. If people really think that its a welfare issue then I think I may give up horses!
 
I like to leave them on - I just trim the muzzle ones slightly when I tidy up his ears and chin etc.

I just think that if I don't mind them being there (I jump so it doesn't matter from a competitive perspective) I might as well leave them, after all he grows them for a reason and he might have some adverse reaction to it so I'd rather not risk it for aesthetics alone.
 
I don't trim whiskers ever. Horses need them to feel, they're part of their sensory system and imo very important to them. I accept horses as they are, they're not all smooth and neat. I don't trim my cats whiskers either.

Mta... hair in the ears is there to stop dirt, flies and other foriegn bodies getting in so I don't trim that either and as mine live out a lot they keep full tails.
Of course I don't compete though.
 
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