Don't understand why you clip horses in light work

debsey1

debsey1

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:confused: My hairy this winter will go unclipped. Falling daylight hours means he will only be ridden 2/3 times a week for an hour to a maximum of 2 1/2 hours. Yes, he'll probably get a little sweaty but nothing a wash off with warm water won't cure then throw on his cooler then turn out (after removing it of course). Don't have to worry about having a plethora of rugs and it cuts down on time on winter mornings/evenings

I can't understand people clipping their horses if they're not working or not working hard. To me it's making extra work for yourself and unnecessary worry whether you've under or over rugged your horse.

Of course, this is my opinion :)
 
I can't stand hairy sweaty horses.
Anything I have in work (light or not) is clipped, the more off the better, within reason!
 
I'm not a fan of clipping unnecessarily either and mine will be unclipped this year. Saying that, I've got the time to let them dry/cool off. I can imagine that for someone on a tight schedule they want to be able to rug straight away after work and not spend time having to groom a filthy horse. :)
 
I guess you can't even say my mare was in medium work. But she is a very hot Horse and overheats easily. So for me it is about keeping her comfortable.
 
because if I don't take at least a little off the underside of her neck she gets very sweaty and when I get home I have to wash her off/wait for her to dry before I can rug her and turn her out again. I know lots of people are happy putting a rug on a wet horse but I'd rather not.

And also because it's no one's business what I do with my horse as long as she's not being mistreated.
 
touchstone said:
I'm not a fan of clipping unnecessarily either and mine will be unclipped this year. Saying that, I've got the time to let them dry/cool off. I can imagine that for someone on a tight schedule they want to be able to rug straight away after work and not spend time having to groom a filthy horse. :)
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This completely - no time to stand around and watch sweat dry, so to speak :p
 
I can't understand people clipping their horses if they're not working or not working hard.
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Obviously in most cases you wouldn't clip a horse that wasn't in work.

But if your horse gets even a little hot and sweaty - clip him. So much more comfortable for them and easier for you.
 
I do it for hygiene reasons mainly. My current mare has very sensitive skin and if I don't keep it clean (especially sweat) it goes very flaky. She (and any other horse I've had) are also in hard enough work that they wouldn't be slightly sweaty, but an absolute mess if not clipped.

Saying that I hate clipping, so only do it when necessary, not as soon as I see their coat change!
 
I'd rather a clipped dry horse too. To me washing definitely doesn't cut down on time!

Mine will only be in light work this year but he will likely still have a bit of a clip, he really doesn't do well with sweat even if well washed off (gets really scabby and itchy) and if well washed off more inclined to get cold after. TBF its the first year for a while he hasn't been clipped in summer too!
 
Because, a horse ridden twice a week isn't going to be particularly fit.

Unfit horses sweat.

Sweaty horses get cold. As do washed horses, when it's minus 5.

Clipping keeps them comfortable in work and saves time - how is throwing on a rug more work than washing, drying, removing coolers etc?

Also, my horse, my rules. :)
 
My mare is clipped all year round! She has a very thick coat, she gets very itchy and in the winter its so fluffy you wouldn't know whether she was clean or not! So mainly for hygine
 
Mine is only in weekend work over the winter but he'll have a low trace for reasons others have stated. I don't really see the point when people full clip those in light work, but each to their own and all that!
 
I fully clip my thoroughbred as he gets wound up and sweats and I dont have time to wait for him to dry.

I also clip my old boy who is retired. He has a mammoth coat, but its so hard to tell if he's warm enough through all the hair, and if he gets too hot he gets really itchy, so when it gets really cold that rugs are needed I give him a trace clip so I can feel his armpits and tell how warm he is.
 
Lots of reasons. I'd still fully clip mine if she was in light work, for several reasons;
- she'd still need rugging unclipped as she's a wuss. So might as well be clipped & easier to give her a groom before rugging than when hairy.
-she's grey & connie x tb, long coat like a natives but very fine, so difficult to keep clean unclipped.
- even on a 30min slow hack, she'd sweat under the saddle.
- clipping takes less time than faffing about grooming/cooling down.
- I like her to look smart.
Basically cos unclipped she wouldn't get the freedom of the sun on her back anyway, so no advantages at all to not doing.
Other people have other reasons. Eg aged shetland we know has a cushings coat which is uncomfortable unclipped. So despite only trundling about on the lr, is hunter clipped.
Horse on ours that does a max of 2/3 slow hacks a week. He stays in at night year round as lami prone. Come October, he has a yak like coat, but in our indoor stables its warm, so he is often sweaty am if not clipped.
 
So far i have fully clipped (incl legs and head) two in light to medium work as one gets very sweaty and other has cushings!
one pony has been fully clipped due to cushings and he gets to hot in a rug but gets a skin condition with out being well rugged!
 
Everyone has their reasons, clearly.

I did used to amaze me though, a horse I shared when I was a teen was fully clipped every winter. Hacked around the block a few times a week and then had a duvet put on under his (sometimes two) rugs. I never, ever understood the point of it all.
 
I usually clip in the winter even if they are in light work because I often exercies my horses after work (only lunging for 20 minutes or so), they sweat a bit & I don't want them to have a wet coat just as the temperature is dropping for the night.
Even at the weekend when I ride in the day it's still a pain having to wait for ages in the cold for a horse to dry off before I can go home.
A clipped horse drys quickly so I can put the rug on, go home & get in the warm.
 
My horse in very light work last winter was fully clipped out. Why?

Because she had been itching quite badly for some time, and the reason was unknown. Whilst it was still warm enough she had been bathed with some louse shampoo, and dosed two or three times with louse powder. She was still itching.

So decided the best thing to do was to take the hair off, so we could actually see what was going on underneath. Hey presto, revealed that it wasnt lice, and was some kind of bacterial infection. Letting the air get to her skin, as well as spraying with idodine spray really helped to clear it up.

If I had not clipped her I wouldnt have known what was wrong
 
I fully clip as just clipping the neck and saddle area does actually look really really stupid!!

unfortunatly I have a very warm TB x yak (well it feels like that with the amount of coat she grows) and if I don't fully clip we end up with a very very sweaty TB which then brings forth another set of issues.
 
We had a girl on the yard who did a full clip on her retired New Forest mare who was 30 yrs old. She then used to put up to 4 rugs on her and wondered why she was always itching!! :(
 
I have a theory - based on a sample of 1 :D - that a horse who lives out year round unclipped and unrugged becomes a very good regulator of his or her own temperature.

My horse is always in light work - we don't do anything beyond light hacking, and actually in many cases we manage longer and more frequent hacks in winter, as he gets lethargic when it's hot - he loves cold windy weather.

So clearly, by anybody's standards, he is not fit. He has 24/7 turnout year round on a hillside, and he gets an hour to two hours hacking, predominantly walk and trot, 5 to 7 times a week.

I don't know what I need to do to get him to sweat. Even after a longer hack mid summer with lots of cantering, the most we will see is damp under the girth. Damp under saddle - in 6 years, I've never seen it, but maybe the lambskin pad absorbs it? Damp around chest? Seen it once in 6 years (a hack with galloping where he decided to race another horse).

In winter, it's the same. He develops a thick coat (he's IDx probably with TB, 17hh of chunky hunter type) and never sweats. A two hour hack with a fair bit of trotting up hills, and after removing saddle you can see no evidence a saddle's been on him other than a slight dust mark.

So obviously, given how well this system works, he's not going to be clipped any time soon :D

But I do wonder how much of the sweatiness people see is due to horses (a) standing in a stable a lot over winter and losing fitness and/or (b) horses being rugged up to the eyeballs and losing the ability to regulate their own temperature. Just an observation, and I await the evidence to show I'm wrong and own a freak of nature :D
 
I dont clip my lad, I prefer to let him grow a hairy yak coat and then I dont rug at all so he uses any excess weight and insullation to keep warm and dry. I hack him twice per week in the winter and by the time I have walked him home, any sweat has dried and he is plenty warm to go back out in the field. I have never known him to be cold - not even in the worst possible wind and rain, his coat and skin are always dry underneath.
 
I would not want to go to the gym or go running in my winter coat as would be horrible I would get far to hot and very uncomfortable. Clipping is no hassel for me and unless you just plod along I think is far nicer for a horse but again this is just my opinion but my horse is happy to be clipped if your horse does not then I can see why
 
I'm a big fan of the very-low-trace-clip-leave-head-on-but-tidy-jawline as it is fine for (most) horses in light to medium work, keps their neck and head warm and can be easily modified into something more severe if needs be.
 
Brightbay said:
But I do wonder how much of the sweatiness people see is due to horses (a) standing in a stable a lot over winter and losing fitness and/or (b) horses being rugged up to the eyeballs and losing the ability to regulate their own temperature. Just an observation, and I await the evidence to show I'm wrong and own a freak of nature :D
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We had two ponies:
1: Never, ever sweated up when ridden. The most we ever got was a damp bit where her girth was in Summer. Grew a fab Winter coat, still never sweated
2: Sweated all the time, had to be clipped all year round and still got sweaty in the summer

Both were kept out 24/7 all year round and had been for over 10 years, fed the same and did the same amount of work - they were only ever ridden together

All horses are different.
 
Personally I wouldn't want to turn out a sweaty horse, unclipped would take ages to dry off, turing out sweaty with a rug on could cause rubs. Rather clipped, dry and warm rug on, than unclipped wet and cold
 
I actually don't understand what the problem is people have with it. Personally, the only advantage in not clipping is the fact the horse can enjoy the freedom of not being rugged. But many horses would still need rugs anyway unclipped, whether that's due to lack of shelter, coat, age, condition etc. So if it needs rugging anyway why be concerned if its clipped or not underneath the rugs?
Brightbay- to a certain extent I agree, I think horses fully stabled/little turnout have compromised circulation, which in turn effects ability to regulate temperature. But I've seen too many horses on the same routine have varying ability to regulate their temps, so I think its deeper than that alone. Daughters & mine do pretty much the same & are in the same routine. Apart from the fact at 11.1 daughters has to do more to stay level with mine. You can guarantee though that at the end of a ride we have both done the same, mine will be warmer/sweatier than hers. Likewise when trace clipped in Nov, mine will be in a mw when daughters in a lw.
 
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