Indulge me for two minutes...

[Pilib]

Very rude! Whilst I personally would never clip inside ears or remove whiskers, that is personal opinion and we all have our own (often different) opinions. He is you're horse and your turnout preference is not detrimental to his health so I really don't see what her problem is!

This!!

 

[SpringArising]

I don't rant at her for leaving her horse's mane long and straggly and not clipping

That's because you wouldn't have a leg to stand on if you did.

There's a reason horses have whiskers and hair in the ears, and it's not to annoy their owners. Hope you don't get flies and midges come the summer.

 

[ester]

It isn't holding them up/suggesting they don't do anything else wrong/just because their are bigger issues doesn't mean you can't deal with the small ones too. But they are clearly their for a reason and I just don't see why they are so offensive.

 

[stencilface]

FWIW I think horses muzzles look really ugly with no whiskers and all that nasty stubble.

 

[Goldenstar]

It isn't holding them up/suggesting they don't do anything else wrong/just because their are bigger issues doesn't mean you can't deal with the small ones too. But they are clearly their for a reason and I just don't see why they are so offensive.

I think it's not the case , they made rules about whiskers when they keep many horses who never see the light of day I think it's ridiculous.

 

[Goldenstar]

That's because you wouldn't have a leg to stand on if you did.

There's a reason horses have whiskers and hair in the ears, and it's not to annoy their owners. Hope you don't get flies and midges come the summer.

But it's not summer there aren't midges .

 

[Lacuna]

But it's not summer there aren't midges .

I beg to differ - went hacking on Friday and got a great face full of midges whilst trotting up a hill. Very unexpected!

 

[ester]

we had loads yesterday!

 

[Goldenstar]

we had loads yesterday!

It's not as warm up here I think I would love to see a midgy .

 

[ester]

It did feel a bit ridiculous to be looking out of the stable at them in the middle of december.

 

[sarahann1]

While I don't agree at all with taking whiskers off or trimming ears, I'd not take it upon myself to mouth off to anyone about it, that's just rude!

If I see someone trimming ears and whiskers, I might mention in coversation it's been made illegal in some countries to raise awareness but I'd not jump all over someone for it.

If anyone is interested, there is a good article available which discusses whisker function in mammals: Advantages of a Tapered Whisker http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008806

"The role of facial vibrissae (whiskers) in the behavior of terrestrial mammals is principally as a supplement or substitute for short-distance vision. Each whisker in the array functions as a mechanical transducer, conveying forces applied along the shaft to mechanoreceptors in the follicle at the whisker base. Subsequent processing of mechanoreceptor output in the trigeminal nucleus and somatosensory cortex allows high accuracy discriminations of object distance, direction, and surface texture."

 

[nikkimariet]

Ours are always fully trimmed out incl ears, though we do love a good draught excluder mane and long tails.

We leave whiskers on as our headshaker improved with them being left. Plus, I love a good grandpa whiskery nose.

 

[PorkChop]

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0008806

Yikes that is some in depth article!

I think Passive Whisker is going to be my new favourite phrase

 

[sarahann1]

Yikes that is some in depth article!

I think Passive Whisker is going to be my new favourite phrase

lol, I'm a librarian by trade, it's in my DNA to find as full a picture as I can before I make my mind up about a topic 😊

 

[Po Knee]

Thank you! I don't mind people disagreeing with me - that's life - and am not saying I know everything, but I know enough to have run my own successful livery yard of full liveries and post ICU box rest horses, and haven't yet lost a horse due to lack of hair!

I laughed along with her and continued brushing my lovely pony. He has a gloriously muscly bum these days

So, here you have your answer as to what induced the rant.....MBE (Muscly Bum Envy). If I were you I'd keep the said bottom polished up and waved in her general direction as much as possible