New BD Rules again - ears missing?

[humblepie]

Now admittedly am relying on the search function rather than reading the whole rule book. The summary of changes contains wording about not trimming sensory nose mouth and ear hair. Searching the rules there is no mention of ear trimming which seems a complete about turn if that is correct. Can anyone else find the ear hair mentioned? It was in the welfare guidelines before within the rule book and I may just be missing it.

 

[Lady Jane]

I would call BD but I thought you could clip the outside of the ears (and everyone does) but not the inside?

 

[humblepie]

I would call BD but I thought you could clip the outside of the ears (and everyone does) but not the inside?

I’ve checked the full rule book now and looks like any restriction on trimming ears has gone which is odd. Not going to bother them this side of Christmas but intrigued.

 

[j1ffy]

It has definitely changed. The rule change synopsis says:

Sensory hairs Ref: Horse Welfare
• Sensory Hairs - Clipped or shaven sensory hairs around the mouth, nose and eyes is not permitted as this may reduce the horse’s sensory ability. Areas of hair that must be clipped or shaven to allow veterinary treatment are exempt from this rule and a veterinary certificate will need to be sent to BDHQ.

If you do a search on the 2023 Handbook for 'ear' in all editions, you can see it says "...eyes and ears" in the 2022 handbook (page 16).

Very odd...

 

[humblepie]

It has definitely changed. The rule change synopsis says:

Sensory hairs Ref: Horse Welfare
• Sensory Hairs - Clipped or shaven sensory hairs around the mouth, nose and eyes is not permitted as this may reduce the horse’s sensory ability. Areas of hair that must be clipped or shaven to allow veterinary treatment are exempt from this rule and a veterinary certificate will need to be sent to BDHQ.

If you do a search on the 2023 Handbook for 'ear' in all editions, you can see it says "...eyes and ears" in the 2022 handbook (page 16).

Very odd...

Thank you - that is what I had found. Very odd indeed.

 

[GreyDot]

So does this mean you can clip the outside of the ears? And I mean the long bits that stick out, not inside the ears.

 

[j1ffy]

So does this mean you can clip the outside of the ears? And I mean the long bits that stick out, not inside the ears.

From the reading of 2023 rules, you can clip any part of the ear you like - inside or out

 

[Leandy]

So does this mean you can clip the outside of the ears? And I mean the long bits that stick out, not inside the ears.

You've always been able to do this. It was just fully clipping out the inside of the ears which was understood to be banned. I've always trimmed ears by closing them together edge to edge and trimming off the tufty sticky out bits to neaten them up. I also noted that the wording around sensory hairs had changed this time and thought it a little odd. Having said that, I was always a little confused by the inclusion of ear hair as "sensory hairs" in the first place. Ear hair isn't like whiskers as on the nose and under the eyes, it is just protective in preventing foreign bodies getting into the ears which is not quite the same thing. It doesn't help horses feel in the same way as sensory hairs.