To clip or not to clip

[ownedbyaconnie]

Hello all

I have a Connie who I got last winter with a full clip (she did a lot of hunting) so this is my first time seeing her fluffy. She doesn’t have your stereotypical native thick coat, it’s quite oily and soft and I had a 1 hour jumping lesson this week with one other horse and rider so she was worked relatively hard and didn’t get very sweaty.

We have a 10 mile fun ride this weekend (weather atm says to be about 13-15 degrees) so my question is do I clip (probably only a trace) just in case she gets sweaty even though she’s never really got sweaty before (she barely got a sweat when we did a 7 mile sponsored ride in 30 degree heat although she did of course have a summer coat then) or am I being an overly sensitive horse mummy and should leave her as is until her body tells me she needs to be clipped?

I’m lucky in that she is a very clean grey so I would rather hold off clipping and keep her unrugged/as light a rug as possible, for as long as possible! I love a naked pony!

Thanks in advance!

 

[AmberThePony]

If you're going to be doing regular fairly hard work I would say clip and just go for a low trace. If you want her rugless through winter you could just do it now and it should have grown back by the time it gets cold. This time of the year they often get very warm as the weather is relatively mild, I know I'll be doing mine in the next week or so as she's getting too warm working.

 

[be positive]

If she is not sweating very much there is no harm in leaving her until she really needs doing, getting a bit wet and sweaty once in a while will do no harm so I would leave her until a bit later when you are happy to rug appropriately, I am putting off doing mine because the weather is so nice it is great to see them still out 24/7 with no rugs at the start of October, long may it last.