Why do we always clip the belly off?

Kallibear

Kallibear

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The belly is one of the first things we clip off, after the chest. Why? Is there some good reason?

It's the closest to the wet cold ground, has soft sensitive skin, isn't covered by the rug, is a massive surface area ( you must have seen them do a whale impression when they roll), it's against the mud when they lie down and they don't sweat on their belly unless seriously hot.

The girth area and behind the legs I can understand as it can get so muddy and hard to get clean for tack, plus they sweat under their girth. But why the belly all the way to their sheath/udder ?

Reason I ask is Piper is clipped like this and all my horses have been for years (to a lesser extent usually). Ignore the fluff left on his bum: the clippers started to run out before Id finished the hunter clip. He has the elbows and girth area clipped so they're easy to brush clean.

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Previous year

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I've had loads of people comments on his unusual clip, swiftly followed by 'What a sensible idea'. Is the belly clipped of just 'because'?
 
They get dirt and mud stuck to the long hair underneath and u can sponge this off if its clipped...

I would say they do sweat on their bellys...

Their legs are under them when they lie down or they lie on their sides...

:) IMO
 
Cute clip! My mare gets a sweaty belly quite quickly and hates having it washed so I think in her case it's actually better for her to have it off. If I let the hair grow between clips she gets sweaty little curls where the whorls are. Eww.

Her Rambo wraps round to cover most of it but agree that it's a fairly exposed area, she always gets more cat hairs there :s
 
I must admit I thought this myself.

My mare lives out 24/7 and I sometimes worry about her belly where she lays in the cold wet etc, she has very pink skin.
 
because its easier to brush the mud off in the winter, quicker to dry when its wet so you can tack up your horse and ride, and its not really their belly that you need to keep warm, its their backs. OP its a very unusual clip, don't think I would, but I like it thinking out of the box! :D
 
Donkey said:
because its easier to brush the mud off in the winter, quicker to dry when its wet so you can tack up your horse and ride, and its not really their belly that you need to keep warm, its their backs. OP its a very unusual clip, don't think I would, but I like it thinking out of the box! :D
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But surely you have no tack that goes around their belly (unless you have a western saddle?). So it doesn't need to be any cleaner or drier than their legs? I clip out the GIRTH for that reason but not the belly.

You keep their backs warm by putting a rug on. Yet leave their naked soft belly unprotected?!
 
okay, just for the simple reason that it looks daft.. bit like shaving the top of your hair off (cos you can wear a hat) and keeping the bottom bit cos it keeps your neck warm, it just wouldn't look right would it lol ;)
 
Kallibear said:
They sweat less on their belly than other places (like their neck and quarters) but belly fluff is the first to go? So really it's all about appearances?
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Think the degree of sweatiness depends on the horse though. Mine doesn't sweat much on her neck unless she gets stressed, but gets a sweaty tum easily. Others work up a foam between their hind legs, for example.

All clipping comes with a degree of 'looks' though - why else do we strive to clip straight lines?:D:o
 
I choose the clip for a horse based on where they tend to sweat up, so wouldn't always take the belly off. However unless it's just a bib clip, taking of the area round the girth makes it much easier to ensure there no mud that might rub the horse if it's a bit of a mud magnet in the field.
 
I think that looks really cute!

Our oldie gets clipped out as she gets very itchy and scurfy in winter. She also suffers from rainscald which is carefully managed. When clipped I can keep her warm and dry and treat her skin. I leave her head, legs and belly on for her comfort as she lives out. It may look weird but that's just convention talking.
 
Because I'd rather be able to sponge or brush off the mud from my horses belly instead of having damp, horrible mud matted into the belly hair. Much more comfortable for the horse IMO. Keeps her generally cleaner, saving on time and her comfort. She doesn't sweat here in work, but I go for convenience and how it looks.
 
I can understand your thinking behind this but if a horse lies down in the field, it's belly is what is going to get cold and wet. If this area is un-clipped it will then take much longer to dry. If it is clipped it will dry and therefore be warm much quicker.
 
Kallibear said:
But surely you have no tack that goes around their belly (unless you have a western saddle?). So it doesn't need to be any cleaner or drier than their legs? I clip out the GIRTH for that reason but not the belly.

You keep their backs warm by putting a rug on. Yet leave their naked soft belly unprotected?!
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I don't ride dirty horses, so short hair on the belly saves a lot of time.
 
I think this is how harness horses used to be clipped, especially slower moving farm type horses. I have thought the same thing re taking off belly hair, but tend to either do an extended bib which goes back past the girth and armpit area, or a high blanket or hunter.
 
littlemisslauren said:
I don't ride dirty horses, so short hair on the belly saves a lot of time.
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So you wash the legs off everything you ride? I brush the bit that matter: where the tack goes. I usually groom properly after riding, once legs and other muddy bits are drier.


I can understand your thinking behind this but if a horse lies down in the field, it's belly is what is going to get cold and wet. If this area is un-clipped it will then take much longer to dry. If it is clipped it will dry and therefore be warm much quicker.
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That's like saying a clipped horse is much warmer naked in the rain than unclipped horse (also naked)?!
 
I think it's sensible that you're only clipping where your horse needs it, and it only looks funny because we aren't used to seeing them clipped like that. :)

I'd disagree that a clipped horse will be more comfortable when lying down in cold and wet; a winter coat insulates and the skin is probably still dry under it, a clipped horse is lying directly on the cold and wet with no insulation.
 
I think it's a brilliant idea. I may do my mare like that next year if she's still in action. It is something that really bothers me, TBH. That rugs don't normally cover the belly and it must feel so draughty.
 
We clip the horse to cool it the hair insulates the blood vessels close to the surface just under skin the more of the horse we clip the cooler it will stay sweating is the result of heating if you keep the horse cooler it will sweat less .
There are a lot of large blood vessels on the horses belly so it's a good area to clip the habit of avoiding clipping part of the horse was to keep the big muscle groups in the quarters warmer and drier.
 
Horse actually dissipate very little heat off their top line, as evidenced by the fact you often see unclipped horses with unmelted snow on their backs and the quarters are virtually the last place to sweat. They lose heat from the places that are normally covered by coarse hair - the neck and between the hind legs - first and then the belly, head and other places where the blood vessels are close to the surface. So from the point of view of keeping horses in light-ish winter work warm, leaving the belly on (with a clip for the girth to make it easy to keep the area clean) makes perfect sense. Obviously for horses doing fast work you want a more aggressive clip but that doesn't seem to be the case for the OP. If a horse is constantly having to lie in wet ground or be in heavy mud a lot of the time, I can see the cleanliness concern but that can't be very pleasant with a clipped belly, either! I'd probably think about a belly pad for a fully clipped horse in that situation.

A lot of what we do with horses that seems "right" only seems that way because it's what we are used to. For a horse spending a lot of time out in cold weather but still being ridden regularly, the OP's clip makes perfect sense.
 
I think that's a good idea OP, especially for the horses mentioned that are clipped for reasons other than being in heavy work, if its for rainscald etc then it makes sense!

You could probably take it in a little bit at the sides and it would look less unusual, but I say embrace your custom clip!

I wouldn't want my horse to have her belly all off as she lives out, would rather have a bib clip and deal with a bit of sweating, but then she's a hairy and not a hunter!

Why aren't there belly flaps on turnout rugs? I hadn't really thought about it before but they have them on fly rugs?
 
Goldenstar beat me to it - but because the horse gets warm and sweaty underneath, and even if the precise areas we clip aren't those that sweat, the whole has an effect in cooling the horse. While some will lie down, all will stand up - so to me it makes more sense to insulate the top and cool the underneath.
 
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