The same thing that is wrong with clipping whiskers.
Nothing.
FEI will target the dumbest stuff as animal abuse, but let this serial abuser slide without even a provisional suspension. It’s laughable.
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FWIW in my anecdotal but long-term experience, horses with clipped whiskers tend to bash their face up much more than when they are unclipped… including more injuries to the eyes. But still, and to your point, an odd hill for FEI to take a stand on, rather than the true abuse that happens at home.
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My horse who wears a muzzle and a fly mask appreciates his whiskers being trimmed so they aren’t being “set off” all the time.
I’ve never found that trimming them has any adverse effect at all, on any horse. That’s just my experience though.
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Nothing. You just can’t clip them when you are at the show venue.
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Why is that a rule?
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My guess is that newly clipped legs, especially very closely clipped legs, would cause the horse to be more sensitive, which may give an unfair advantage/artificial incentive for the horse to be more expressive or lift their legs higher.
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Main Ring people clip their horses bald and this has never been and issue. Not a fan of the look myself but I’ve never heard of a horse causing itself injuries due to being clipped.
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I think it’s the idea that closely clipped legs will sting if the horse hits a jump, so they will tuck their legs a bit more to avoid that.
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Reasoning behind the no-clipped-legs… jumper riders.
So many of our dumb rules come from shady show jumpers. Removing hind boots, weighing front boots, checking for skin sensitivity… all because show jumpers have used painful methods to make their horses jump higher.
I believe the clipped legs thing is because a jumper rider was found to have taken a page from the TWH people… shaved legs very close, applied a topical (?) and basically blistered them to make the legs more sensitive and discourage the horse from hitting rails.
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Mine, even in the cold, prefers to drink outside. I actually offered him luke warm water inside, he turned his nose up at it and had a big drink as soon as he went back out,
At one point, the vet wanted him on stall rest because he had a temp, and they wanted him to drink more. Everyone in the barn was like…he drinks way more outside.
completely disgusting.
For the record, if nekkid legs are your jam, you can still do it. Just get it done before you arrive at the show grounds, or the FEI stabling area to be precise.
Also regarding muzzle use and clipped muzzle vibrissae, my guy also wears a muzzle but does not get his muzzle clipped and he has no concerns whatsoever. Also, his muzzle hairs are naturally shorter as well because of the muzzle, but again, no observed issues when it goes back on after it’s off for 6 months. So I guess that’s 2 anecdotes cancelling each other out. As usual, ymmv, but generally competing at the fei level isn’t something that sneaks up on you 
so if it’s a concern clip your horse’s vibrissae one last time at the beginning of muzzle season and then hairs will only grow out to where they reach the muzzle which won’t be irritating.
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And not so “shady” show jumpers. If I told you what the top level riders, including Olympians, do to prep their horses, the entire use of horses would be in jeopardy.
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Honest question: why don’t you tell us? I, for one, have never been even close to the top levels. I’ve been lucky enough to have gone through my low-level horse career without witnessing abuse. I think there are more riders like me (and you, I’m sure) than like Andrew McCannon and his ilke.
Speaking for myself, I would love to see a sea change in the industry that drives out people like AM and CP and the Helgstrand bloke and leaves room for people who love horses, love to ride, and genuinely care more about animal welfare than ribbons and team selection.
To that end, exposing practices like the ones you allude to, and exposing people who employ those practices (like the very brave folks who exposed AM) is vital. There is no hope whatsoever of ending this abuse if the people who know about it don’t say something. You don’t even have to name names necessarily, but why would you not at least make people aware of what goes on if you know first hand about it?
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Because without proof it is just low level entertainment. Ooh, do you think it was rider X and horse Y!? Disgruntled haters are a reality as are witch hunts. It is hard enough to keep up with the cases for which there is documentation.
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Isn’t the entire use of horses already in jeopardy? I mean, have you ever read the comments section on FB or Instagram? Pretty much every single thing we do with horses is wrong.
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I think being jaded against the whole thing is a pretty sure bet at this point.
Disagree. If we don’t know what’s happening out there how can we watch for it/report it/get the governing bodies to ban it?
I don’t know of a single named person who practiced soring. Zero. But I know what it is and I know how to identify it b/c people DID talk about it.
Learning about it was not entertaining in the least. Not low level, not high level, not any level.
‘Proof’ was not needed; exposure was needed. When a spectator at Devon can glance down and recognise the issue, you’ve got an educated population looking out. You cannot employ a ‘see something/say something’ campaign against abuse if we don’t even know what’s going on b/c people gatekeep that info for…whatever reasons they do so.
I didn’t know about withholding water until this thread. No one named names. No one provided proof. But now I know and, if I’m doing barn check, I will look for this for all horses, not just mine.
That’s how education works. It has zero to do with entertainment which, TBH, I don’t even get how you made that connection here.
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You didn’t need to be told bad people with hold water to notice empty water buckets. That one is as old as time. I’ll tell you one from decades ago. Everybody please note - trainer and horse are dead of old age. Olympic medal winning horse prepped by pouring boiling water on the front of his cannons. There are probably a couple grooms still around that remember. Does that help you know what to look for? You are a horse person. I assume since you post here. You have some idea what reasonable practices are. If you see something that makes you uncomfortable, take out your phone.
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I did, in fact, need to be told that. I did not know that was a thing, old as time though you consider it to be. Do not assume everyone is like you or has had your experiences. I look for things I know about. I did not know people intentionally withhold water from horses before/at competitions. I guess someone like you would call someone like me naive but, given my own personal experiences, I go through life assuming most people are not abusing their animals. If I saw a lack of water I would presume ‘horse drank/spilled their water’ and simply refill it. I would not have taken note of one horse or one outfit’s horses without water as a pattern. For me, after reading it here, that’s a ‘good to know’ in my book.
I didn’t know anything about the tying their heads down or up (I saw that on a thread about people seeing this at Western barns). Or a whole host of things I’ve read here. None entertaining, all educational for me.
Don’t make other people feel dumb b/c they don’t know what you know. That’s uncalled for and zero value add.
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