Is the weather nice in your world? C’mon, eggy - you’re getting a bit ridiculous now.
I don’t think it is cruel for humans either, JS.
You’re right, there. I can finally pluck my eyebrows and not tear up. Or even blink, for that matter. And, if I didn’t pluck weekly, I’d have a unibrow, or its first cousin. Good old Mediterranean blood; dark eyes, olive skin, and women with excess facial hair. Gotta love us. 
I could have lived quite happily without knowing that much about all y’all. :winkgrin:
Well some of us don’t want to look like men
Oh, Ok, I get it now. You have to pluck your eyebrows so you won’t be mistaken for a man. My heart goes out to you. Do what you must do!
aaahhhh that takes me back :lol: 1970 I had creased jeans for camping. :eek: cuz, ya know, you never know when a cute teenage guy might appear in the woods. 
(I guess now you would probably run for your lives)
Y’all have obviously not been anywhere near Houston of late. Creased jeans that are frayed at the hem from being too long, starched shirts and big-buckle belts are still de rigeur for cowboys hereabouts. 
Along with fur felt hats for winter, and straw for summer, of course.
Well, I clip my gelding’s muzzle, chin, bridle path, fetlocks and dock and trim his tail. It’s a personal preference for me. I board in a barn where most of the other dressagers let their mounts go about with whiskers. No one is worse for the wear.
I just think it looks untidy to have all of those whiskers poking out.
I’m also under 70 and get my eyebrows waxed regularly. In fact, most of the professional women I work with get theirs done as well - and I work with highly educated “liberated” women :winkgrin:
Banging Tails
When I first moved here I wanted to find out why people banged the tails at the hocks.
One month into rainy muddy winter and you would know. If you don’t bang, you will have a horse with no tail come spring.
Well I guess if you kept them in you wouldn’t, but we don’t. Maybe on the continent horses aren’t getting turned out, but most people in England and Ireland do make sure horses get out. Heck even the racehorses are out every day for quite a while depending on the weather and that’s when their in training.
Most clipping over here is done while leaving the legs with all the hair to protect from the environment. Obviously the ones going to Spain on the Sunshine Tour would probably be clipped up.
I have trimmed whiskers here with scissors before going to a show and was not banned. My friend also always scissored her daughters horses before going to shows as well. No hoopla there either. I do leave ear hair in and just trim the outside.
And chin hairs, well I’ve never seen as much chin hair as I have on my 2 warmbloods. Like wooly mammoths! Their youngsters so I haven’t actually gone cutting yet, but that will clipped off this winter, that’s for sure!
Terri
I’m not quite sure where this ‘Europe doesn’t turnout’ idea comes from. Must be from foreigners spending too much time in freak dressage barns vs. the normal horseworld.
The big thing about muzzle and inside ear hair is that it doesn’t compare to tail or any other hair but it it medically spoken in fact a tactile organ.
If you are looking for human hair to compare it to, it would be like eyelashes rather than eyebrows. Now I haven’t seen any human get rid of their eyelashes on purpose unless they had to have ocular surgery. Tactile hair has specialized receptive cells near its root and does have potentially life-saving properties (e.g. prevent the feeding horse from taking up detrimental agents). Have you ever heard of a horse that died from a blow of wind around their clipped tailroot? I have not. But there are horses that get killed from accidentally picking up stuff they shouldn’t have incorporated to begin with. For instance I’ve known a horse that was scoped for an incurable cough and inspiratory breath noise and what we found was a piece of bridleleather stuck in its throat. And that horse’s mouth was clipped which is not much of a significant statement but I just think it does make a difference whether you clip your horse and cover it with a blanket for convenience or to remove tactile hair that is irreplacible.
And to say the horses don’t suffer from it is a pretty lucid statement. Much like to say a child with a palatecleft doesn’t suffer because it behaves normally.
I have zero problem with owners deciding they want to clip coverhair for convenience or cosmetic reasons as long as they make sure to get the blanketing straight. But the tactile hair should definitely remain on.
One could argue that any hair has tactile receptors at the bottom but the point is that to function as a tactile organ in the first place you need both the length of the handle and a special equipment below. I don’t think anybody will argue that most horses do not naturally tolerate being touched in the insides of their ears. It takes conditioning or restrictive measures to make them tolerate it. So even in laymen logic it would seem there is a significant difference between inside ear hair and tail hair that is equiped for mechanical protection only.
I think clipping the muzzle is no big deal, and I’ve never seen a horse harmed by it. I do think it is much worse to body clip and blanket the horse. It messes with their ability to adjust to temperatures themselves. And shoeing is probably the worst thing you can do, by nailing a piece of METAL into an organ. :no:
Actually the only horse I have seen swallow something strange, boarding 30 horses, for over 30 years was a horse that was never shown, and did have whiskers. He swallowed a large sponge, so I don’t think your example is any more valid that mine. These are freak things, and have nothing to do with whiskers. Their muzzle skin does feel, and they can sift bute powder out of sweet feed with their mouths - with or without whiskers. ALL hair has the ability to feel the slightest touch. Show me research that proves the whiskers are needed for something, and the horse is in danger, or uncomfortable without them. The protection derived from tail hairs is clear. Not only does it protect from bugs, but the skin also is protected from the weather by the dock hairs.
[QUOTE=egontoast;3130520]
Oh, Ok, I get it now. You have to pluck your eyebrows so you won’t be mistaken for a man. My heart goes out to you. Do what you must do!:)[/QUOTE]
:lol::lol: No way I could be mistaken for a man God blessed or cursed me with a chest:) :eek:
Fairview Horse Center, you can google search and come up with all sorts of research from horses, cats, dogs rats you name it. It is called Tactile sensing, how whiskers are used in the animal kingdom inaddition to many other tactile sensing.
Sorry, not finding any research on horses’ whiskers. Tactile sensing is part of ALL hair. That is why they can sense a fly landing in them.
Just my .02
[QUOTE=canticle;3131028]
I think clipping the muzzle is no big deal, and I’ve never seen a horse harmed by it. I do think it is much worse to body clip and blanket the horse. It messes with their ability to adjust to temperatures themselves. And shoeing is probably the worst thing you can do, by nailing a piece of METAL into an organ. :no:[/QUOTE]
I think canticle’s on to something here…all this discussion about a little “trim” and I’d bet y’all have no problem nailing metal shoes to your horses feet:yes::yes::yes::yes:
Maybe it’s because I come from a hunter background, but I always clip my horse before shows. I have gotten less diligent about the ears over time and leave most of the inside hair, but I definitely trim the edges and neaten things up. He stays fuzzy in the off season unless we’re going to a bigger clinic. I’ve never felt like one of my horses had a problem because I clipped the muzzle and eye hairs off.
http://www.tierschutz-tvt.de/merkblatt61.pdf
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/fsc/backissu/july2004/research/2004_03_research02.htm
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/63000430/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
Not just hair. Do the research. You are incorrect.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not into letting the horse live as he would in the wild, lets face it we add stresses to the horses body. I am just into preserving what is natural in helping the horse with normal functions.
This is a strange thread. It’s not like someone on this board posted a thread crapping on hunter de-hairing styles. Didn’t happen.
AGAIN. I think most dressage people DON"T CARE whether or not you shave your horse’s muzzle or think it is particularly cruel if you do it or if you pluck your nose hairs or shape your eyebrows so you won’t be mistaken for a man.
IT"S OK but not everyone thinks it is lovely!
[QUOTE=egontoast;3132772]
This is a strange thread. It’s not like someone on this board posted a thread crapping on hunter de-hairing styles. Didn’t happen.
AGAIN. I think most dressage people DON"T CARE whether or not you shave your horse’s muzzle or think it is particularly cruel if you do it or if you pluck your nose hairs or shape your eyebrows so you won’t be mistaken for a man.
IT"S OK but not everyone thinks it is lovely![/QUOTE]
Again I’m not sure why you keep coming back if you think it’s so strange…And maybe you are right when you say most don’t care but guess what we don’t care what most think… Even the people that don’t agree have been respectful is that what pisses you off?
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