Are hunter people still clipping muzzles? I’m a dressage rider and nobody clips the muzzle in the USDF. I don’t believe it’s been banned yet, but it is banned in most European countries and we just don’t do it. We don’t clip inside the ears either, just tidy them up. We do clip legs and bridle paths. I’m starting a young GRP mare and plan to show her a bit in dressage before sending her for over fences training to eventually be my daughter’s hunter pony. I want to go ahead and start doing leadline at the hunter shows now (my daughter is 3). So just wondering what hunter people are doing for grooming these days as I want her appropriately groomed, but she’s also doing double duty as a dressage pony for now.
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I do not see any whiskers on the pony finals photos so I would assume that clipping is still the norm.
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Most people still do but some people don’t. You won’t get laughed out of the ring either way, but clipping is the norm.
I find it amusing that of all the unpleasant and unnatural things we put horses through, clipping whiskers is the line we collectively draw in the sand. My horses don’t navigate rocky crevices on mountains on their turnout. They don’t have to forage in the dark in unknown terrain to survive. They walk from their stalls to the ring or to a pretty, grassy turnout and rarely have to navigate anything more complex than walking around a dog toy some dog left on the ground along the path to the field.
We’ve got blue tongues and horses being chased with whips and beaten and drugged to perform and collapsing before/during/after rounds from prep— but by golly they do it with whiskers! 
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Hunter people clip everything in my experience. They body clip year round and yes whiskers, inside ears etc are still clipped pretty short.
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Whoa! I was simply asking if it was the norm, I never said I consider it abusive. I just don’t want my daughter to stand out for the wrong reasons while keeping in mind that this pony is also showing dressage next year. It was an honest question because I haven’t been to a hunter show in 10 years. Thank you though!
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I think it is fine to not clip whiskers in the hunters but the majority probably still do. I tidy long whiskers and clean up long ear hair but leave the insides. No one will look at you funny if you don’t clip. Do what you think is best for you and your horse.
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Here’s my take on it.
I grew up in the Arab world where we basically clipped our horses naked. Our horses seemed no worse for the experience.
But my hunter, who received the same extensive clipping, would injure himself like clockwork in turnout after clipping. That was my first 
moment that maybe those whiskers serve a purpose.
I’ve done a 180 since my youth. No, I don’t think clipping is “abusive,” especially not in the grand scheme of unnatural things we do to show horses. But if leaving whiskers might benefit the horse and it’s socially acceptable, I’m embracing the opportunity to save a little time and skip that step. 
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Most still clip, but you won’t stand out if you just even out any “old man whiskers” and clean up the outside ear hairs. I see lots of clipped ears but a lot more are starting to leave the insides hairy, which is nice! Keeps the bugs out.
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This was meant to be a general statement about the way our disciplines are today and not a criticism of you.
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I recognized that😀.
It is 1000% fine to leave the whiskers. I’m showing a very expensive sales hunter currently in the AAs and he shows in the 3’3” performance with long whiskers. Absolutely fine to leave them. If you want, some people trim them so they’re uniform length.
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A lot of horses show now in the hunters with their natural whiskers. Certainly not all of them, but I see it quite often.
I hate the look of unclipped whiskers and ears and always did it to my lease horses even though I wasn’t showing. The owners were fine with it. Like your horses they lived very pampered lives, clipping their whiskers did no harm.
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My hunter shows with his whiskers! He was just 5th in a 20k National Derby, so I don’t think the judges were too offended!
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Very cute and congrats. So what makes you leave whiskers but clip the ears? Just curious.
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It’s not up to me, my trainer does it. She is adamantly against trimming the whiskers and equates it to cutting off the whiskers on a cat. For the ears, she only clips around the outline of the ear so they are not dug out on the inside. He also wears a fly mask year round with ears to keep bugs out.
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If anyone is using a fly mask, please consider trimming any whiskers on the face or eyes that contacts the mask. How uncomfortable it must be to have sensory organs getting tickled all the time.
(I dont think clipping hurts a horse, and don’t have strong feelings either way. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, but I always make sure where the fly mask is isn’t constantly touching whiskers.)
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I gave up trying to quickly search photos but I could’ve sworn some of the Olympic horses looked like they had the insides of their ears pretty well nekkid, too (which I thought was a no-go, too, per FEI). If that is the case, it’s kind of goofy because the benefit of interior ear is more clear to me than chin whiskers.
I don’t ever recall a ton of facial injuries or horses unable to suss out their environments without. And all I can visualize is a horse using the underside of his chin to find his way or figure out the electric fence?
People do report having horses bang themselves up without so I’m all for making a choice based on the individual. Otherwise, there are way bigger welfare issues to worry about.
As for the cat thing, which did give me pause at one point, if you look up previous threads on this topic, people have posted that’s a false equivalency. The physical structures and how they function are different, IIRC (please correct me otherwise).
Last I checked, there was one study about this topic and its conclusion was that more study was needed. I can look that up again for the link but I think one of us posted it in another discussion, too.
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Oh, and this!
I know people who don’t clip except for tidying and feel very strongly about it. Very, very strongly that the practice is barbaric.
Yet masks and grazing muzzles are used over these super sensitive bits on the regular. big shrug
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@endlessclimb - totally agree with those long eye whiskers! Trust me, I do really think they need those whiskers as I (or they) don’t need any eye damage, and I don’t cut all of them off, but because I always drive and have blinkers on them, the long eye whiskers above and below the eye will actually hit the blinkers every time they blink and I always thought that would drive them (and me!!) crazy. So I have always trimmed them so they are about 1-2" long. That way they still have them so hopefully it stops them from hitting a stall wall when they circle at night, but they don’t hit the blinkers (or fly masks).
I haven’t cut whiskers for a couple of years now as they did make it illegal in Canada for Welsh ponies to show without whiskers. I do cross disciplines - breed shows, dressage shows, driving shows and hunters and I don’t cut whiskers at all since I could technically be called out for it in the Welsh ring. The UK has had this rule for ever in Welsh Ponies, but Canada adopted it a couple of years ago as well.
So I do tidy the outside of the ears, but not the inside, I tidy up under the jaw and any fetlock feathers (I have a half welsh so feathers can be trimmed off), bridle path and the eye whiskers so they are shortish. I do show in the Hunters as well, and I haven’t had any issues with not placing. I’m off to WEC next week and don’t plan on trimming whiskers so we shall see what the US says (I don’t think there would be any issues though). It did take me a while to get used to having whiskers as I came from the Hunter world where I’ve always trimmed whiskers and inside of the ears. So it was tough for me at first ha ha! Now I’m used to it and don’t really even notice whiskers and I do feel better that they have ear hair as bugs are so bad here and I can’t keep any fly mask on them to save my life. Off in less than 5 minutes. All 5 of them!! I was tired of collecting them all the time…
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