It's normal to fully or partially clip horses in the winter due to their long coats if they are in regular work. A partial clip like this is better for horses who are turned out- horses get hot and sweat most on their neck, chest, and belly when exercising so the hair there is taken down short, enabling the horse to stay cooler and to be dried off quickly if they are sweaty- kinder to have them dry and warm quickly than to take hours to dry out with long hair and get chilled from it.
thanks! I have a friend who has a horse who often look very very thin, and know i can help her checking if it's how she is or if she's too thin. thanks very much samantha
The part about ignoring the belly is really interesting as a few years ago at a show my pony was penalised for being too fat in an afternoon class but in the morning he was praised for not being fat! He was a fat score of 3. He had been fat scored by the vet and weigh taped by us at home regularly. However, as there was a wait between classes we allowed him to graze and he bloated up. The judge said they couldn't place him higher because of his belly. We only feed him hay at shows now.
When a mare becomes pregnant (I believe it is their left side) belly gets bigger then the right. It is easy to see if you stand behind a horse carefully and look directly down their sides.
I'm just wondering, the 'wabbeling' on top of the horse's neck, isn't that supposed to do that? I mean, there is an enormous amount of muscle on that very spot, and muscles do wabble - though IMO muscles wabble more slowly than fat.
Okay. So they could shave off a little more depending on what she's working? And that generally refers to riding and jumping and such, correct? Sorry if I sound silly. I'm used to grooming dogs here in the US and I'm extremely unfamiliar with anything horse related. My hope is to one day own a horse, but boy howdy! Do I have a lot to learn! They're so much more complicated than dogs, and I own two Shihtzu's! :)
