Horse Clipping - The Ideal Clip and Blanket
WINTER IS COMING!
No, it is not a reference to the GOT series but as every horse owner knows well, its the hardest time to keep our horses clean and tidy. The biggest struggle of course is their long coat, which can be beautiful and make them look like teddy bears but is a nightmare to keep clean or to ensure the horse is not dripping in sweat when excercising and taking ages to dry. So, we clip…. Nowadays it is the norm. Some start mid november, others december, others again in september, depending on the climate and the horse. But when did we, as a society start clipping horses? Surprisingly there is very little evidence about horses being blanketed or clipped before the 1950s. That also coincides to the time where the horse became more a recreational animal than work animal. The uprise in barns and sports incentivised this practice, concerns and the need to keep the hairs short and tidy. The only horses that were clipped were carriage horses, of whom there are very few grainy images and from which the Trace trim originated from. Today’s clipping styles are many and we tend to also get creative with their designs also according to their purpose. There are two main types of clipping, the full body or the partial clipping, which then branch out in many styles. Generally however all clipped horses, except Strip clipped ones, are blanketed. It would be logical to deduce that whenever you take away their protection from the cold, you substitute it. Right? Well not quite. Many horses are fully clipped, but their blanket only covers their shoulders, back, croup and sides, while the rest of the body is exposed and without protection. Basically as if we wore a T-shirt and shorts made of very warm material and left the rest bare in winter. I doubt anyone would like that. The blue parts in the following image represent the exposed parts when a horse is fully clipped and wears a traditional blanket.
Other horses are given a Blanket clip where the back, croup and legs are left hairy. In this case the neck and abdomen are still exposed.
The Irish clip, features clipping only the bottom half of the neck, the chest, the shoulders and the abdomen. Again the blanket covers everything except lower neck and abdomen.
Even if a horse has the most minimal Strip clip, the horse’s abdomen is still completely trimmed off.
Have you ever noticed that whenever you take the blanket off, the horse’s skin on its abdomen is always cold? It might not be something that one notices or thinks about, but it should be given some thought.. First of all, internal organs need to be at a determined temperature range, which is also ensured by the horse’s very rapid hair growth that protects it from the climate. It is also very easy to understand that the areas where the horse’s coat becomes longer are also areas that need to be maintained at a constant and specific temperature. For example, the neck, the back, the croup and the abdomen. The ears are cartilage and have very little capacity to maintain heat on their own. Mostly, the hair on the head and the legs are less dense than the other areas, that is both because they do not have vital organs present just below the surface, as is the case for the abdomen and because the bone tissue has insulating properties. The idea behind blanketing is also very straightforward, whenever the horse’s natural protection is removed it must be substituted. There is an enormous concern in winter regarding the sweat on the horse’s back and croup and the possibility that they could get ill if they are not perfectly dry before they are taken back to their stall or pasture. And that is an absolutely appropriate concern, in fact the kidneys, which are placed just below the muscles in the back, when exposed to a drop in temperature that causes vasoconstriction, may result in lower oxygenation in the organ and reduced functionality. So why simultaneously be concerned about the kidneys but not the colon, which is directly beneath the abdominal skin? What about the neck, almost always left bare? Being inside the body, both the kidneys and the colon will require body temperature to function optimally and their correct function is just as important. Sweating occurs in humans just like the horse as a prevention of the overheating of the organs and the system, releasing fluids to cool down the surface along with numerous chemical reactions. It is a protection mechanism. We have been clipping the horse’s abdomen for decades because it is an area where it sweats more easily along with the neck and back. This conclusion has however been made by observing an unclipped horse, under excercise who's temperature is optimal with long hairs and during basic activity. However a horse that has been clipped, even just on its shoulders, will sweat much less easily because the clipped part will require heat from the rest of the body since it is being cooled down from the outside temperature. This reduces or eliminates the mechanism activated by the initial temperature increase caused by movement. The clipping style is generally chosen on the basis of workload and climate but is most commonly based on what everyone else is doing. If in a stable, especially a competitive one, most riders or trainers do full clips, that's what almost everyone will do. This, partially disregarding the anatomy and biology of the horse. Even with a fancy, expensive,warm but traditional blanket, the abdomen and neck will still be cold. For the neck however there is a simple solution...An add-on to the blanket that will keep it just as warm. The solution for the abdomen is also quite simple, it however may require that you either modify your blanket or purchase a new one.
Therefore are two scenarios you can fall in: you change blanket or you change clipping style. If you are okay with changing blanket type, you can clip the horse’s neck and abdomen without a problem as there are blankets that come with both neck additions and abdomen flaps which make up for the lack of protection, such as this Amigo blanket:
Ok, but what about the ideal clipping style? Its simply the one that is biologically correct for your horse. One which keeps all internal organs warm and doesn't give problems when it comes to cleaning. As a general rule, all horses that are clipped, regardless of the style, would need a substitute protection. Clipping a horse that only does light work, or exercises every day such as an older horse, is unnecessary.
If you cannot or don't want to change blanket, but can at least add the neck cover, my suggestion is you use this style, which I decided to name Framed Hunter Clip due to the similarities with the traditional Hunter Clip.
The head is optional because it consists mostly of bone, which as I mentioned above, has great insulating properties, this is also proven by the much lower hair density compared to the rest of the body. There is however an exception: the ears. Since they are mostly made of cartilage, they have no protection except for the one given by the fur, so if you don't want a full head, a half head clip, leaving the ears, eyes and nose hairy would still be optimal. The saddle part is left hairy to protect the back and withers from the saddle and blanket, since the skin tends to be very sensitive in that area.
This proposed style is ideal for horses that exercise frequently. The only challenge is when turned out the horse's abdomen may trap dirt, but that's a fair price to pay if you know your horse is more comfortable and warm.
Starting this winter I will use either the Framed Hunter Clip or a full coverage blanket, and you?