That is the question!
It's that time of year again, when the days are getting shorter, the temperatures have dropped and there seems to be (especially at the moment!) and endless supply of rain! It also means that it's that time of year where people start thinking about clipping their horses. But do you really need to?
Recently clipping could be considered to have become another “fashion statement” in the equestrian world. Horses that only get hacked for 20 minutes once a week sporting a full clip/hunter clip for example. Now there is nothing wrong with your horses taking a bit of a back seat over the winter months. After all the weather is dreadful, the daylight hours are less and if you're not lucky enough to have an arena, schooling can sometimes become impossible in wet boggy fields. It's not unusual for our horses workloads to slow down a bit over the winter so do you actually need to clip your horse?
If you are regularly riding your horse and they are sweating up with their workload then it makes sense to clip them. It ensure you can dry them off easily and prevent them getting a chill, and of course they are less likely to get hot and sweaty in the first place! However if your horse is only getting a bit sweaty on their neck and girth area, do you need to fully clip them? Of course not! Pick your clip carefully depending on your horse, their age
and their work load. Remember you can always take off more at a later date but it's not so easy to put it back on..
If you have a horse that struggles to keep weight on, taking a load of their hair off isn't always the best thing for them. Whilst it can be “replaced” with rugs, these can end up being very heavy and the horse uses up precious energy carrying the extra weight of the heavy rugs, as well as using extra energy keeping warm in the first place. On the opposite side if you have a horse who is very much a good doer and is hard to move the weight, a small clip (bib, strip or chaser/irish) will help them lose weight more naturally than reducing any feed to next to nothing (which can cause ulcers).
Most horses in work would be more than happy with a simple bib, strip or chaser/irish clip, maybe a trace/blanket clip for those in slightly more work. Very few of our “everyday” horses need a hunter or full clip and a lot of the time these are done for our benefit rather than the horses. If you're riding your horse 6 days a week for an hour at a time then yes, a hunter or full clip is probably for you, if not then think how much of their coat you actually need to remove.
Think carefully before you clip and make sure you do it for your horses benefit and not your own!
Happy Clipping!