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[RC] working hairy horses/clipping - Jackie CausgroveHi. I guess I am the only dissenter on this. Guess there just had to be one!!! Horses start losing body heat at approx 32 degrees if they are wet. Obviously, if your horse can move around when he is out in the psture, he will be able to keep warmer. But you are paying for it in terms of calories (ie feed) needed to meet those needs in terms of keeping himself warm. The colder the temps and the wetter your horse, the increased chance of your horse being cold etc. It's just plain ole mammalian physiology. It's more like you going outside with dry hair vs damp hair. You can probably stand going out with damp hair but you will feel the cold more. Actually, the modified clip is a great suggestion! I've not done that before but have heard of others doing it. And I believe that there are also clipper
guards for that exact reason. Of course, something else to spend $$$ on! I was recently doing a bit of reading on clipping (since this came up) on the web. What the consensus seemed to be was that even trace clipping actually helps the horse thermodynamically more and thus the horse neither gets so wet from exercise and but also cools down faster. Well, sorry about being the lone person with an differing thoughts on this. Jackie
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