Manes, Beards & Whiskers: To Trim Or Not To Trim?

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"If the horse is to compete or be shown, now is the time to decide issues such as hairstyles and to prepare the mane and tail accordingly.  First of all, find out what rules may apply, if any, and then ascertain what will be the most attractive and practical hair do for your particular horse.  Handle the mane and tail carefully to avoid hurting the horse or breaking the hair.  You may want to show your horse with a bridle path so his headgear fits nice and flat behind his ears.  If so, what length will best compliment your particular horse’s head and neck?  The length of an ear is a common measurement, but you may decide that more or less is better.  Some breed societies prohibit removal of the mane but allow a fine plait instead of clipping a bridle path.
 
An old-time method that works very well on a horse’s under-jaw area is singeing.  To do this you touch the very tip of a candle flame to the very end of the long hairs.  It is completely painless but each hair will burn like a fuse of dynamite and shrivel up, stopping harmlessly just before it reaches the skin.  I used to use this on my ponies with excellent results and they didn’t even seem to mind the smoke curling past their eyes or the smell of burning hair.
 
TIP:  If you decide to try singeing, choose an area out of the wind where a dropped candle will not start a fire; and make sure you do it about a week to ten days before any important outing, because the singed hair ends will form tiny brown blobs that take a few days to wear off.

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How much hair is removed and from where is very much a matter of fashion and taste which varies from breed to breed and class to class.  As a judge, I know that all that so-called superfluous hair actually has a purpose so, while I am all for presenting a clean and tidy horse, I personally do not like to see extreme clip jobs where every whisker, eyebrow and inner ear hair has been removed.  As these are the horse’s natural feelers and part of his defence system, I strongly believe he should be allowed to keep them.  At least two European countries agree with me!  The long, stiff whiskers are tactile hairs which help horses to sense the things they cannot see in the blind spot at the end of their noses and around their eyes.  When you stop to think that that includes food, water and all the prickly, hard and sharp objects they may encounter, you begin to see how important – and beautiful – these whiskers are."

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The above is an excerpt from my book Winning Horsemanship. A Judge's Secrets and Tips for Your Success. And yes, I admit I have shaved the whiskers on my horse's muzzle in years gone by. That was before I knew better. I would not do it now, any more than I would cut a cat's or dog's whiskers!

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