07/08/2025
Is clipping horses cruel? Does it hurt them? 🤔 To those who are not familiar with horses, clipping may seem quite drastic!
Aaron Campbell Equine Clipping Services explains all in this brilliant post ⬇️
'CLIPPING IS CRUEL & UNNATURAL.....ANIMAL ABUSE'!
This is one of the comments I seen, along with many other uneducated troll comments that were on another clippers post. I was reading through the comments, and was utterly bemused by the level of stupidity that lurks behind keyboards and screens!
I know anyone on this page knows why we clip.....so I don't want to offend any of you guys' intelligence, so this post is more to educate perhaps someone that is new to horses
Q. Why do we clip?
A. There are many reasons, most notably for the horses welfare and comfort. Traditionally, and still the main reason, is to keep the horse cool so that it can perform better. It can be washed down after, scraped, and dry within 10minutes.......not standing wet for hours waiting on coat to dry. Not everyone owns a solarium. Clipping has evolved, and is now a crucial part if welfare.....we are 1st on call for management of sweet itch, CPL, Mites, Lice, Rainscald, Mallanders&Sallanders, Cushings etc
Q. More of a statement actually.......Clipping is unnatural
A. Yes. That is true, we'll done 👏
Clipping is unnatural, as the horse is kept in an unnatural environment (I refer to horses that are being worked) A horse should naturally be roaming the plains and pastures, grazing merrily in a wild herd. Reality check......Unfortunately for them, this isn't the case. As much as we love them, they have a job to do. IE.....carry our overweight backsides over obstacles, or race, or parade about rings, or hunt etc. So while we keep them in our man made environments, it is essential to keep the horse happy and comfortable. If left unclipped and hairy, and doing moderate work......the horse will sweat, a lot. All of dry sweat residue gets trapped under the hair, eventually leading to things like saddle sores and general itching and grubbiness. People don't groom their horses every day for an hour like it used to be. Gone are the days of the white glove being run over the horses back 😅
Q. Does it hurt the horse
A. No........infact, a lot of the time, the horses see it as a mutual grooming session. So many times I have been clipping, and the horse turns round to groom my back (sometimes over enthusiasticly with those big teeth 😱)
That being said, the clipper needs to know what they are at.........clippers in the hands of unexperienced people can be disastrous to the horse, but we won't talk about that in this post
I am always happy to answer any questions regarding clipping, and offer advice, as the more knowledge shared.......the less ignorant trolls there would be!
