CLIPPING HORSES.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 35, 18 March 1914, Page 11

CLIPPING HORSES.

The custom of clipping horses is every year becoming more general in both our town and country districts, and as the season is now at hand when owners of horses will have to decide whether their animals are to be clipped or not, a brief summary of the reasons for and against by that well-known authority, "Wentworth," in "Farm, Field, and Fireside, " will be opportune. The principal reason- alleged against clipping is, of course, that it is contrary to Nature. This is the theory of those whose practical acquaintance with the working of horses is the leasts but we admit it. There are, however, many things that are not natural that are beneficial, especially where civilisation and domestication have necessitated a departure from Nature. There are many things found to be expedient that are not natural, and those who argue that it is unnatural to clip the coat are scarcely logical, because they ignore the fact that the horse was not intended to labour in the service of man in a state of domestication, but to roam in the open in search of food. Under these conditions, and especially when we consider that the natural food of the horse is, in winter, scarce and very inferior in heat-producing properties, the thick, heavy coat is essential as a protection against cold; but when xhe horse is taken into work the conditions are entirely changed. We provide him with a warm stable; we feed him on grain, which is much better calculated to maintain the animal heat than winter grass; we can provide him with artificial covering to replace Nature's provision we have removed, and, above all, we ride or drive him fast or far, impose heavy burdens and cause him to work and sweat under Conditions Nature never contemplated. Another assertion is that a horse that has been clipped is more likely to take cold than a horse left in the possession of his winter coat, or than a horse working under similar conditions that has not been clipped. This assertion is baseless, since in practice it is found that it is the unclipped working horse that is most, apt to take cold, and is subject to cough, and clipping the horse that works at a fast pace renders him far less liable to contract these ailments than he would be in his natural state.

We know of many cases in which clipping has proved a cure for chronic cough that has long defied medicine, and there is no possible doubt that horses, both draughts and light horses, are adversely affected in health by being permitted or. compelled to wear a thick, heavy coat when the work is so hard or so fast as to cause profuse perspiration. This causes debility, and reduces the strength, and frequent ' 1 breaking out'' after return to stable, of course, aggravates the evil. Further, any observant person must have noticed, as we have before mentioned, that the practice of clipping is becoming more and more general. .Horses are clipped in numbers that increase with each succeeding »year, and not only light horsey whose work is at a fast pace, but heavier and slower-mov-ing animals, whose work causes them to sweat profusely, and this fact is not suggestive of any evil effects as regards the health of the animal.

Horses that are clipped do their work with greater ease than those that have their long coat on, and when the weather is "muggy," and the roads heavy, the a great burden. The under-bred horse, of course, carries the heaviest coat, and is frequently of a sluggish disposition, but clipping is found to act as a stimulant, arid such horses become" freer goers. Clipping is also found to have a marked effect in improving the appetite of delicate feeders.

How the interests of those in charge of horses are affected by clipping is too obvious to need detailed description. Any practical man will know what a tedious job it is for the attendant, and what an amount of unnecessary work it means to get a horse dry when it returns to stable with its long coat wet through with- sweat, and the horse keepg "breaking out," often remaining wet all night. Also that to leave the horse in this state means to risk pneumonia and other respiratory diseases.