09/01/2024
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https://www.facebook.com/share/p/DyyD2NCeQe51qrvA/?mibextid=WC7FNe
Talking about whisker clipping is a really great litmus test to get an idea of how much of competition is human centred.
It’s a far more controversial topic than it should be.
In FEI classes, whisker clipping was banned recently and this caused a major uproar.
But in lower level classes and many other show organizations, it’s perfectly legal.
Regardless of anyone’s personal preferences, a simple fact remains — whiskers are a sensory organ for horses.
Each individual whisker even has its own blood supply.
The debate of how much they help with sensation is still ongoing but what is fact is that we know they’re used for sensory input by the horse.
It really isn’t up to us to argue to what extent they are used when that argument is only being used to justify us clipping them off for totally shallow reasons.
The only “benefit” humans get from whisker clipping is a “cleaner look” that they’ve been conditioned to like better.
There’s no other incentive, it’s all aesthetic based.
So, the fact that this is still as controversial of a debate as it is when it’s rooted in shallow human preferences really speaks for how much competition centres around human desires.
Because WHY are we enabling ourselves in promoting mindsets that flippantly take away protection and sensory output from the horse, with no care of the impact, just because we like they look better?
Whiskers are cute, for one.
For two, you can’t even see them in the show ring, only close up.
And then third, and most obviously, THEY ARE A SENSORY ORGAN.
Competiton can be done ethically, in my opinion.
But we will struggle to get to the destination of ethical competition so long as human desires are centred to the extent they currently are.
