I agree wholeheartedly- I am starting the "Au Naturel" look fan club- Mingus you can be the first member!!! The
only good thing about the "skinned" horse look is the back lash it is causing- quite a few people are actually beginning to show, if not in full coat then at least in
some coat
I HATE it with a vengeance and my own personal reaction has been to clip once, with coarse blades, at the beginning of the year to take off the winter coat, and NOT clip again. The only reaction I have had from the Judges was
one remark that he liked to see a coat on the horses, or maybe it was how unusual it was to see the coat, nice change, yo get the drift. It in NO way affected the placings, either way!! Skinning a horse does NOT make it a better horse- the Judges are not stupid, they are actually trained to see the horse underneath! It stands to reason that, if you are faced with a ring full of skinned rabbit animals with balded faces, and one gleaming, perfect, full coated on, the one that will get the most looks is the one that is different- of course, in order to win it has actually to be the best horse, as well
It is slightly different over here- no other breed is shown clipped, it is actually against the rules, here, to clip Arabs (Thank goodness!!!!) So we also have to contend with some serious criticism form very knowledgeable people. I heard some very complimentary comments at the Royal International, two weeks ago, followed immediately by "WHY do they have to clip them so close, aren't the horses good enough to stand up on their own???" We do not need this, we need the "Big Horse" people on our side.