I'm sorry, I agree that some of those replies felt pretty aggressive.
No, neck sweating is NOTHING like liposuction. Yes, in the right hands it is pretty harmless and doesn't seem to bug the horses. But this was still a great opportunity to discuss where one should draw the line in the ring and why. In that spirit I have deleted my further negative comments and will address some positive points that I found interesting.
Okay, first of all it seems like we're facing two different interpretations of what a halter class is. There's those like me who follow the traditional view that a halter class for any breed is where you determine who is the closest to the ideal and the best breeding stock. Hence, you want to present your horse to its best advantage but the best horse should win regardless of turnout. Then there's interpretation two, which has halter classes being a beauty pageant where no holds are barred unless they actually physically harm the horse or are clearly illegal. You can see how we got from view one to view two- it is only human nature to be attracted to flash and shine so horses that were REALLY well turned out won. So of course everyone starts focusing on the right halter and the perfect outfit, etc. And if your horse was a little faulty
here but you could hide it with a skillful clipping job or draping the tail just so, well of course you would. That's only natural too. And BOOM! Before you know it, it's a beauty pageant.
Getting back to the question of this post....."isn't this cheating?" Well, I think it comes down to where do you....personally... draw the line. Do you want to not see horses with the inside of the ears clipped clean?
...Remember, there is really no way to 'exercise' the neck so it is hard to take off a bit of excess flab there.
It's not cheating any more than exercising the horse to get in shape or cutting back on hay to get the belly down...
I think it does come down to where you draw the line. To me it is not true that there is no way to exercise the neck. Are you kidding me? Dressage and proper riding/driving are ALL about developing the neck! Okay so that doesn't help you with showing your weanlings and your youngsters, but it sure should help that older stallion. And as for it not being any more cheating than exercise and diet I find myself disagreeing. No, I'm not saying sweating IS cheating. But sweating is what you do to get rid of what exercise and diet couldn't. It's that part of the body that apparently isn't just out of shape or fat. Hence, you are altering appearance beyond simply getting the horse in its own best condition.
For me personally, I draw the line with revealing vs. changing. Clipping out ears, using number 30 blades on the body, shaving the nose, none of those appeal to me for my own horses but they don't bug me because all you are doing is showing what is underneath the fur. Diet and exercise work to show the bone and muscle structure under the flab. But sweating is artificially making the neck look thinner and tighter than it would ever be on its own. Now if the horse was holding EXCESS water in his neck, like truly had swelling of some sort, then removing it would be returning him to his natural state. But normal water content is the way the horse is built and if I'm using the halter classes to judge who the best of the best is (view one of halter, remember) then I want the one who wins to do so because they naturally had a thinner neck and not because
at that moment his had been sweated to be thinner than the natural horse next to him. I want to breed to the best horse, not the best turnout job.
I mean, how did we go from what I would pretty much call a "thick neck breed" to these thin necked horses without human intervention....... I know some of you have thinner necked horses naturally but I have a hard time believing so many horses acquired this look in such a short time......So tell me, how can I and other buyers tell "what you see is what you get" ?
Easy. Ban neck sweating so that you KNOW that what you see is what you get! That's my point and my only problem with sweating. How are we supposed to know which horses have natural nice necks so we can breed this trait into the next generation if we never see them with a natural neck?
Please remember this is just my opinion. I can see how an owner would want to sweat the neck of her stallion if it's the only thing keeping him from winning! I get it, I really do. But taking that long-run view of the breed it's not a good thing in the end. It does no harm to the individual but no help to the breeding industry in encouraging people to choose the best natural horse.
Respectfully,
Leia
