Cleaning horses' bits - no, not those kind of 'bits'

Ive been told that you should clean geding's "bits". However, I've only heard it from one person. Also, in germany we never cleaned the gelding's "bits" and everything was fine.
Fairly recently, I bought my horse, Louie. Now im not so sure whether I should clean his "bits".

Well because I work part time as a groom/trainer now its part of the job. Although there is NO special attention played, just if one of the geldings has it hanging out, and it has dead skin 'crusty's' I go in there and pick it all off... I havnt had a gelding kick me yet... so they must enjoy it LOL ahhh that's nasty haha.

The mares don't get any sort of attention with their bits... unless, ofcourse they are in foal.

My vet and trainer clean my horses when they feel it is necesary.

Hal get's done probably about once a year, he's a very clean boy. LOL. But yeah, I pay my coach $50 to do it, and it's well worth it. He's pretty good about it. But sometimes she'll do it right after he's had some vet work done and is slightly dopey.

I make my friend clean it I can't pull myslef to do it

All the geldings I have had have all received a regular cleaning. I hate doing it but I also know how uncomfortable the poor boys can be if it's not done. That accompanied with the risk of infection etc...

The tricky part is going to be to teach my yearling to get cleaned down there

I never knew you had to clean the mares. I have two that are having foals in April, should I clean them and with what? From what I've read here I could use just some wipes. Is this correct?
Thanks-satrider

I clean my horse's shlong whenever its obviously dirty, otherwise I just give it a quick wipe down with a warm wet rag once every about 2 months, but my horse stays pretty clean in his manly bits. So I giving it a nice thorough wipe with that rag, keeps him nice and clean. . .speaking of which I need to do that this weekend

P.S. Dumas Girl...
I spent like 5 minutes drying to squish that darn bug in ur avatar...i feel like a dunce =P

I tend to pick the crusty bits off whenever Evo is relaxed and pulls it out lol. I only get in there with a glove and clean it when I feel it's neccesary... Evo doesn't seem to mind much.
My mares are pretty clean but usually I clean their udders when I'm washing them... if I notice anything I clean them then too.
x