clipping questions

Can anyone tell me about clipping a horse for the show ring. My mare is beautiful but I think alot of people must clip their horses coats because it seems as if she has more hair than most.(downright fuzzy) I ride western and could use all the help I can get. Please help this novice!

Most show horses are kept under lights to keep them from growing hair. These lights trick the horses mind into thinking that it is still spring/summer time which keeps them from growing a winter hair coat. Also, the horses kept under lights are kept blanketed so that they don't get warm and fuzz up.

Hope that this helps...

My english horse gets body clipped but my western horse doesn't- he just get blanketed.

I hear clipping is a big no no in the AQHA world and stick to lights and blanketing. In the h/j world people body clip in the winter.

very rarely are horses body clipped for AQHA shows. You are right, they always stick to lights and blankets. In the AQHA, horses are shown all through the winter and may be shown 3-4 weekends in a row... I would say that would make a decent body clip look hard to accomplish. In the northern states, most training barns are even heated. Barns here and farther south are generally just well insulated and kept closed up during the winter. Horses put off so much body heat that they all stay comfortably warm!