Cushing's Disease and Body Clipping

With the arrival of fall my schedule starts to book up quickly with body clipping appointments. Most of the horses are those that will be working through the winter or who are shipping down south for the winter (lucky horses!) but I also get quite a few horses who simply have too much hair as a result of being diagnosed with Cushing's Disease. If you've heard of Cushing's but don't quite understand the disease itself, or why it causes the horse to grow an excessively thick coat that they have a hard time shedding, I suggest you check out this article from the American Association of Equine Practitioners. Mostly I do these body clippings in the spring but sometimes an owner has found that their horse, who has been showing signs all summer but has been manageable, has suddenly decided that since fall has arrived he needs to sport a 4 inch thick fur coat even though some days see the temperatures still hitting 70+ degrees. Working a horse with a coat like that in fluctuating weather like we see here during fall in New England is not exactly healthy for the horse....imagine having a thick fur coat and going for a 3 mile hike/walk/jog on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the fall when the weather is 68 & sunny but that night the temp is going to drop to a brisk 42. Can you say hot sweaty mess?! But the issue isn't that the horse gets hot it's that a coat that thick takes forever to dry out and if not completely dry all the way down to the skin when the chilly night air hits you could be looking at bigger health concerns. That's where I come in, with my trusty Double K clippers, multiple sets of #10 blades, and a full can of Kool Lube that thing currently looking more like a Woolly Mammoth can look sleek & ready to hit the show ring in just a couple hours. Is clipping your Cushing's horse necessary? That depends on several factors: what time of year is it, are you planning on riding through the winter, does he/she work up a sweat easily, and do you have proper blankets to compensate for the new 'do? My general rule of thumb is that if you plan on working your horse 3 or more times a week during the winter months and those workouts will cause your mount to get sweaty then YES a body clip is needed (be prepared with blanketing options - a light weight for warmer fall days, a mid weight for mild winter weather, and a heavy for turnout & those days where the temp never goes above 32). But let's say you stop riding for the year around late October/early November and don't plan on riding again until the ground has thawed completely and mud season is in full swing then NO a full body clip for your Cushing's horse is not needed right now. I do recommend a full body clip mid to late spring for all Cushing's horses as going into summer while still wearing a full winter coat has got to be the most miserable feeling plus it's often hard to see/feel what is going on under all that hair....even the most diligent owners have found that over the winter/spring thaw their horse has developed scratches/mud fever under the thick hair covering the lower legs or that the horse has gained more weight than it appeared over the winter because the hair coat was so thick & fluffy you couldn't really tell if it was fat or fluff. Here are some examples of Cushing's clients before & after their clips!

Wasabi before: