Donkey Education

In the midst of the marshmallow-soft skin are scattered, course hairs, called vibrissae, or tactile hairs. These whiskers are a result of millions of years of evolution to help horses sense their environment.

They’re HAIRS, not sensory organs. If they were truly connected to nerve endings, it would be painful to cut them.

They’re used much like a cat’s whiskers for spacial placing, but it’s simply not true it hurts, makes horses eat toxic plants, or causes mental distress to cut them off.

Cutting those hairs can lead to injuries as a result of horses failing to avoid obstacles near their faces. Because horse’s eyes are set on the side of their heads. they have a blind spot in front of and right under their noses. So, their whiskers act as a sort of “third eye” helping them to negotiate objects close to their noses, such as food, water and the ground, avoiding injury and making sure they don’t eat the wrong thing.

Select Why We Should Not Clip The Whiskers

Here on the Donkey Whisperer Farm we do not show, we let our donkeys lose their beautiful fur coat when they are ready. I give each of my donkeys a crew cut and that’s it. I wait until we are in the 60’s in the Pacific Northwest, WA.

Please understand if you trim to soon and it is cold your donkey will need blankets, and the insects will make them bleed. The donkey is very smart, we choose to let them loose their fur coat when ready. We never trim the whiskers ever on our donkeys or horses.