I am pretty sure there is no way to prevent a bean from forming. Some horses develop beans much more than others; I think it is just like how some *people* are sweatier/greasier/dandruffier than others. Sorry.
That said, I would not sweat it about the bean (which can indeed be quite annoying and troublesome to try to remove in some cases -- both to you and to the horse!) IF it is very small. Once it gets to, well, "bean" sized it probably should come out and if it's larger than a kidney bean then *for sure* it should be removed.
I hesitate to say this but since it's already in a short piece that has been crossposted all across the internet for the past decade or so I guess I will
-- I had a little orange horse once who had a significant bean that kept slithering away from my fingertip, and he was not a well-endowed little horse so there was not much room to maneuver. I finally just *squeezed* (from outside, not internally) it *popped* out. Both Orange and I were rather surprised at this, for different reasons of course, and I have not done it again -- but if you are getting really frustrated with a large bean and feel the particular horse in question is not likely to kill ya, well, it worked (that once) for me
Excalibur sheath cleaning gel is DA BOMB for getting the smell off your hands. (Gloves make me too clumsy). In fact I use more of it for *that* than when actually CLEANING sheaths
Pat
