The sheath is a tube of skin that protects the horse’s penis. Smegma or a lubricating secretion fills the inside of the horse’s sheath. In the wild, a horse would work out this lubrication naturally through sex, but in a domesticated setting, this secretion tends to build up, forming pockets of smegma and “beans” within the horse’s sheath.
Not every horse has this problem, nor is there a consensus on whether or not a sheath should be cleaned. But I've personally found beans as large as a blistex container and smegma as sharp as a blade.
Normally, I recommend cleaning be done at least every 6 months for a gelding (a castrated male horse) and every year for a stallion (an uncastrated male horse).
The sheath is normally a healthy bacterial environment, it however can sometimes become unbalanced, and the sheath can build up smegma that is foul smelling, greasy and leave build up leaking onto the inside of the hind legs. So normally that's the first thing that people notice, either the smell or the smegma on the legs of their horse.
Beans on the other hand, are slippery little suckers. They hide out in the Urethral Fossa, a tiny little cavity that sits above the urethra. Beans can cause pressure on the Urethra, restricting the flow of urine and can be very irritating.
So that's where I come in, I come to you, clean the sheath and remove any beans that have built up.