I am still coding a fingerprint image preprocessor on Python. I see in MATLAB there is a special function to remove H breaks and spurs:
bwmorph(a , \'hbreak\
You will have to implement those on your own since they aren't present in OpenCV or skimage as far as I know. However, it should be straightforward to check MATLAB's code on how it works and write your own version in Python/NumPy.
Here is a guide describing in detail NumPy functions exclusively for MATLAB users, with hints on equivalent functions in MATLAB and NumPy: http://wiki.scipy.org/NumPy_for_Matlab_Users