I got my first horse Berdi last March. I had a hard time finding a farrier that would come out for just one horse, but I finally found someone that actually is almost 2 hrs away. He gets several clients in this area and does them all at the same time. Berdi's feet were in bad shape when I got her so it was good he was able to come out quickly and trim them up. She seemed pretty good all summer and was trimmed at 10-12 week intervals. He wasn't able to come out sooner than that and her hooves seemed fine as they are very tough.
Her last two trims though I have been noticing that she is really wearing down her toe while the rest of her hoof grows long. Here is a picture of her hooves before her last trim. They were very long, but her toe was worn right down.
My worry is that she is showing the signs of toe first landing. First I can see she's doing it, she stumbles fairly often at the walk (is much better at the trot and canter) and her toe is worn right down. The sole is touching the ground and she is ouchy on gravel.
My mom thinks I should learn to do her myself, but I don't know. I can do some rasping for sure, but I really don't know much about trimming. I could ask her previous owner to show me some stuff though, as he always trimmed the horses he owned.
I would like some advice on whether I should attempt to learn to do her feet myself, try to find another farrier (and him possibly do the same thing), or try to talk to my farrier and see if he can do her different? He is very good with her and patient - I just am worried about the balance of her feet. I have to be extra careful with her as she has been prone to navicular before.
The first two pictures are from before her trim and the others are those after her trim.
If you are comfortable with rasping the high spots of the hoof wall and beveling the edges you should able help maintain the hoofs and have the farrier check them for you when he/she is in your area and maybe he/she can give you some advice on how to keep them maintained. Don't cut any of the sole area unless you absolutely need to. Good Luck. Posted via Mobile Device
I've give it a try. The next time you have the ferrier out you can ask him to show you just so that you can maintain them inbetween trims. The biggest thing to watch out for when doing them yourself is to make sure you dont trim too short or you could make her tender.
Also, just forwarning ya, hooves (especially good ones) are tough lol so they're not always as easy to clip through as the ferrier makes it look. It's also really hard on the back, but i learned to do it just in case.
It's a good thing to know.
Luckily there are several ferriers in my area who travel plus my best friend's dad trims & shoes his own horses.
I have one that grows much faster than the rest of my herd, so I rasp him down a bit so he doesn't have to be done any more often than everyone else. I'd say you'd be fine doing that, but I wouldn't recommend actually trimming without a farrier showing you what to do or without taking a class. You could end up doing more damage than good that way.
Thank-you for all your advice! I am nervous about actually doing the clipping as I don't want to hurt her! But I will keep up with the rasping and maybe sometime have the farrier show me about clipping them a little. I'm just worried her heels are too high and she's having problems because of it.
I would never ever trim my own horses feet, but I do use a rider's rasp in between farrier visits to keep them nice and finished for the show pen. It's a handy tool and much less bulky than a traditional rasp.
From the look of your horses feet they dont look to bad, id just take a rasp and take off the length and round off the edges. Dont take any sole or frog off though unless its flaky.
I would personally never practice on a horse unsupervised, if you want to do this, then take a sick day and go out with your farrier for the day and learn how.
What's your thoughts about your farrier putting shoes on your horse?
I would like to keep her barefoot if possible. She was fine all last summer barefoot on gravel for 2+ hours at a time. It has seemed to be the last two trims that I've really noticed the stumbling and soreness on gravel. I would shoe her if absolutely necessary though of course. You think she needs shoes?
Have you changed farrier recently? Id just say they took off more sole than thay needed. If you want her to be able to walk on gravel again you need to leave the sole alone. Give it time to thicken
Yea just next time he trims just tell him to leave the sole and frog unless its flaking off. If he tells you he has to take some off HES WRONG and find a new farrier
Equus Girl,
If you rasp once or twice between farrier visits, you make his work easier. Offer to pay a little more for a lesson in how to rasp inbetween his visits. If you rasp every three to four weeks, you should not need nippers. You will need a real rasp, not a 'rider's rasp'.
Equus Girl,
If you rasp once or twice between farrier visits, you make his work easier. Offer to pay a little more for a lesson in how to rasp inbetween his visits. If you rasp every three to four weeks, you should not need nippers. You will need a real rasp, not a 'rider's rasp'.
EPMhorse, after re-reading, you are right that a rider's rasp wouldn't be enough, just noticed this horse is going 10-12 wks between trims. Mine are done every 4-6 wks and I just use the rider's rasp to keep them cleaned up in between. I wouldn't tolerate a farrier that was okay with trimming only every 12 weeks. Posted via Mobile Device
The only thing I see going on with the hooves in these photos is that they are in need of a trim. The toes are shorter than the rest of the hoof wall because the horse is able to wear them down as he breaks over. So they are getting a self-trim by wearing themselves down. That would not concern me at all- my own horses do it too and are barefoot and sound. Even if the front edge wears into the sole, it has never caused a problem for me, and is really the way I think a horses foot is designed to wear! (It follows the along with the theory of Gene Ovnicek's Natural Balance trimming and shoeing: http://www.hopeforsoundness.com/education/gene/gene.html )
The rest of the hoof wall is in need of a trim, but I don't see anything bad going on there. She looks fine, just overdue for a trim.
I personally don't see why you can't learn to trim them yourself. I took a farrier science course, rode around with a farrier and then shod my own horses for years. I now just trim them and keep them barefoot, and only use Easyboots if needed on rocky trails in the summer.
These are good books to get you started if you want to learn. They are what I learned from when I decided to "go barefoot."
To me, the Rider's Rasp looks like a farce. You can get a real rasp and handle for less than 1/2 of what you would pay for a "rider's rasp" and you can actually get some work done in a quick fashion. I think the rider's rasp is just a marketing gimmic for horse owners who are afraid they will "hurt" their horses with a real rasp. I would spend the money on an education (the books) and then if you decided to trim, get some real farrier tools. One thing I would NOT skimp on is nippers. At good set of nippers is at minimum $80-100. Anything less than that is just junk that you will struggle to cut anything with.
So anyhow, if you want to learn to trim, I say go-for-it! The books (I believe) are well worth the money. And if you have a farrier you can learn from, take them up on it!
Not sure if this has already been said but it looked like your horse is in snow. Often times in winter if a horse is turned out in snow they will dig in the pasture for forage. If it is just on her front hooves I will bet this is more than likely the culprit, she is wearing down her front toes from digging for food in the pasture. Come summer this shouldn't happen any more.
If you are going to rasp please get some pointers from your farrier if you are not careful you can make her uneven. If you want to learn to trim it can be done I took a farrier class in college and loved it, We learned the inner structure of the hoof from the toe all the way to the shoulder and then the whole horse because when you do anything with the hoof it affects the whole horse. That was all in classroom, then we learned how to rasp and trim and use a hoof knife on live horses with close supervision, we learned how to read a horses hoof so we would know how to trim for that specific horse. then we learned how to make shoes from steal bars and how to hot and cold shoe. The scariest part was the nailing on of a shoe because it has to be very precise not to hurt the horse. It was a great experience and I now appreciate my farrier even more but most of all I can tell when he is doing it badly. Unless you can take a class like I did or your farrier has the study books and is willing to take you on as an apprentice or intern I WOULD NOT trim your horses feet yourself.
The pictures show me a very good trim job, I can't say for sure but it looks and sounds to me like you have a very good farrier. I Would talk to your farrier about your concerns and watch her in the pasture, I'll bet you'll catch her digging. If this is the case it should clear it's self up come warmer weather and softer ground, If it gets really bad you may consider shoeing her to prevent her from wearing down her hooves.
I believe she was showing how to rasp down a flare without using nippers. It was just that her demo horse didn't have a flare to show it on. I don't think she does that for regular maintenance.
interesting, I understand the concept but every farrier I have ever known has rasped just a little on the hoof wall to make it look nice and then about 50% of those will put like hoof oil on.
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