Should I try to trim her hooves myself? I'm in a dilemma!

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

No, I've only had this one farrier for her since I got her last March. I'll mention to him about not taking off sole like that. Thank-you!

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 he's 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'.

Here is a link to 'how to' videos from Dawn Willoughby, the person that taught me how to trim.
http://4sweetfeet.com/articles/hoof-trimming-videos/

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.
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Ive watched this lady before, and I wouldnt do EVERYTHING she does! For one she rasps the horses hoof wall that's A BIG NO NO

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/educ...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."

Amazon.com: Horse Owners Guide to Natural Hoof...
Amazon.com: Making Natural Hoof Care Work for You...

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 didn't see her rasp the hoof wall..... Even if she did and I didn't catch it why is this a "BIG NO NO"?

I watched her on youtube , and you don't rasp the hoof wall because it makes the wall weak. Ovbiously you can rasp at the botton but one of her videos she was rasping the whole hoof wall