Please give me your opinions on her recent barefoot trim

Seahorseys said:

HIND:

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The left side looks higher than the right at the heel. That's a pretty basic thing that is easy to see if the person trimming is paying attention to what they are doing. I'm not sure I would give the guy another chance if he couldn't see that .

It's hard to tell from pictures but I can tell you that I wouldn't pay $100 for it. That trim looks like nothing special to me. If it were me I would just have a good farrier come out and do a trim. That hoof looks no different than when I am about to put a shoe on except that the toe is rolled and a farrier could do that easily enough.

Jesus! $100 for a trim??? Did he do a strip tease when the trim was done? lol

It's a pretty text-book trim, though I like the quarters trimmed shorter with a bit more wall left everywhere else but the toe.

The true test is, how was your horse? Sound and striding out well? How about 2-3 days later? If your horse goes well, is sound, and no abcesses develop, (and the hooves are properly balanced) then it's a good trim.

I agree that it might be a bit uneven, in the heel and in the toe to 1/4 transition. I personally put more roll on the sides, but I don't know if others do that or not. I wouldn't knock the trimmer really because it is far easier to critique a photo than the foot. Nice feet overall, in my opinion.

I agree that $100 seems very steep though. If that's the going rate for your area, that's the going rate. If it's higher than others, maybe there is a reason. You have to weigh your pocketbook, your horse's health and the options available to you and that's not easy.

I agree that it looks good enough, but the real question is how your mare has improved since? You said that he did the trim specifically to fix imbalances in your horse and that previous trimmers have messed her feet up, so what we are seeing is essentially a work in progress especially because we have no "before pics " to compare to.

If she is moving better than before and standing much more comfortably I say give him a few more trims before you make a decision. It is very very difficult if not impossible to accurately critique pictures of a trim without being there yourself and assessing the horses movement before and after.

So my question is, what do YOU think of it and has your horse improved in your opinion???

Thanks for your critiques. I'm going to buy a book, but with all the texts I'm trying to read right now, It'd be so much easier to find someone I trust 100%. The old farrier never did quite a pronounced roll before. These are not the greatest pictures, I took them while trying to rush out of the barn. She did begin to lengthen her trot earlier today. She has a tendency to start out pretty choppy. I noticed quite a bit more rearranging of her hind feet during the canter though, especially to the right. Not sure what this means. She is just starting to feel comfortable in that gait.