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24,143 Posts
Hi,
There are unfortunately good & bad 'hoof care practitioners' out there, as well as good & bad farriers. It doesn't necessarily follow that all hcp's are the best thing since sliced bread any more than believing all farriers are incompetent & don't understand enough about hoof function. There are also those who charge like wounded bulls & those who don't. I personally charge more for a first trim, because there is generally a lot more work to do, and I spend time going over the horse's management & helping owners understand & work out what might be best for each situation. Thereafter I don't tend to charge more than most farriers(tho it does depend on the horse & situation), because I'm in it for the sake of the horse, and also I think it's unhelpful to my business to make it too expensive, because I want people able to afford to get me back often enough!
I would advise you to first & foremost do your own homework. Learn what principles & guidelines you need to understand to have a good idea of how your horse is being trimmed & what's going on inside. There are also a lot more factors besides trimming that effect the health of hooves, such as diet, environment, exercise, etc. Hopefully this guy has given you a whole lot of info & sources already, to start your learning, but hoofrehab.com is one great, comprehensive site which will start you off on a good wicket.
...And you might even find you'd like to learn & do the work yourself. Hopefully this hcp or another good one you might find will be willing to help you learn. Even if you don't want to do the whole job, learning how to wield a rasp & do 'brush ups' in between proper trims will help your horse and also possibly enable you to stretch trim schedules a little further, to be more affordable. **Of course this is best done with good understnding of the theory as well as lots of hands-on & well supervised help.
There are unfortunately good & bad 'hoof care practitioners' out there, as well as good & bad farriers. It doesn't necessarily follow that all hcp's are the best thing since sliced bread any more than believing all farriers are incompetent & don't understand enough about hoof function. There are also those who charge like wounded bulls & those who don't. I personally charge more for a first trim, because there is generally a lot more work to do, and I spend time going over the horse's management & helping owners understand & work out what might be best for each situation. Thereafter I don't tend to charge more than most farriers(tho it does depend on the horse & situation), because I'm in it for the sake of the horse, and also I think it's unhelpful to my business to make it too expensive, because I want people able to afford to get me back often enough!
I would advise you to first & foremost do your own homework. Learn what principles & guidelines you need to understand to have a good idea of how your horse is being trimmed & what's going on inside. There are also a lot more factors besides trimming that effect the health of hooves, such as diet, environment, exercise, etc. Hopefully this guy has given you a whole lot of info & sources already, to start your learning, but hoofrehab.com is one great, comprehensive site which will start you off on a good wicket.
...And you might even find you'd like to learn & do the work yourself. Hopefully this hcp or another good one you might find will be willing to help you learn. Even if you don't want to do the whole job, learning how to wield a rasp & do 'brush ups' in between proper trims will help your horse and also possibly enable you to stretch trim schedules a little further, to be more affordable. **Of course this is best done with good understnding of the theory as well as lots of hands-on & well supervised help.
