Barefoot do you trim or not ?

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lurcherlu

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Just interested if your horse is bf do you have regular trims by farrier / trimmer or is your horse self trimming and what kind of work /miles / hours / surfaces do you do ? Also what breed of horses have u got bf ?

Il start I have a Welsh x appy , ridden out hacking for hour and half 4 times a week , road work broken up with flinty bridleways , may school once a week . And a sj comp or hunting once a month .In summer in work every day and will hack up to 15 miles a time . Competing most weekends . Can canter over Flint etc . I normally only need the farrier to run a rasp over her feet at beginning of each spring as she's not done enough work to self trim entirely over winter . One not so helpful livery got her in and got the farrier to trim her feet at beginning of winter as she's had a flare on her back leg due to a hip injury and her compensating for it , it was growing out lovely by itself but she of the school of thought everything ridden everyday needs shoes or trims every 6 weeks . Poor horse was so foot sore for weeks I ended up having to only use the school for a while and her frogs had been cut :o(
 
Both our barefooters get trimmed every 6 week.
They are in simular work as yours but it works best for us when to trimmer does them at that interval. I do notice it if for what ever reason we go longer then 6 weeks!
 
I have an ISH and cob x appy, both barefoot and trimmed every 8 weeks but really just rasped round the edges to tidy up as not doing enough work. ISH is only doing minimal work due to having nowhere to ride, so just little 20 minute schooling sessions when I can hire somewhere every few weeks, and cob x appy is in the process of being backed so also not doing a lot.

In the summer when in work I tend to leave it longer though
 
trimmer comes every 8 weeks or so.
I rasp every couple of weeks. He does quite a lot of mileage, including roads on them but they grow too quick to self trim/he is better with little and often as is sensitive if you take too much off in one go.

I would have been apoplectic at your helpful livery!
 
Farrier comes every 8 weeks as one of my horses is shod. Checks over my bf mare and runs a rasp round occasionally but usually very little needs to be done. She has flares on both fronts as she has offset knees and her wonky feet make up for these :)

In winter her workload is very very low (hacking once a week, maybe the odd lunge/ schooling session) but her rate of growth slows down anyway so farrier doesn't need to take a lot off. She does more work in summer and pretty much self trims. Oh and she's a 5 year old ID :)
 
every 8-12 weeks, my Arab's hooves grow quickly and he hates them to be long and works better short with a mustang roll
the PRE has weird shaped hooves, sort of oblong, never seen hooves like it but after a long battle with them he just needs minimum trimming and goes on anything ( i am really pleased with him and us as he went from a horse that no farrier could get near to one that falls asleep now)
it seems to be one of those things that varies with each horse and work load, i don't do a lot of road work so i can't quite get to that self trim stage.
 
I have four horses and they are trimmed every four weeks. Some need more than others. Even when <=== he was in full endurance training for 160 km rides, we still trimmed. Mine just don't get enough work on abrasive ground and the more work they get, the faster they grow.
 
I think it depends on the type of ground more than the amount of work. Mine are all self trimming when in work, we do a lot of road work, their feet look absolutely brilliant. Vet commented on one the other day saying they were looking "extremely smart". I rasp them myself if needed but only occasionally.
 
Another self trimmer, in summer we hack every second day, and to use the school we need to walk a mile on the road, in winter he is on an all weather paddock with a relatively hard surface which seems to be quite abrasive as even if we can't hack out for weeks, his feet don't need any trimming..... I will occasionally run a rasp round, but only to smooth any rough edges, frog and sole don't get touched
 
Ours are trimmed every 8 weeks and wear boots when on roads. Ours have excellent feet but I would never not have them trimmed, makes sure they are balanced.
 
Don't remember the last time mine saw a farrier. He self trims all year round and seems to adapt to work load pretty quickly. I tidy them when needed but it's not often.
 
Mine hasn't had a trimmer or farrier for 2+ years. I could never really find the right trimmer. I did find a nice equine podiatrist but noticed my horse was always worse after trimming. I aim for minimum of 10 miles a week roadwork and he's been great ever since. Hooves look good too.
 
I'd like to learn to trim, but I haven't had time. Both mine and my mother's horses are all barefoot and have been for years, and we get them done every 6-9 weeks depending on the season. All Arab and QH (or crosses of the same). Not riding right now, but when I was we would regularly go up into the mountains on old logging roads (rock), mud and hard dirt for up to 6 hours at a time but I have no idea what the miles were. My older mare had issues with her feet that started the whole barefoot thing for me so she always rode in EasyBoots, but none of our other horses do and all of their riding now is hard dirt, rock, and roads.

It's done wonders for my Arab mare who has that high/low conformation that can be so common and with my mother's ex-reiner QH who had some very serious discomfort and lameness issues.
 
It is almost exactly a year since one of ours (Hanovarian X) had her shoes removed at the end of the hunting season, farrier just removed shoes and tidied, she has not been touched since, she is not ridden as she is now in foal, but is on grass 12/24, tarmac 12/24 in the summer and tarmac 24/7 in the winter, she is sound and her hooves look like they were trimmed yesterday, no flares, or even chips, tight white line, nice fat frogs.........farrier just looks when she comes to do the others (every sixish weeks).
 
My mare has around 2 or 3 trims a year, its bliss that she almost self trims them perfectly. My farrier always comments on how good her feet are, and actually advised not to shoe her as I would be wasting my money. She is my first barefoot horse, so it was a little knew to me
 
Mine are regularly trimmed every 6-8 weeks sometimes every 5 weeks in summer. They tend to get sore or start with problems if left for longer do won't dream of leaving them for months without being looked. Not only that once the farrier has been l love the shape of a well trimmed hoof. By having regular foot beauty treatment my farrier can tell if there are any hoof problems developing which you may miss if they are not having regular attention.
 
Yes your farrier is qualified to spot problems etc with feet , but I know my mares feet well enough to notice anything different when picking her feet out and straight away of something's up I notice when riding / leading her . A foot that looks pretty isn't my priority a horse with natural balance and the ability to balance herself and compensate for any conformational defects is . Pretty hooves aren't necessarily balanced hooves ime
 
Mine never need trimming {3} 1 gets worked on the roads, the other 2 dont, i have a concrete yard for them to come in off the field so that must trim them down.
 
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