Barefoot people - how many self-trim?

sugarpuff said:
Those of you that tidy up your horses feet, what do you use & where do you get it from? My youngster is currently not in work & barefoot & trimmed by farrier as he does no road work to speak of yet. I want to keep him bare foot (hairy coloured cob) but just wondered what others use to keep feet tidy. My other horse is shod & have v recently started using a new farrier (who's amazing) for him, he's not yet seen the youngster but I will be getting him to have a look at his feet on his next visit in any case.
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I just use a normal farriers rasp from eBay. The riders rasp seems quite popular on recent thread about it but probably for very minimal work needed, more Emory board than heavy duty rasp by the sounds of what folk said.
 
TheoryX1 said:
Looks like I am in the minority as I dont go there, and dont intend to go there either. I dont know enough about it, dont have experience and dont want to damage my horse. He has just gone properly barefoot all round and we are still experiencing the slightly footy stage. Have been recommended to have a tidy up every 12 weeks or so, or whenever he needs it. As most of the yard is in fact barefoot, I do get a lot of assistance.

I would add as well that none of them follow 'a barefoot diet'. All of them get good grass, hay and a bit of feed as and when. Mine is the exception to the rule with supplements (glucosamine and devils claw), but then again he is nearly 21!

Each to their own, and if you do it, and it works for you then fine.
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If your horses are still footie from recent shoe removal, you may well yet find that a diet change is necessary for them to lose that footiness.






I trim my own and have for eight years now. My hunter only needs trimming in summer when his workload reduces. My dressage horse self trims with a bit of roadwork and I tidy up.
 
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For those asking what equipment do you need/ use, I just have a wire brush from a hardware store for cleaning the foot before hand and a regular farriers rasp which you can get from horse shops and catalogues, I also use a mini cones for a hoof stand.
 
sheepdog said:
My cob does up to 3 hours road work daily. She is trimmed by an ep every 9 weeks. However, the bars of her hooves do not wear down and my ep always needs to pair these down. For this reason I won't trim myself because I don't have a 'good eye' for this type of work. Just to add, she's never been shod, never lame and has the toughest feet on my ep's books.
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3 HOURS road work a day?! You are going to damage his joints at that rate. No matter what people say about the frog acting as a shock absorber, that is a very long time to be pounding around on tarmac.
 
Darremi said:
3 HOURS road work a day?! You are going to damage his joints at that rate. No matter what people say about the frog acting as a shock absorber, that is a very long time to be pounding around on tarmac.
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An unshod horse with a heel first footfall and healthy hooves will not have anywhere near the concussion levels needed to jar the joints to that extent.

There are some really good super slow mo vids on youtube showing concussion on various shod and unshod horses. Heelfirst also linked to an interesting site the other day (possibly his own site) talking about the how the ideal footfall to absorb concussion differs between shod and unshod horses.
 
Darremi said:
3 HOURS road work a day?! You are going to damage his joints at that rate. No matter what people say about the frog acting as a shock absorber, that is a very long time to be pounding around on tarmac.
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3 hours roadwork could be in walk, not what I regard as "pounding around" especially with the soft gentle sound of barehooves. :)
 
Does anybody use a Riders Rasp? I saw the recent thread about them and there were varying opinions. I'm considering getting one to keep my minis feet tidier between trims by the farrier but I don't want to buy one if they're useless. Not sure i trust myself with a proper rasp on their teeny hooves!
 
My trimmer asked me to maintain a good bevel on my new mares hooves as her toes are so long. So I'm very proud to now be in posession of my very own rasp :) (I've been maintaining bars and removing flappy bits of frog for a while)

My old boy was mainly self trimming, but I still got my farrier to have a look every 6-8 weeks, just to keep an eye on the balance.
 
Faracat said:
An unshod horse with a heel first footfall and healthy hooves will not have anywhere near the concussion levels needed to jar the joints to that extent.

There are some really good super slow mo vids on youtube showing concussion on various shod and unshod horses. Heelfirst also linked to an interesting site the other day (possibly his own site) talking about the how the ideal footfall to absorb concussion differs between shod and unshod horses.
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A human being who runs around barefoot or with trainers would suffer joint problems with 3 hours on tarmac per day, no matter how much better unshod is that shod there is no way joints can cope with 3 hours per day.
 
Darremi I will clarify. My cob works on a variety of surfaces, not all tarmac. She is coping very well with her workload. Her shod cob field mate has djd in her coffin joints and had to retire age 15.
 
Darremi said:
A human being who runs around barefoot or with trainers would suffer joint problems with 3 hours on tarmac per day, no matter how much better unshod is that shod there is no way joints can cope with 3 hours per day.
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Tell that to the Houston (for one, there are others as well) Police whose horses spend much longer on their beats barefoot and bitless.....sometimes they use boots if there are likely to be problems such as broken glass......and they have been doing this for over 10 years now!!
 
Darremi said:
A human being who runs around barefoot or with trainers would suffer joint problems with 3 hours on tarmac per day, no matter how much better unshod is that shod there is no way joints can cope with 3 hours per day.
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endurance horses??? police horses???
 
I have a friend who runs marathons barefoot, how is he not always injured ? Because unlike horses humans aren't meant to land heel first, he lands on the balls of his feet for minimum stress on his legs.
 
Darremi said:
A human being who runs around barefoot or with trainers would suffer joint problems with 3 hours on tarmac per day, no matter how much better unshod is that shod there is no way joints can cope with 3 hours per day.
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Can you show me the source of your scientific evidence that you are using to back up your wish to tell other people how to manage their horses? In the riding school I learnt to ride at back in the early seventies, we had nothing but roadwork and canter/gallop on stone tracks. The horses worked four hours a day six days a week and I cannot ever recall one even being lame.

I suspect far more damage is being done these days by riding around in endless circles in arenas.
 
My lad is bare behind (fronts off one day I hope!) so is seen by the farrier every 6 weeks anyway - he trims and checks the backs when he shoes the front end.

I did get a Riders Rasp for keeping edges tidy between farrier visits, but it seems like a lot of effort...

Interested people use regular rasps - do they come in different types/sharpness? Never really looked at the proper ones but think I could do with one! He seems to wear much more evenly just after farrier until bevel grows out... What do people use to prop hooves up on though?
 
I prop the hoof up on my knee. Does require equine co-operation, and I tend to rasp the knees out of my jeans occasionally.

Unless I'm the clumsiest person here, you can probably tell those who self-trim by the state of their trousers and the rasp-wounds to their thumbs...
 
Most rasps I've seen in the shops look the same, an aggressive side and turn it over for the smoother side. I am using my knees to prop the feet but I'm going to start using a small traffic cone.
 
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