Barefoot trimmers

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amzy

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Would you use a Barefoot trimmer or just get your farrier to take off the shoes and trim when necessary if you decided to try your horse barefoot? Personally, a few years ago I just used my farrier but some liveries have recently been using a barefoot trimmer and I just wondered what the difference is.
 
Farrier. Anyone can call themselves a barefoot trimmer, as they can a horse dentist. Farriers are regulated, trimmers are not. Farriers might not answer the phone, make rude comments, demand tea and turn up an hour late but at least they have had a lengthy training and you have the back up of the registration council if you have a problem.
 
i am startin trainin to become a barefoot trimmer,and maybe i dont have to do all the trainin that a farrier does but that dosnt mean i wont b fully trained on how to trim properly! why does everyone seem to b so against barefoot trimmers?
 
Maybe because there are some truly awful ones out there
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Farriers do a four year apprenticeship for a reason.... there is no way that a quick course replaces the wealth of knowledge that a farrier holds.

Sorry, maybe just my opinion..... but farrier every time.
 
I have nothing against 'barefoot trimmers' who are trained and regulated.
It depends on each individual. Some farriers are crap, some are good. Some 'barefoot trimmers' are crap, some are good.
Research your trimmer and their particular schooling, there are many, very different schools of 'barefoot trimming'.
 
i understand that but also with all the training farriers do have there is also a lot of bad ones out there.my old farrier trimmed far too much off my tb who had been barefoot for a yr makin him lame therefore i had to put front shoes on,and then for the nxt 3 shoeings he was left lame so i had to change farrier. my point bein that 4 yrs apprentiship dosnt mean your any good at wot you do
 
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Farrier. Anyone can call themselves a barefoot trimmer, as they can a horse dentist. Farriers are regulated, trimmers are not.

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completely agree. people can go on weekend courses to learn how to trim a foot and call themselves a barefoot trimmer and go out doing it as a business. you could go on a weekend course and do it. but i dont think it would be a good as job as a farrier would do. a farrier with DIP WCF infront of their name.
 
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i understand that but also with all the training farriers do have there is also a lot of bad ones out there.my old farrier trimmed far too much off my tb who had been barefoot for a yr makin him lame therefore i had to put front shoes on,and then for the nxt 3 shoeings he was left lame so i had to change farrier. my point bein that 4 yrs apprentiship dosnt mean your any good at wot you do

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Your right, it doesnt. However, it means you have more of a clue than someone who woke up one day and decided to call themselves a barefoot trimmer. As with dentists and back people there are some who take it upon themselves to train properly and want to be professional and do a good job. Unfortunately there are far more who give themselves a few letters after their name to confuse people into thinking they are qualified. I personally would not risk my horse on someone who either has no training or who has done a course lasting a few weeks. A few weeks training does not give you sufficient knowledge to perform procedures such as trimming feet or manipulating muscles.
 
well that is true,tho i dont plan to learn in a wkend,but havin letters in front of ur name dosnt mean you know wot ur on about either,as brightsyde said there is good and bad in all professions!
 
i will b takin longer than a few wks to train as my 1st trim will b on my daughters pony so believe me i intend to learn all i can b4 i get tools to her pony! its not lightly that im doin this,but i was offered the chance to learn alongside my farrier and wether i just use my knowledge that i learn for my own horses it was an oppertunity i couldnt turn down
 
I use the same trimmer tegoz_marianos does (hi there! Did you ever catch the brat this morning??), and she is fantastic. But I think because it's not as regulated, you need to do your research more carefully when choosing one.
 
I would never let anyone other than a properly trained and qualified farrier near my horses feet. They train for 4 years for a reason and would never trust anyone who has trained for a few weeks or months. As the old saying goes 'no foot, no horse'. Why take the risk.
I agree that there is good or bad in any sphere of life, but my farrier is wonderful.
 
Farriers lean how to put a metal shoe on a horse's foot, as well as lots of other things.

A barefoot trimmer will lean how the hoof works and functions, grows and how the correct management and diet affect the foot, and how to trim the foot so it can work without shoes. The days of doing a weekend course and calling yourself a trimmer are over, all the well-established trimmers realise this - the ones following K c La Pierre or Pete Ramey.
They have an extensive training period, both practical and written.
The bad name of trimmers came from one particular "school" of trimming, which should never have been practiced by anyone other than a vet.

I have used both - and my horse's feet were never better than when trimmed by a barefoot trimmer. I currently use a "barefoot friendly" farrier who still managed to make my horse sore last time he was trimmed (he will be shod for the summer shows next time). He is OK now. Any barefoot trimmer I used NEVER made my horse sore.
How many farriers look at the horse walking and trotting before and after a trim? Both my trimmers did (do).

I went on a weekend (theory only) course where there were a few farriers in the audience. The farrier said that it is just natural for them to pick up a horse's foot and trim the sole. A trimmer will hardly touch the sole and hardly take any hoof wall, just enough to adjust the angle that the hoof is growing. A farrier often does "a good trim" so the pony doesn't need doing for 8 weeks, put it wouldn't be able to go out and work.

There are some excellent farriers, there are also farriers that have had years of training, yet still manage to make a mess of a horse's foot and affect their long term soundness.

A lot of horses and owners come to a barefoot trimmer as a last resort because the shoes won't stay on, or the horse had terrible foot problems. Some of the success stories are amazing.
 
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havin letters in front of ur name dosnt mean you know wot ur on about

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However, it does mean however you have passed a three hour theory exam which includes anatomy / shoeing theory and vet conditions, a shoemaking and shoeing practical and had the vet question you for 1/2 hour. And passed.
And by the way, the letters are AFTER your name!!!!!!
Farriers are registered for a reason. They are good at what they do.
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I use a trimmer and both my horses unshod! I don't have anything against farriers and if I needed one I use a regular one for other horses. Infact a farrier is trimming one of my boys this evening as a favour because the barefoot trimmer only comes every set amount of weeks.
From my experiance they are both good at what they do - and if they wasn't I would be worried as this is what they are both trained to do. I know they don't have the same training but they both train to do a good job. If either of them were bad at their job they would lose customers, be out of work and therefore no longer do it.
Everyone has their own opinions, their both fab - just in their own ways!
 
My EP went out to Florida and trained with K C La Pierre and she is excellent at what she does, my DWB has transitioned extremely well to barefoot from having appalling feet in shoes. When I was up in Sussex I used to use Trevor Jones EP who was again extremely good and put right the damage a farrier had done.

I believe there are good and bad in every profession and it's up to us as responsible horse owners to do the research to find the good ones and not just blindly trust anyone with our precious animals.
 
I think Cluny has the right of it. It's natural for people to be suspicious of barefoot trimmers at first, because like any fairly new specialisation, it will take some time before the profession is well-regulated. Until then, it's incumbent on the horse owners to do their research. Please remember, though, that there also was a time in the more-or-less long-distant past when farriers weren't accredited either---or doctors, or riding instructors.
 
I use a farrier for one of my horses and a trimmer for my other one. I can understand why people have the opinions that they do about trimmers, i too was and am very wary about who i let near my horse. I did my research before using my trimmer. But sometimes when you have no other options open to you you have to research and take a step in a different direction. I chose to move from a farrier to a trimmer because my farrier couldn't do anything more to help my horse. So it was either retire her (at 9?), put her down or try barefoot trimming. I stand by my decision 100% even if it was a foreign way of thinking for me. It's only been 6 months since trimming began, things look positive so we'll see. Life changes, things are never certain
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Farrier. Anyone can call themselves a barefoot trimmer, as they can a horse dentist. Farriers are regulated, trimmers are not.

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completely agree. people can go on weekend courses to learn how to trim a foot and call themselves a barefoot trimmer and go out doing it as a business. you could go on a weekend course and do it. but i dont think it would be a good as job as a farrier would do. a farrier with DIP WCF infront of their name.

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Please could you tell me where you got this info? I know of no weekend courses which qualify you in any discipline of 'barefoot trimming'. The shortest course I know of is three days, but this is designed to introduce horse-owners into the world of keeping a barefoot horse. It does not and never has, suggested that these owners are qualified to go out, assess and trim other people's horses. Perhaps I'm out of touch, though, so wait to be corrected!

BTW, regulations are tightening on trimmers, hence the AAEPUK and similar organisations, which make Continuous Professional Development compulsory as a condition of remaining a member.

My farrier told me a couple of weeks ago that they are now introducing CPD for farriers, with the aim of making this compulsory in order to remain on the register. Ahead of the game, he's already started accumulating his credits.
 
my farrier told me. the idea of it is that people learn to care for there own horse as you say.but many people go on it and do it for money. some people dont even go on it and claim they have to experience to do it. my farrier explained to me that he applied for one of these courses to see exactly what they were teaching but when they found out he was a farrier they turned him down. dont know wether they have something to hide, i dont know.
 
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...my farrier explained to me that he applied for one of these courses to see exactly what they were teaching but when they found out he was a farrier they turned him down. dont know wether they have something to hide, i dont know.

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In that case it can't have been a Kc LaPierre course as they are attracting an increasing number of farriers to their courses in the UK and they couldn't be happier to do so. I know this as my EP who I saw today told me so, and he runs the UK courses. He is anticipating a big change in hoof care over the next few years as more and more farriers are open enough to explore this method which has naturally aroused suspicion in its early stages as anything new does. However there are now enough examples of horses who have been helped by this method (including mine celebrating 3 years since she was due to be PTS for navicular) that it is becoming harder to discredit it.

KC LaPierre is a farrier himself.
 
I would not recommend using a barefoot trimmer all they have to do is a few short courses and as a professional could be insulted that farriers are bashed for our lack of knowledge and understanding on how the hoof works. This is not true as we do indepth study of the hoof and leg anatomy and its mechanics following a course of action is best for each horse as an individual.

we do a five year apprenticeship for a reason and charge a lot less if you do wish your horse to go barefoot

(personally i recommend that horses stay barefoot for as long as possible)
 
You couldn't pay me to use a barefoot trimmer.
I've seen some terrible sights, and there is no comeback whatsever.
This is what a KC trained trimmer did to a horse. He learned to nail the cytek shoe on in America. He was operating under KC's qualifications.

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The owner had had trouble finding a farrier as her's had broken his leg and somebody gave her the number of this person.
He gave her all the spiel about feeding her horse properly (she already was) and said he had to do this to help the feet. She questioned about it being nailed through the sole and he told her it wasn't. But it was. The horse went horrifically lame, and the BT would't even come back to take the shoes off.
She managed to find a farrier to come and remove the shoes after another week. He was horrified, understandably.
The horse was crippled and took months to recover.

On her behalf I phoned KC as this was one in a long line of butchered efforts this BT had done.
KC didn't want to know, despite photographs and a written testimonial from the girl. He said he was a 'university', and not responsible for his 'students' when they went out into the world.
And recently, another bt was contacted about this, but apparently they wouldn't be interested unless there were actual photographs of him nailing the shoe on.

So you see, this butcher is continuing on his merry way because there are no ways to stop him. And that is the case for all trimmers.
 
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