EP or Farrier

[Daisy2]

We have recently gone barefoot, was lame, navicular syndrome la di da. Two weeks without shoes now sound and floating along, cavello hoofboots for hacking....great and so happy without any meds, vet did not have much faith and said to keep him on maintenance bute and if you take off the shoes it will prob make him worse.

I had a barefoot trimmer out who struggled with him, he is very well behaved but a bit lazy when having his feet done so you have to mean business or he will lean on you. Then two days later my farrier came out to do other horse and said barefoot guy was not level, he recommended a guy called Barry Payne to come out and fit hoof boots, lovely guy and he also said he was not level, anyway my question do I stick with my farrier for the barefoot horse for trimming or try another ep, I just dont know the difference really, just worried now that the farrier will take off to much frog etc and may not be sympathetic to his needs. Any advice most appreciated.

 

[quirky]

It sounds like your farrier knows what he's on about. If you trust him, why not give him a try and see how it goes.

In your position, I'd hate to change to an unknown, have a bad time and then have to eat humble pie to get your farrier back.

 

[cptrayes]

Some horses which are lame in shoes actually need feet which do not look level and are not what a farrier would give them. If you want to see some examples of asymmetric feet of this kind look at rockleyfarm.blogspot.com and you can see some extreme examples of horses which were crippled in shoes, given away, and are now regularly hunting barefoot with odd looking feet.

You need someone really experienced with lame horse rehabs to look at your horse and decide if the trim is correct for the horse even though it looks unbalanced to you or your farrier. It may be what your horse needs and if he is sound then you may interefere with that at your peril. Listen to your horse. A sound horse is a sound horse, whether its feet are symmetric or not. This is especially important in a horse that was lame in shoes.

As a VERY rough guide, it is much more important how symmetric your horses feet look from a view looking down on the sole and frog than it is whether they look "balanced" from the outside of the hoof. Your EP's training was to read the sole and trim to that. It is entirely possible that he/she has it absolutely right, but it's just not what your farrier has been taught. His training is that symmetry of the external view of the hoof is important. For some horses, that is not correct and they grow themselves some impressive extensions!

 

[tallyho!]

Fine example of farriers trimming aesthetically. Most farriers are taught "this is what it SHOULD look like" not "this is what the horse needs".