Farrier v barefoof trimmer

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Sandstone1

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Whats the difference between trimmers and farriers? I realise that farriers shoe and trimmers dont but its that the only difference?
Also price wise ive seen that trimmers seem to charge double what farriers do for trimming.
Thanks
 
None of what follows is cast in stone!

There are good trimmers and bad ones.
There are farriers who can trim and farriers who are useless at it. The FRC syllabus STILL does not include trimming working barefoot horses, so it's luck of the draw if you farrier got taught it by his master, by doing CPD, knows bigger all or is just a natural.


Trimmers will tend to know more about feeding for feet and in particular mineral balancing, which can be crucial.

Trimmers will tend to offer more hand holding during the process of a barefoot transition.

Trimmers tend to be more accepting of asymmetric feet, which many horses need to balance legs that aren't quite straight.

Trimmers will encourage you to stick with it for longer, but may also take that too far.

Farriers tend to charge less.
 
If your horse is sound and comfortable I wouldn't change :).

I used a trimmer when my farrier suggested it, now I do them if visiting the pony and the farrier does them if I've not been able to visit for a while.
 
In simple terms a farrier trims a hoof in preparation for a shoe (but obviously just doesnt put one on) whereas a barefoot trimmer trims the hoof more for the balance etc. Well that's my opinion anyway. I have used both, including on the same horse for a few years. Mine are all trimmed by a barefoot trimmer but if Im eventing one of them and feel I need studs then I get a farrier to shoe during eventing season, then back to the barefoot trimmer again. Im very lucky I have an understanding between both parties - of course, the farrier slags off the work the barefoot trimmer has done when he first comes out (why do they do this when the trimmer doesnt!), but they're accepting of why I do it.

As default I always choose barefoot trims nowadays after I had a warmblood with a horrid club foot - the farrier just sort of worked with it when shoeing but once I changed him to a barefoot trimmer, over time the hoof became normal and nothing like as bad as it was before.
 
Just be aware that many farriers trim the sole (part of the preparation for a shoe but some don't seem to be able to not do it). As the interface between hoof and ground, and support for the bony column you want soles as thick and robust as you can get. I asked one farrier not to then watched as he did it on a horse with a history of thin soles. He never came again and I have a very good trimmer now.
Many trimmers give you the whole package - how to feed, exercise, transition, advise re boots etc all for the best hoof your horse can have. Never met a farrier who would do that, you get what you pay for really.
 
JillA said:
Just be aware that many farriers trim the sole (part of the preparation for a shoe but some don't seem to be able to not do it). As the interface between hoof and ground, and support for the bony column you want soles as thick and robust as you can get. I asked one farrier not to then watched as he did it on a horse with a history of thin soles. He never came again and I have a very good trimmer now.
Many trimmers give you the whole package - how to feed, exercise, transition, advise re boots etc all for the best hoof your horse can have. Never met a farrier who would do that, you get what you pay for really.
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In over 40 yrs of keeping horses, admittedly a chain of apprentices from the first one, I have never known a farrier trim a sole, either for a shoe, or not, unless in exceptional circumstances. Neither of our horses has ever worn a shoe and are trimmed by our excellent farrier.
 
My farrier might not do it exactly as I would do (we differ slightly of flare opinons :p) but he is absolutely not preparing the hoof for a shoe, he isn't that dim :p.

If someone is unsure about transitioning or has a horse that is going to need it's hand holding a bit I am all for using a trimmer, but that certainly isn't the scenario here.
 
Over the years we have had various changes of hoof management - some are shoed all round, one is always barefoot, another was either barefoot or shoes on front depending on what he needed. Our farrier never trimmed the soles so unless you see your farrier doing that, don't worry. To be honest, if your horse is happy and you are, I wouldn't bother changing to a trimmer. If you have genuine concerns, give it a go.
 
There is an issue with some trimmers simply not being well qualified. However I use a highly qualified podiatrist who is helping me transition a sensitive tb to barefoot and trim my other 2. I was concerned my farrier always cut short and very quickly so they would even be a bit footy for a few days after. Even though they had great tough feet.
He would charge £30 and be done in 5 minutes. Podiatrist does charge £55 (although number 3 she does for £30) but for that she does a walk and trot up and assessment every time. Has also been great for dietary advise. Usually take nearly 2hours to do all three and written report each time.

However, would not say all farrier are bad at all. Some do a brilliant job with trimming, but some are just far better when only shoes are involved
 
I use a farrier and would never use a trimmer; I worry about the randomness of training, qualification and professional oversight.

My farrier is excellent with barefoot horses, my mare is barefoot because he said she had lovely foot and didn't need shoes. He has huge knowledge of not only foot confirmation but the whole horse and how to trim to ensure optimum comfort and performance. He has saved the life of a horse that had severe laminitis after it's trimmer failed to make the appropriate decisions on it's care - the farrier used state of the art shoeing to support the feet and took the horse back to barefoot when it recovered. He has also brought back into fu7ll soundness two ponies that were repeatedly poorly trimmed into chronic lameness.

I appreciate that there are farriers who are not as good at barefoot as mine but my experience is there are far more inadequate over opinionated barefoot trimmers than there are farriers.
 
apercrumbie said:
Over the years we have had various changes of hoof management - some are shoed all round, one is always barefoot, another was either barefoot or shoes on front depending on what he needed. Our farrier never trimmed the soles so unless you see your farrier doing that, don't worry. To be honest, if your horse is happy and you are, I wouldn't bother changing to a trimmer. If you have genuine concerns, give it a go.
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In over 40 yrs of keeping horses, admittedly a chain of apprentices from the first one, I have never known a farrier trim a sole, either for a shoe, or not, unless in exceptional circumstances. Neither of our horses has ever worn a shoe and are trimmed by our excellent farrier.
Read more at http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/foru...arrier-v-barefoof-trimmer#WEjYtrVOQ5LGdCZd.99




I should have said, "Our current horses have never worn shoes..........". Over the years we have more shod than unshod horses but no farrier has ever trimmed soles routinely.
 
I think you make your choice, pay your money and get what you pay for. I use a farrier and I would only ever use a farrier. He trained long and hard to be what he is and that training is NOT only about shoeing a horse, it was about the structure and about how the horse moves. He has dissected legs and has nearly 30 years of experience in working with horses. mt vet uses my farrier in difficult foot cases. I'm sure that some trimmers know what they are doing but their training simply is not, in my opinion long or strong enough, for me to let them near my horse. These people claim a fully trained farrier doesn't know how to trim a horse for bare foot use, I mean horses have been going barefoot for years, who trimmed them before it became a fad. Some People always take advantage of people by feeding then cock and ball stories about what farriers do and don't do. When my horse was barefoot my farrier was training me to keep his feet under between visits, its not hard. However, I still wanted his expert eye every 12 or so weeks. There are bad farriers , then are good farriers, there are good trimmers and there are people who should not be near horses. I think the most telling thing is those who claim they are better because others are incapable. If you have to prove your worth by running down other professionals you can't be that great in my books.
 
Sukistokes2 said:
I think you make your choice, pay your money and get what you pay for. I use a farrier and I would only ever use a farrier. He trained long and hard to be what he is
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But this is one of those instances where that saying doesn't work, as my farrier charge is about a tenner (and often says that is too much when all he has done is threaten them with a rasp ;) ), trimmer would be about £40.

Whether a trimmer is worth that depends on the trimmer IMO, and while the term is not protected like many things the onus is on the horse owner to check out someone's qualifications, experience and ensure they are happy with their work.
 
ester said:
But this is one of those instances where that saying doesn't work, as my farrier charge is about a tenner (and often says that is too much when all he has done is threaten them with a rasp ;) ), trimmer would be about £40.

Whether a trimmer is worth that depends on the trimmer IMO, and while the term is not protected like many things the onus is on the horse owner to check out someone's qualifications, experience and ensure they are happy with their work.
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Lucky you, my farrier can no longer do Kevin's feet because he leans and its too much for his back. The new farrier I got charged me £35 for a field trim.
 
ester said:
But that is still cheaper than the £40-50 that is usual for a trimmer charge?
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I wonder if trimmers started by charging more than a farrier needs to do because they didn't have as many clients and presumably they have to make it pay enough for them to live on.

Personally, I think it is a load of over-expensive hype, rather similar to feed and rug company marketting, but then I have always used excellent farriers and the only one who wasn't only got to do two shoeings. Then the next apprentice was ready to become self-employed, fortunately.
 
I use a farrier. He’s done our horses for over 22 years and I’ve presented him with some weird and wonderful things over the years.

He very much suggests what is right for the particular animal. I enquired about whether shoes would be better for Diva during the summer and he told me he wouldn’t let me, that she has absolutely fantastic rock crunching feet and she doesn’t need them.
 
They definitely cover a bigger area than most farriers (though my farrier does travel a fair way twice a week to do a racehorse yard, but all in the same place), so I think fuel costs & time spent probably makes a difference. I know a lot of people poo poo the time spent (and I too can trim all 4 in 15 minutes) but I think at times it is helpful/needed it depends what is going on. There is no way my farrier would have travelled to wiltshire to see us when we moved but my trimmer at the time did and it was very helpful to have the continuity as we made the move to more challenging surfaces and I was happy to pay for it.
 
My trimmer studied for years, regularly attends cpd and has done countless dissections. One of the farriers who attends our yard is a remedial farrier and does a fair bit of teaching. Nice bloke, but cheerfully told me that navicular horses could never go without shoes. Complete *******s.
 
Sandstone1 said:
He is sound thankfully. Sorry about spelling mistake in title!
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if it aint broke don't fix it, if his fine with what your doing just carry on

my navicular horse is bare foot trimmed by my farrier who used to shoe him previously which costs £20 he just tidies the foot up no frog cutting and the horse is sound and happy.
 
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Sukistokes2 said:
I think the most telling thing is those who claim they are better because others are incapable. If you have to prove your worth by running down other professionals you can't be that great in my books.
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In my experience this is most common with farriers, I have met some who are quite happy to state that all trimmers are unqualified idiots. I have never had a trimmer critique a farriers work unless they are being specifically asked. The statements about farriers always trimming for a shoe etc are usually made by horse owners who have had bad experiences with farriers, not by trimmers.

My opinion (for what its worth) is that the FRC is unfortunately out-dated, badly run, and protectionist. As a result, the quality of any farrier trained by them is very variable and tends to depend a lot on who they apprentice with and their own CPD. If the FRC did a good job, updated their syllabus and training to reflect new information and research, and concentrated on the quality of their farriers work rather than protecting them from blame at all costs then trimmers wouldn't exist and certainly wouldn't get the level of work they do get.

On the other hand, trimming is a very new profession and is not a protected profession (i.e. anyone can call themselves a trimmer) so you do get enormous variation on the level of training and skill.

Of course there are some qualified farriers who are also qualified trimmers.

I originally used a farrier to take mine barefoot and he was excellent and very open to discussion and experimentation to find what worked for my horse. He wasn't that experienced with working barefoot horses, which he openly acknowledged, but he took the time to do some of his own reading on the subject.

Unfortunately I changed yards and then went through three farriers in quick succession. Two were useless and insisted on cutting off most of his frog, thinning his sole, not rolling the edges and generally confirming all the statements about farriers trims I had previously dismissed. The third wasn't too bad but was rough with my horse and totally uninterested in discussing my horses feet or soundness.

So I switched to a trimmer and she was excellent. Much more expensive but she travelled further, stayed longer, took photos and videos to track changes, and was always available for advice via e-mail etc so I didn't begrudge the extra money.

OP - If your horse is happy and sound then I wouldn't change.
 
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