How often do you barefooters trim?

eight weekly, I also round off in between. My farrier is 5mins away tho', and can come straight away if I have any problems.
 
I'm interested in this! My mare was last trimmed 8-9 weeks ago and I don't think there is really anything to come off. I'm still trying to work out how often she needs trimming, it's been a bit of a learning curve for me. She was on 6 weeks but was getting very sore after trims.
 
Depends upon the horse and the workload, my TB goes months self trimming, my pony 8 to 10 weeks, but I will tidy edges.
 
6 - 8 weeks by my trimmer.

But if they did more work, they may not need an actual trim. However I would still have them looked at.
 
I find it varies. Some/one four weeks (laminitic) others much less or very infrequent. The farrier (every farrier I've used in fact) always says the Shetlands don't need trimming but they do sometimes imo. :D
 
Six to eight weeks here to but is really self trimming but I feel happier to have him looked at because after years of farrier every five weeks I can't get my brain around having no one to look at them.
Trimmer is trying to encourage me to learn to do chips etc myself not sure I am ready for that,
 
Mine is generally every 8 weeks, farrier checks daughters pony when doing mine but she mostly only needs anything doing every 12 weeks, now she's a bit older & will be doing more roadwork this summer, he reckons she may go longer than that, but will still get them checked to make sure.
 
HashRouge said:
I'm interested in this! My mare was last trimmed 8-9 weeks ago and I don't think there is really anything to come off. I'm still trying to work out how often she needs trimming, it's been a bit of a learning curve for me. She was on 6 weeks but was getting very sore after trims.
Click to expand...

She should never be sore after trimming HR. Your farrier/trimmer took off stuff she needed.

The answer to the original question is - it depends on the horse.

My hunter was not trimmed from August last year to now, because he trims his own feet with the amount of work he does. I will have to trim him while he is laid off, but as soon as he start work again they will self trim.

My dressage horse never used to need trimming. But he used to work on an abrasive surface but now works on a soft one, and hates hacking so I have given up roadwork. It's taken six months for his feet to realise that he's doing less wear, and in that time I have had to trim him every four weeks or so.

I have another dressage horse who is rarely trimmed. An hour's roadwork a week keeps his feet the right length.

My pet Shetland I used to trim once every three months.


The big thing to watch for is ground contact with the frog. Some horses seem to manage fine without the frog in contact with the floor, but in general, the frog should bear weight when the horse is stood on hard flat ground. Dr Bob Bowker's advice is that you should not be able to slide a steel ruler under your horse's frog when it is stood on flat concrete. The only barefoot horses which I have known of which had lameness problems in the back half of the foot (previously usually diagnosed as navicular syndrome but usually actually soft tissue damage) were ones whose frogs had lost contact with the floor.

In an ideal world, everyone would balance the work with the foot growth and never need their horses trimmed. While we wait for that pink pig to fly past, Hash Rouge, you can be content that you seem to have a self-trimmer :)
 
Last edited:
I've just had by 2 barefoot horses trimmed after 4 months & they didn't need a lot doing just a bit of a tidy up.
In the summer thier feet grow a lot quicker so sometimes it needs doing every 6 - 8 weeks
 
My mare gets seen every 10 weeks but rarely needs anything trimming off - just a quick rasp around the edges.
Her back feet haven't been done for about 4 months now as she is self trimming at the moment :D
 
My exmoor lasts about 4- 5 months now she is being ridden and doing road work. Her feet are extremely hardy anyway.
My dressage boy has low heels and his front feet toes tend to get long pretty quickly but his back feet dont ever really grow. He hasnt been barefoot long so we are just experiement atm and his feet are getting used to being without shoes again so I expect it will change over the next few months until they are "normal" again. at the moment he is being trimmed every 6-8 weeks or so when my mare gets her front shoes done.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top