Put myself in a bit of an awkward position this morning!

dressagelove

dressagelove

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I booked for my BF horse to see the trimmer a few weeks ago, and my other shod horse is desperate to be done, and the farrier has squeezed me in this morning, when my trimmer is coming!

My farrier is a complete anti BF fan, and is even telling me this morning why BF trimmer's are useless, hmmmm... this could be an awkward one?! Who to trust?? lol

I was hoping to quiz the trimmer on whether my other horse can go BF, but don't want to ask, when my farrier is around.... :( Feeling very mean on my farrier :(
 
Oops I couldn't understand what was meant as I associated BF with Best Friend. Then I got it and realised you meant BareFoot.

Provided they are both professionals there shouldn't be an issue however if your farrier is wildly anti then I guess it might be interesting. All mine are trimmed by the farrier when he comes out to shoe the shod ones so no problems like that for me.:)
 
Perhaps today isnt the time to discuss your shod horse going bf? a phone call to trimmer beforehand hand may go some way to difuse potentially awkward situation? good luck
 
They'll just have to suck it up. You have every right to use whoever you want as they are your horses! They're meant to be professionals after all.

I'm lucky as my current farrier is very diplomatic and would probably not even raise an eyebrow. Dunno what he'd say once he got home mind you and fortunately he is fairly barefoot minded and does my pair a lovely trim so I don't need a trimmer :) My farrier at home was your stereotypical cheeky chappy and he'd have laughed at me for months for using a trimmer. I'm pretty sure he'd have still been polite to the trimmer though, just me that would have copped it! :D
 
My farrier and trimmer are a bit like puppies when they're on the yard together ... a bit of growling but nothing too serious ... a lot of showing off and bouncing around like doofuses. Luckily they're both excellent at their jobs and professional and I have enough horses on the yard that they couldn't possibly both do them all anyway lol.
 
How do you know which one to trust unless you know the particular farrier and trimmer?

I'm sure they're both good at their job and OP has obviously chosen to use both for a reason.

OP, hopefully they will be professional :-)
 
MissCandy said:
How do you know which one to trust unless you know the particular farrier and trimmer?
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It's quite simple really. Farriers train for several years before they gain their qualification which allows them to treat and shoe a horses feet.

A trimmer trains for 2 minutes (or maybe just reads about how to do it in a book), and needs no qualification........

It's a no brainer.
 
Our farrier shoes one of my horses and barefoot trims the other. He is about the only farrier I know that is willing to earn less money from you and actually say why on earth are you bothering with shoes :P
 
BombayMix said:
Our farrier shoes one of my horses and barefoot trims the other. He is about the only farrier I know that is willing to earn less money from you and actually say why on earth are you bothering with shoes :P
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Our farrier used to shoe our mare and when we had problems with her feet - possible navicular - he firstly worked with the vet with regard to remedial shoeing and when, after consultation with the vet decided to try barefoot/unshod he was very helpful and continues to trim her feet. Our vet has on a couple of occasions complimented him on his shoeing. Apparently it is unusual for vets and farriers to agree so I have been told.
 
BombayMix said:
Our farrier shoes one of my horses and barefoot trims the other. He is about the only farrier I know that is willing to earn less money from you and actually say why on earth are you bothering with shoes :P
Click to expand...

Our farrier used to shoe our mare and when we had problems with her feet - possible navicular - he firstly worked with the vet with regard to remedial shoeing and when, after consultation with the vet decided to try barefoot/unshod he was very helpful and continues to trim her feet. Our vet has on a couple of occasions complimented him on his shoeing and trimming. Apparently it is unusual for vets and farriers to agree so I have been told.
 
amymay said:
It's quite simple really. Farriers train for several years before they gain their qualification which allows them to treat and shoe a horses feet.

A trimmer trains for 2 minutes (or maybe just reads about how to do it in a book), and needs no qualification........

It's a no brainer.
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I'm in Amymay's gang.
 
My ex-farrier was so up himself he used to publicly slag off every other farrier in the area - even his own brother!!

The only bare foot trimmer I know is a qualified farrier who then changed tack.
 
My mare is barefoot and my farrier trims her, it was him that actually suggested she could cope with being barefoot and why did i not give it a try. Everytime he comes i have researched a little more with regards to barefoot and ask him loads of questons, i am also pleased with the answers and explanations he gives me (due to me being such a pain in the backside i always make sure he gets a bottle of Jack Daniels at Christmas lol)

I have known my farrier for 10 years, i trust him completely, upon talking with him about barefoot trimmers, he said there is definatly a place in the industry for them but the worry is the length of time they have trained or not as the case may be worries him for the horses long term health implications.

I know my farrier has had 5 years of training and he is very good at his job, maybe i am lucky to have such a good one.
 
I am lucky to have one of the best remedial farriers going who has had an interest in barefoot techniques, together with a vet who really hoped barefoot would be the next miracle cure and so studied it quite intensively. I have a selection of horses doing different jobs some shod, some not shod. Vet and farrier agree on the treatment for each horse, so I suppose I'm very lucky. Current ratio is 5 unshod to 2 shod, but that can vary through the year.

I too am interested to know what happened on OPs yard this morning.
 
BombayMix said:
Our farrier shoes one of my horses and barefoot trims the other. He is about the only farrier I know that is willing to earn less money from you and actually say why on earth are you bothering with shoes :P
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Mine says this all the time. I think he'd give me a right ticking off if I said I wanted to shoe BH for any reason other than studs. He's great, best farrier I've ever had :)
 
hey y'all, quite impressed I have managed a bit of controversy while Ive been gone!

a full on fight kicked off, farrier was chucking bits of shoe at the trimmer, and the trimmer was lobbing rasping tools at him.... lol, only kidding!!

It went fine actually, it turns out they knew each other anyway, so they were have a catch up chat. It was a bit awkward when it came to them doing a horse each, but we survived!
Im was quite pleased with the job the trimmer did on my BF horse, she did a very thorough job and took much longer about what she was doing, I find when my farrier does it, he is very fast, and although that may just be experience, he doesnt seem to do as tidy job...

I did ask trimmer about my other horse, but only after farrier had gone, and she suggested taking hind shoes off first, which was my thought as well, so it was nice we agreed.
My farrier is still completely anti BF and just keeps telling me I shouldnt be doing it with a TB... so for the moment we will have to agree to disagree and I will continue to use the trimmer...
 
BombayMix said:
Our farrier shoes one of my horses and barefoot trims the other. He is about the only farrier I know that is willing to earn less money from you and actually say why on earth are you bothering with shoes :P
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I'm sorry, but before there were BF trimmers there were .... Farriers!! And they shod or didn't shoe based on owner preference/workload of horse/ground the horse would be worked on etc etc etc.

OH had several which were unshod (the term barefoot gets my goat) depending on which part of his area they were in - half his area was on flint and clay, and half was on sandy soil - you can guess where most of his unshod clients were :)

Most farriers charge nearly as much for a remove as they do for fitting a new set of shoes, because shoes cost nearly nothing (less than a fiver a set + nails) and the value of the farrier's work is with his skill at dressing the foot.

OH says he would be delighted if all horses could go unshod btw :D


I'm with AmyMay ....
 
Rowreach said:
Most farriers charge nearly as much for a remove as they do for fitting a new set of shoes, because shoes cost nearly nothing (less than a fiver a set + nails) and the value of the farrier's work is with his skill at dressing the foot.
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Ha! I wish mine did that... mine is £65 for shoes, and £20 for a trim.....
 
BombayMix said:
Our farrier shoes one of my horses and barefoot trims the other. He is about the only farrier I know that is willing to earn less money from you and actually say why on earth are you bothering with shoes :P
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You haven't met mine then :)

He says that 75% of his clients are unshod and that it is swings and roundabouts really, trimming takes less time therefore he can do more horses in a day.
 
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