Question for any farriers out there

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JillA

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My farrier came to trim yesterday, after around 12 weeks as I have been ensuring my horses cross stony surfaces and self trim to a degree. I have tidied one or two of them but one has stringhalt and I struggle to keep his feet in my grasp.
When he arrived I asked him (as diplomatically as I could because he is very confident in his own skills) not to trim any frog or sole, especially as I have one horse with a history of sensitive soles. He agreed but only to trim as little of the ragged frog bits as he needed to, and said he couldn't do the job without a certain amount.As he was chatting I noticed he was trimming off the surface of a strip about an inch wide inside the front wall, despite what I asked, as though it was essential to the work.
Can someone who has done the farrier (as opposed to podiatrist) training please explain the rationale and why he seems to think he has to do this? Then I will know how to deal with it for the future - I really don't want to replace him as he is a friend as well as having been my farrier for several years now. Normally the work is fine, but it seems counterintuitive to trim the sole of a horse with known sensitivity?
 
Hi Jill,
Firstly without actually seeing your horses feet, I could not really say how I would go about trimming him.

Having said that, personally I am very reluctant at present to remove much sole, because in general most of the feet are absolutely saturated at the moment, meaning they are exceptionally soft. This means the mud, grit and any other abrasive surface (such as sand in a sand school) is wearing away the feet at a fast rate, and bruising is very easy at the moment. Together with this, most horses (again in general) arent really growing quickly, as winter conditions at present (lack of daylight hours, low nutrition from poor quality grass) so they arent really replacing the horn very fast. It does, of course, depend on the individual animal, but thats the approach I am giving at present. Mud is also abrading the frogs especially in the thin layers at the rear of the feet, this causes a lot of raggy pieces and bacterial undermining, which I do remove as they can be detrimental to future frog health. This will of course change in 8 weeks or so once spring conditions are with us.
 
Thanks Graeme - I kind of get the impression he is used to trimming like that to seat a shoe, but my horse hasn't worn shoes for well over a year. I am feeding methionine to try and develop better horn, but I can't get the good thick calloused sole developing if he keeps trimming bits of it off!!
 
My farrier barely touches my 2 boys frogs & soles unless I specifically ask him to tidy them up a bit. When he first shod my horses I was so used to farriers hacking off everything that looked tatty, that if was a bit :-o at first. But now I am so glad he doesn't do much with them as their feet seem happier without the intervention.
My boys are shod in front only, and the hind feet he only takes the flare off as they seem to keep them pretty short on their own.
 
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JillA said:
My farrier came to trim yesterday, after around 12 weeks as I have been ensuring my horses cross stony surfaces and self trim to a degree. I have tidied one or two of them but one has stringhalt and I struggle to keep his feet in my grasp.
When he arrived I asked him (as diplomatically as I could because he is very confident in his own skills) not to trim any frog or sole, especially as I have one horse with a history of sensitive soles. He agreed but only to trim as little of the ragged frog bits as he needed to, and said he couldn't do the job without a certain amount.As he was chatting I noticed he was trimming off the surface of a strip about an inch wide inside the front wall, despite what I asked, as though it was essential to the work.
Can someone who has done the farrier (as opposed to podiatrist) training please explain the rationale and why he seems to think he has to do this? Then I will know how to deal with it for the future - I really don't want to replace him as he is a friend as well as having been my farrier for several years now. Normally the work is fine, but it seems counterintuitive to trim the sole of a horse with known sensitivity?
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Any possibility that he was taking out a cavity or something?
 
No Sandy, he does it with them all - seems to be levelling (shaving) off the sole inside the wall mostly towards the front. I'm not sure whether he is doing it to lower toes to avoid heels too low, but he hasn't explained it to me, I was hoping a farrier who has done the training my know the reasons. He did an apprenticeship with the best farrier in the area (who also has taken an interest in barefoot) and formal training at Hereford (I think).
 
JillA said:
No Sandy, he does it with them all - seems to be levelling (shaving) off the sole inside the wall mostly towards the front. I'm not sure whether he is doing it to lower toes to avoid heels too low, but he hasn't explained it to me, I was hoping a farrier who has done the training my know the reasons. He did an apprenticeship with the best farrier in the area (who also has taken an interest in barefoot) and formal training at Hereford (I think).
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Have you asked him to explain why he does it and what benifits it provides rather than leaving it as asked? I could ask my OH but he's the same as Graeme in that without seeing the actual horse in question he finds it difficult to comment :o
 
I'll be seeing him and his OH socially before he needs to come again, so hopefully will ask him then. I need him to focus on the job he is doing - he sets off doing the minimum then goes on to autopilot while he catches up on the local gossip!
 
JillA said:
I'll be seeing him and his OH socially before he needs to come again, so hopefully will ask him then. I need him to focus on the job he is doing - he sets off doing the minimum then goes on to autopilot while he catches up on the local gossip!
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Oh oops! Gossip (and possible tea) embargo till the job is done from now then? ;)
 
If horse is not doing lots of walking on hard rocky surfaces to naturally remove the dead sole, then it does need to be taken off by a farrier but only that which is dead sole and cracking, in other words what would have come off normally in a horse on hard ground or in the wild. If this sole is not removed it can affect the hoof growth of the horse because if the sole became too thick it would bulge and affect balance etc
 
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