Trim you own horses feet?

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comeon

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Know a girl that trims her own horses feet, cant believe it. One reason she hasnt had any training and 2nd her horses are lame! Surely that cant be right?
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i have been taught by a farrier and i can do trims, but i do them very very gradually and carefully (it takes me flipping ages) and only if a horse has a split, or a chunk out, that needs smoothing out before my farrier comes.
it isn't something anyone should do without some training. i'd report her to WHW if you really believe she has lamed her horse(s) in the past...
 
My farrier keeps trying to teach me how to trim as one of my horses is a nutter and used to kick him across the yard. She is ok now she knows him, but he was very eager for me to do it at the time, lol! He said a lot of his clients will rasp their own horses feet, and get them trimmed properly every six months or so.
 
When Cairo got so bad he could hardly lift his hinds up for more than 30 seconds, my farrier showed me how to rasp them to keep a reasonable shape on them. I could then do a little at a time. He did however, monitor me and checked them every eight weeks when he trimmed the fronts.

My YO rasps the old pony to keep the feet in shape - smooths out any splits but the feet grow very slowly, but they are still trimmed by the farrier every 14 - 16 weeks.

I will rasp off any untidy bits between trims if showing (not that I get many untidy bits) and will also trim any excess or loose frog - again shown how to by farrier but actual hoof trimming is left solely to the farrier.

If the horses are that lame and the person won't have a farrier, I would be putting in a call to WHW to ask them to have a word.
 
my friend trims his horses feet .. he knows how to do it though sooo ..lol .. its okay if you know what your doing


He also rasps and tidys the feet up every time they start looking untidy , neither of them wear shoes as they are in the fields (no stables) they are still taken out for rides (or did till 2 died)

but most the time we were on grass or the gallops
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D has a habbit of throwing shoes, so my farrier has shown me how to remove a shoe correctly and to just tidy up the rough bits so that he doesnt damage his hoof further. His feet were a mess when i got him and its taken over a year to get where we are so the farrier is happy for me to do that so we dont end up in the same position. However actual trims and shoeing is done by him, i would never attempt that.
 
I trim my mare's feet myself now as 3 weekly visits from a good farrier was still not enough to keep them balanced and she was developing navicular type symptoms.

I did/do lots of research into the various techinques and started off very gently and have had my farrier take a look every once in a while to check i'm balancing them properly.

She was unrideable and now is perfectly sound so I'm totally happy i've done the right thing. Done sensibly, sensitively and intelligently this is an acceptable option to me.
 
I've been rasping my mare's for 4 years. She is retired and has bad arthritis so can't always hold them up for very long. I use an old 12 inch traffic cone as a tripod and do the trim over 2 or 3 weekends. They look ok and don't seem to do her any harm.
 
I do. Make a great job of it too, vet says so and so does my old farrier, and my horses arenot lame or falling apart. it;s not as hard as it looks, but you do need to understand the dynamics of the hoof, how to balance andd so on. Would not have doen it without doing the training though - that is absolutely necessary.
 
Best left to a farrier who is trained to do it I think. How does she know how much to cut off, how to balance the horse and the foot properly taking into account its confirmation etc.
 
id be very worried that she is laming her horses by trimming her horses feet.

ive received numerous hours of training to trim my horses feet.my trimmer comes and check that im keeping them in balance and condition and is very happy with how im keeping them all in check.
I spoke to my old farrier this monring and he also said that the way their feet are is good. none of my horses are lame.
without the training i certainly wouldnt trim or rasp any horses feet.
 
Sorry if I sounded a little judgemental, there is a world of difference between rasping and tidying up and actual trimming. Providing the farrier showed me what to do with that particular horse, was happy with me doing it and still came out for the real trim I'd be quite happy!
 
I wonder why this girls horses are unsound? She should certainly be getting some advice, because it's actually very difficult to lame a horse with trimming unless you rasp the sole or cut the frog, neither of which should usually be touched. She's the kind of person who brings "barefoot" into disrepute. Her horses aren't barefoot, they are just shoeless, and badly shoeless at that.

Having said that, yes, I trim my own horses after having done a very great deal of research. They hunt and event and they have never been unsound except for the very occasional abscess, about as often as a shod horse would get one.

Horses who do not have any serious physical issues know how to grow themselves a balanced foot. The trimming is not rocket science but for some horses the management of feed, turnout, and work can be very difficult to achieve rock crunching feet.

This girl sounds like she is doing nothing right!
 
Yes, I trim all of my horses feet. The farriers round here are either rubbish, short tempered or hard to get ahold of. Plus one horse is too damn idiotic to tolerate a someone else doing his feet.

Of a livery of 15 horses mine have by far the best feet. One is currently slightly lame but that's got nothing to do with her feet - she did the splits in the field!

Ditto cptrayes - it's actually quite difficult to make a horse lame with poor trimming unless you're doing something drastic.

I would never advocat trimming feet youself unless you have a solid understanding of feet and their function. BUT it's not rocket science and it's not difficult (although it is physcially demanding!). All it takes is time and care, backed with knowledge.

To be honest I find it rather worring that so many otherwise experienced horse owners don't have enough knowledge of feet and what healthy feet SHOULD look like to be able to at least do a tidy-up trim. How do they know if their farriers doing a good job? It accounts for the horribly large number of badly shod feet I see everyday:(
 
To be honest I find it rather worring that so many otherwise experienced horse owners don't have enough knowledge of feet and what healthy feet SHOULD look like to be able to at least do a tidy-up trim. How do they know if their farriers doing a good job? It accounts for the horribly large number of badly shod feet I see everyday:(

I know what they should look like - I just choose to use a professional who has trained for a number of years to do the job!
 
OH and I work together to trim our horses's feet. Although not having any qualifications in farriery or barefoot trimming, both OH and I have been on numerous training courses and studied extensively, so have a pretty good idea of what we're doing. However, if we felt there was a need, we would be more than happy to bring in a qualified person (be it a farrier or a barefoot trimmer) to provide a second opinion.

I can in all honesty say that my horses have never had a lameness problem associated with their feet or trimming. I compete in endurance, and ride out regularly with no problems in this extremely flinty part of South Bucks.

OH and I are happy trimming our own horses feet and can be constructive about each other's work. However, as we are not "qualified", we do not and will not work on any other horse's feet except our own.
 
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