Trimmer or farrier for barefoot?

Hormonal Filly

Hormonal Filly

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My mare has good solid feet and I’m hoping to keep her barefoot.
My trimmer is brilliant but has recently put her prices up to £55 per trim (need every 6 weeks in summer)

My previous farrier is £30 per trim, but I found her back feet weren’t being trimmed evenly.

Do you use a farrier or trimmer? Id like the cost saving of the farrier but want her feet in the best possible shape.

Thanks all
 
It's whoever does the best job.

I've had awful foot balance from both registered farriers and a registered EPA qualified barefoot trimmer - the only barefoot trimmer that I've used.

You've answered your own question - your trimmer does a better job than your farrier.

My current farrier (except he's gone AWOL again) does an excellent job. He charged £25 a trim last time he came which was 8 months ago. I do a much better job trimming them myself than the rubbish farriers and the rubbish trimmer did.
 
I have barefoot horses and I use a farrier, but I use him because he does an outstanding job. My preference is always for who does the best job, in your case it seems that the trimmer is doing the best job, so then I'd stick with the trimmer.
 
Mine are barefoot and I only use my farrier his shod them and trimmed them for 12 years, he knows to not cut the frog and sole back and does a great job never had an issue, I also have a few rasps and will tidy them up my self in between if need be.

I won't use the barefoot trimmers seen them cripple a few horses and seen them take over an hour to trim 1 horse.
 
I would use whoever is best. At the moment, I'm doing both horses myself. I do send photos to the farrier on occasion, to make sure I am doing a good job.

I fully accept that probably a good pro of either type would do better, but then that would only be every 4-6 weeks, whereas I'm doing it 2-3 times a week, so the balance rarely changes. I would not hesitate to get a pro back if I was at all worried, or if my farrier said he needs to visit. My farrier trimmed Rigs for over a year, when BH had shoes on. He has feet like blocks of wood and they are very effortful to do. Now there are no shoes involved, I just do both.

I did Jay Man myself too; when he went to the vet (when be became a wobbler) the vet wanted to know who trimmed him. I was a little evasive at first, and wanted to know why he asked, nervous that I had done some damage. I need not have worried, he liked the way they were trimmed and wanted to recommend the trimmer 🤣 No way, Jose!

Best thing of all is to take monthly photos, for reference. No hiding what's happening then!
 
Pinkvboots said:
Mine are barefoot and I only use my farrier his shod them and trimmed them for 12 years, he knows to not cut the frog and sole back and does a great job never had an issue, I also have a few rasps and will tidy them up my self in between if need be.

I won't use the barefoot trimmers seen them cripple a few horses and seen them take over an hour to trim 1 horse.
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What about all the farriers who cripple horses? Their work appears regularly on this forum - would you still use one of them in preference to a good trimmer?
 
SatansLittleHelper said:
I wouldn't touch a barefoot trimmer with a bargepole!!! Mine don't have shoes and my farrier does an amazing job, doesn’t charge the earth, is properly qualified and insured and has the back up of the farriers association which you don't get with barefoot trimmers!!
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and this back up gives you exactly what if the horse is sore afterwards?
 
Whoever does the best job and sometimes this is only learnt the hard way!

I've used a plethora of trimmers and farriers. Out of them all I haven't had a farrier who's assessed the whole horse, cared about what's been present (eg thrush) or had any knowledge about working barefoot horses.

Having said that I've tried a lot of trimmers who ask all the right questions, said all the right things and then mucked up the hooves 😒

I have been using an excellent farrier. As in, excellent at farriery. Trimming my mob is just an add on 15min job while he's in the area shoeing. He does a good job of making the hooves shorter but has zero interest in how they move or any "whole horse" issues. For example we took on a very broken horse with very wonky hooves and movement, cue lots of physio and rehab work. Tried to talk with farrier about how that will impact horses movement and hooves and farrier wasn't interested at all. He kept just said he "wouldn't trim them to look pretty". Great, didn't ask you to but that wasn't what I said. Just zero interest in discussing the horses. They are *just* a trim and he's in and away in less than 20mins. However he's better than the others, including most trimmers, so we used him.

A couple of weeks ago we had a new trimmer out who's just started covering this area. She's the Hoof Guided Method and that's the book that resonated the most with me since going barefoot. Trimmer was out and after the first visit has ticked all the boxes as in asks what I consider the right questions, said the right things, made small but noticeable differences to all of their hooves and has a plan for moving forward. So far she's provided a lot more support and interest than the farrier and has trimmed better than other trimmers [of which there have been many].

But I've had to kiss a lot of frogs, figuratively speaking, and had a LOT of bad experiences.
 
My trimmer charges £55, which I think is acceptable as she does a very good job of my very difficult horse with weird hooves. He's the only one of mine that ever had a farrier involved with him - never, ever again. I trim the younger ones myself.
 
I normally just tidy up myself after a council trim. However if for some reason I haven't been riding and they get a bit long, like when I had COVID, I get the yard farrier to do them for £25. I always regret it though because no matter what I say he manages to cut back the frog and sole callous and it takes a while to toughen them up again.
 
I have a farrier. He's looked after Dave's feet for nearly 5 years. He understands the Exmoor mind (his family have several) & he's kind & firm.
Never had any issues.
Before I moved to this area, I also used a farrier.
 
SatansLittleHelper said:
I wouldn't touch a barefoot trimmer with a bargepole!!! Mine don't have shoes and my farrier does an amazing job, doesn’t charge the earth, is properly qualified and insured and has the back up of the farriers association which you don't get with barefoot trimmers!!
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My barefoot trimmer works with vets all over the country doing remedial work. They’re also involved in training farriers. Properly insured, qualified and everything else. They’re not all self taught new aged hippies!

As soon as I took my horse’s shoes off I found my farrier spent barely any time on them and their feet were getting longer and longer, hence the move to a barefoot trimmer. It was only £5 more and my gelding’s feet look much better.
 
*Looks for something to hide behind as this discussion usually leads to all out war at some point *. I use a trimmer right now. He’s interested in the whole of the horse, not just the feet & lets me know if there’s something showing up in the feet that’s likely as a result of compensation for something. He normally spots subtle issues well before me or the vet would have. He’s interesting to watch a trot up with let’s put it that way. I do tiny little bits of tidying in between as & when required although pony is slowly moving towards mostly being self trimming in between his visits & I find I’m having to do less & less often. I don’t think a farrier would want to discuss things like what an appropriate workload is right now, pros & cons of trying to wean off boots vs playing it safe to protect his sidebone from concussion (but compromising grip on grass / in the wet) in the depth that I feel like I need to with this horse (getting everything in a good place to have him in work has been a bit of a journey & in an ideal world we’d both still like him landing straighter)

If the trimmer I’m using ever decides to stop coming into my area I do know of another I’d probably look into & if they couldn’t help me I’d probably use one of two farriers that I know do a decent barefoot trim & lean more on his physio for advice (I lean on her as well for a lot of things anyway as my day to day vets don’t tend to have the eye for / interest in subtle changes in movement & how one issue might connect to another)
 
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Our little yard uses an excellent farrier who is interested in how the horses, as individuals, are moving, what their current workload is and the nature of their general wellbeing.
He is a training farrier and a close supervisor of his apprentices.
He is very reasonably priced, is polite and professional, arrives on time and treats the horses and their owners with care.
 
So after posting this, the next day after a trim my mare was footy!! Shes not been out on the grass, so it isn't that. It MUST be the trim. She did say she had grown a lot of bar.. so took that, maybe that is whats made her footy?

The same thing was happening back summer last year with the trimmer, but I blamed the summer grass (Barefoot trimmer said the grass, even though she was restricted on grazing) but now I can clarify its clearly the trim thats made her footy. She usually walks over stones, tracks without a bother and now has a 'ouchie' moment if stands on a stone :( Not sure if to text the trimmer so shes aware shes made her footy!

How stupid am I.. feel a bad owner. I know SO many who use this trimmer and shes highly spoken about.

TPO said:
Whoever does the best job and sometimes this is only learnt the hard way!
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Back to the farrier we go for the next trim. I might leave it 8 weeks before getting her done now, let her grow some more foot.
 
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Hormonal Filly said:
So after posting this, the next day after a trim my mare was footy!! Shes not been out on the grass, so it isn't that. It MUST be the trim. She did say she had grown a lot of bar.. so took that, maybe that is whats made her footy?

The same thing was happening back summer last year with the trimmer, but I blamed the summer grass (Barefoot trimmer said the grass, even though she was restricted on grazing) but now I can clarify its clearly the trim thats made her footy. She usually walks over stones, tracks without a bother and now has a 'ouchie' moment if stands on a stone :( Not sure if to text the trimmer so shes aware shes made her footy!

How stupid am I.. feel a bad owner. I know SO many who use this trimmer and shes highly spoken about.



Back to the farrier we go for the next trim. I might leave it 8 weeks before getting her done now, let her grow some more foot.
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Obviously the bar was doing a job.
 
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Whether you intend to use the trimmer again or not, do let them know that she is footsore and see what she says.

When I told my EPA qualified trimmer that my mare, who had walked happily into her stable before her trim could only hobble out after he'd trimmed her his response was "Oh, that'll be the grass, then".

Convenient being able to blame the horse's diet rather than the trim, isn't it 😬.

That was just the start of me realising how much hype there is about barefoot trimmers being better than farriers.
 
As time goes by I'm becoming more convinced that - providing the hoof hasn't been neglected over a period of time, he gets enough mileage, and a roll is kept on the edges, - the best trim can be the one the horse gives himself as he moves over abrasive surfaces.
 
Tiddlypom said:
That was just the start of me realising how much hype there is about barefoot trimmers being better than farriers.
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I have seen good barefoot trimming farriers, but as a minority. Most farrier take off too much and use knife on sole and frog and leave horses feet weaker.

I'd want to use the insured qualified professional that has a book of sound rock crunching working barefoot horses on their books.

Whether farrier or trimmer is pretty irrelevant, versus whether they help create sound barefoot working feet.

I suggest asking your potential professional before chosing one, how many working barefoot horses they trim, and how many hackout without boots etc.
 
I've only ever used farriers, but i've lucked out and gotten good ones, although the last one wasn't particularly pro-barefoot for performance horses. Still did a good job on the trims, just definitely seemed of the opinion that working horses usually needed shoeing. Moved house now and the new one has been doing a good job on the whole lot of them, just started transitioning a third one to fully barefoot from bar shoes, still got 2 with half sets (very unlikely to change them at this point, they have issues)

If a farrier is worth their fee they ought to be able to do a good job on shod and barefoot horses. If they don't, find another one.
 
You said you didnt like how the farrier trimmed so I guess why would you change back? I pay £35 for trimmer. I would think most farriers charge at least that these days. By choice I have always chosen a trimmer for barefoot and only use a farrier when I need to shoe. And I will mix and match, with my last horse Id shoe during event season then get trimmer rest of the time once shoes were off, my farrier and trimmer at the time didnt mind that I took time off from each of them.
 
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