Well the Trimmer has been......

D

dressagecrazy

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Some of you may know that i was having some problems with my Farrier especially when it came to trimming my Barefoot horses:(.

It all came to a head when he trimmed my Dressage horse back far to much & left him crippled for a week. So i decided to take the plunge & try the DAEP Trimmer that i had found:eek:. 4 weeks ago she came out to meet me & my horses & spent 3hrs going through things & allowing me to question everything she said:cool:.

I decided at that point to take my 25yo TB totally barefoot as well, he has been being shod on fronts only but the state of his feet was starting to really concern me:o. He has suffered all sorts of problems over the last 2 years & it has left him weak behind so the farrier deals with this by not doing very much at all with his hinds:mad:. He actually did this horse in less than 15 mins the last time he came.:mad::mad:

The horse has had a twisting movement on the inside hind for quite a while now & i was lead to believe it was his because of his problems. I was also told that he would never cope barefoot in front, i had tried barefoot with him before & as predicted it didnt work. However i now know better & why it didnt work;).

On Saturday the Trimmer turned up to start work on all 3 horses, 2 already barefoot but all horses did need a lot of work balancing. I knew this was the case but i was upset about it as my Dressage horse is suffering Impar ligament damage & above all else needs to have a perfectly balanced foot. This was something i had continuously badgered my farrier about.:mad: The last time i had badgered him about foot balance he said " im not sure why foot balance is so important as nothing the horse ever walks on is a 100% level surface " :eek::eek: I responded to this comment by saying "ok let me wedge one side of your foot & lets see how lame you become in a day".;)

Murphy my 25yo had the most amount of work his hinds where so out of balance it was un-true. To help him with the transition he has had Perfect Hoof Wear applied to his fronts which he is most happy with.
The most amazing thing was afterwards when we walked him out the inside Hind leg had stopped twisting, i never thought in a million years it was down to his hoof balance. But it does explain a lot, hopefully now he's not twisting he can get even better & stronger. He certainly showed me that he was happy with being barefoot as the day after he went for a cart around, & is not showing any soreness at all:D:D.

All in all im extremely happy with the work the Trimmer did on Saturday & it has left me dissapointed with the work the farrier has been doing.

My dressage horse is walking so much better now he's properly balanced, so hopefully this will only help him on the road to recovery:).

Going with a Trimmer has not been a light decision for me as ive owned horses for 25 years & in this time ive always had a farrier, being without a farrier has actually been quite frightening for me mentally. But the work that was undertaken at the weekend by the Trimmer has really impressed me.

I just thought i would let everyone know how i had got on & how much better all my horses are thanks to a person who really knew her stuff.:):)
 
Glad to read your post. I also have barefoot horses and use a trimmer after being disappointed with farriers.
I do get fed up of reading posts on her that bash barefoot trimmers, if they work for your horse/s so be it, can't understand why people feel it necessary to belittle trimmers. There are good and bad in all walks of life.
It has been said to me that barefoot trimming 'is just a fad'. It seems to be a 'fad' that is being embraced by more and more people.
I for one would never trust a farrier again. My horses are sound, and their feet have never been in such good condition.
So glad to read a positive post about barefoot instead of all the 'trimmer bashing' that goes on.
Glad you are happy with your decision.
It was a hard decision for me as well, having always had my horses shod. We have never looked back.
Good luck to you and your horses in the future.
 
That's a really interesting post. Good to hear your horses are feeling the benefit! Amazing that the twisting has stopped too. It must be v interesting to see the feet before and after and understand what has been done to bring about different changes.
My girl has been barefoot for about 3 months or so now and I have only had my farrier trim her. She has had two trims in that time but has been a little sore after each. Certainly not lame, but def not as comfy as she was before. So I have been considering getting a trimmer instead, but the jump into the unknown is a little scary!!! Although my farrier isn't negative regarding having her working without shoes, he also doesn't seem all that keen to get her working better! I know how she is between trims, so I struggle to see why she should be less comfortable in the time immediatly after a trim. I am not prepared to accept that as part and parcel of no shoes!! Oh also still has his mare shod by this farrier (shoes off when she's on her winter break!) so I can't risk annoying the farrier as we still need him out for oh mare!
V helpful reading your experiences, might help me make that leap!!
 
Fantastic that its made a big improvement :-)
FestiveNeighs - have you mentioned to the farrier that she's sore immediately after a trim?
Is he paring the sole and trimming the frog? If so then she's likely to be sore as those callouses were protecting her, I know its gross but we all have some callouses/hard skin on our feet and i'm sure if someone took them away we'd be a little sore too.

Maybe ask him not to trim sole/frog? Or (so it doesn't sound like you're telling him his job, ;-) )suggest it as an experiment to see if she's still sore that way?
 
Really good to read a post like this one, particularly as you have had horses for a long time and always had them shod. Your story is in fact similar to my own transition to barefoot, and I fully understand the doubts and worries of such a drastic change.

The more I read posts on here of the good results and outcomes, the weaker the argument to shoe becomes in my mind.

Good luck.
 
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