What can a barefoot trimmer do that a farrier can't?

Sweet F* A*

Our farrier has looked after all our horses feet, both shod and unshod, listened carefully to our explanations of any difficulties experienced, struggled patiently with a Clyde who hated having her feet trimmed and put shoes back onto the mare who we had tried barefoot unsuccessfully. I certainly would NOT let some-one who has done less than the four/five yr training touch our horses feet.

Oh yes farrier also found the abcess that the vet diagnosed as thrush!
 
Someone at a previous yard went "natural" sold rugs, bought a treeless saddle, took of horses shoes and got a BFT to look after his feet. She barely ever rode him again, he was always footy and would be lame for at least a week after he was trimmed. His feet looked really long and narrow, this was apparently how they would be in the wild
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Going only on what I've seen (and I have one shod, and one, a youngster with no shoes, PLUS my shod one went 6 months without shoes with a foal at foot) and my two have fantastic feet, good shape and angles, never footy. They move well, and step out with confidence.

The two in my block that are barefoot seem to have big 'dinner plates' that look flat, and clop about on them. They don't look to move as lightly as they could do.

I know I'll be sticking with my farrier, who watches mine walk and trot up every time he sees them, who I can rely on to be at the end of the phone and come out at the drop of a hat for a lost shoe or lameness issue, which in the 9 years I've had my mare has NEVER been to do with her feet!
 
We had an 'equine podiatrist/foot butcher' visit our yard and he charged the gullible woman £80 for a trim which took two hours! He wore white cotton gloves (!), laid down on the floor next to the horses feet to take photos (obviously couldn't find the zoom button!) and held a spirit level on all of the feet when he picked them up - maybe he was checking that the yard was level cos the feet weren't. Then he spent hours just slowly dragging a rasp and a wire brush around them and told the owner that he had improved the flatness of the soles and asked her is she could hear the difference in the sound the feet made on the yard and told her that the dirty great cracks up the wall were purely cosmetic and to leave them! The horse was crippled for three weeks afterwards and ended up with pus in the foot which he then told the owner to leave to find it's natural way out through the coronary band!
 
Barefoot trimmers lame horses.

I know of a horse who recently came in from the field with a flint embedded in one of her hooves. Barefoot trimmer came out three days later, and proceeded to dig, and dig, and dig....until the mare was nearly on the floor in agony. Yes, they got the flint out, but poor pony was crippled lame
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Farrier came out next day to see another horse and owner of pony asked him to have a look at poor pony's desecrated hoof - he was horrified, and told her NEVER to get the 'barefoot trimmer' out again
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quote]We had an 'equine podiatrist/foot butcher' visit our yard and he charged the gullible woman £80 for a trim which took two hours! He wore white cotton gloves (!), laid down on the floor next to the horses feet to take photos (obviously couldn't find the zoom button!) and held a spirit level on all of the feet when he picked them up - maybe he was checking that the yard was level cos the feet weren't. Then he spent hours just slowly dragging a rasp and a wire brush around them and told the owner that he had improved the flatness of the soles and asked her is she could hear the difference in the sound the feet made on the yard and told her that the dirty great cracks up the wall were purely cosmetic and to leave them! The horse was crippled for three weeks afterwards and ended up with pus in the foot which he then told the owner to leave to find it's natural way out through the coronary band!

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Stories like this make my blood boil. what right have these people to inflict such suffering on their poor animals. These butchers should be prosecuted, as should the stupid irresponsible owners who are taken in by these fraudsters.

Imagine the pain they must have when you think that they have half a ton of weight resting on their feet. Disgusting!!
All in the name of making things all natural and airy fairy.
They need to get a grip!!

 
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This "barefoot trimmer attends a two day course" is RUBBISH and anyway what idiot would allow someone to trim their horse who had only been on a 2 day course?

<font color="blue"> Right then.
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I am a liar AND an idiot? You obviously know me well then
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Where I live anyone can pick up a hoofknife and a rasp, get in their truck and call themselves a Trimmer.They don't have to be certified, and yes, a two day course is the shortest I have found available. So, NOT RUBBISH Possibly watching a DIY Trim Your Own DVD takes an even shorter period of time.

As for idiot, maybe, perhaps you are perfection itself and have never been taken in by someone who was not all you were led to think.

I actually had discussions about my reasons for using a Trimmer and my doubts on this very forum.

I have absolutely no intention of justifying my comments or my actions to you, after all, I believe the operative words in my post were personal, opinion and experience </font>
 
Honestly my wife could pick up my tools today and go off and trim horses as a BT/EP blah blah. And you know what? SHE would actually be great, she takes an enormous interest in what i do and askes questions and her knowledge of my job is at such a level that i often discuss cases with her and she has actually helped me with a few and i recon she would make a great farrier (she however does not want to work with horses as they are her hobby she works with special needs kids instead) Off track but what i am trying to say is that anyone could call themselves a trimmer and yes was have found some very short courses.

The course for natural balance shoes is two days! But this is done on top of five years of training and back ground as only FARRIERS can do this course. But my point is that i could learn a lot on a two day course because i have the back ground knowledge.

I have not heard any good stories about barefoot trimmers and i have not seen any of their work which makes me confident that there is a place for them.
 
A so called barefot trimmer - well known and well respected in Wales and the Welsh Borders trimmed gave my mates horse laminitus by cutting back to much. Poor animal was in agony and was on box rest for a month.
 
i have had experience of both

found i was alot poorer (40 per horse, rather than 18-25 for farrier) and the feet didnt look any better.

oh and my farrier watches them trot up before and after and watches the way they move/place the foot before trimming.
 
I'm reading this with a lot of interest on both sides. I'm not into slagging of one or the other, but here is my experience.

A mare who was diagnosed at 5 yrs with Navicular in both front feet, had only been shod for 6 months, tried egg bars, didn't help. Went Cytek Shoe route and she was sound and working for 4 years, then started to go lame in one foot, diagnosed with Navicular again.

In this time I had a yearling that was trimmed by the farrier and started his work barefoot with no problems at all, including being able to hack out on horrible stoney tracks.

With my mare I decided to take her barefoot with the help of a well respected trimmer (EP). It took a good 6 months to get her feet back to balance so that she was sound and the vets were pretty amazed the day she trotted up sound with no boots on. She still stuggles with hacking on our horrible stoney tracks with no front boots but she is a very sensitive 3/4 TB mare.

So for the last 3 years I have had both of them trimmed by a trained trimmer, would the mare have recovered with trimming from a farrier? I don't know. Would my young horse still be sound if his trim was still done by farrier? again I don't know.

All I do know is that both of my horses are now sound barefoot with great looking feet.

I think like everything there are good and bad of both. I have had one other Trimmer trim my horses in this time when my usual one was ill and I wouldn't have her again, she held my horses legs at angles they wern't happy with, and got frustrated with them when they wouldn't stand still.
 
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