Will most farriers always say shoes are better?

cobsarefab

cobsarefab

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Today a friend told me that she had been wanting her horse to go barefoot for a while as he has strong and sound feet but her farrier has said nearly all horses are better with shoes all their working life. Is it common for farriers to say this? Just asking out of curiosity really as my mare is barefoot and is doing very well like that. But I don't use a farrier so have never been told this.
 
not all. i've some shod and unshod. And my farrier has always encouraged me to keep the barefoot one barefoot as it suits her. She will be a very low level eventer hopefully, and he has always said he thinks she will be fine shoeless. He also encourages me to give my main eventer time off without shoes off season as he feels it improves the quality of his feet
 
My farrier who has shod my horses for many years will often suggest leaving shoes off, either permanently or just to give them a break, we have had many in full work without shoes including tb's and sport horses, your friends farrier is probably thinking more of his business than the good of the horse as in my experience all horses will benefit from tie out of shoes even if the go back on when required.
 
Nope my farrier keen to gets shoes off if possible. It is usually me saying I want shoes back on and having to convince him!
 
I had a farrier who did his utmost to help by boy go bare foot and another who wanted to avoid shoeing my youngster as long as possible and who always used to say that the best dressing for a hoof was the dew on the grass :)
 
No, a good farrier will do what suits the horse. Mine has shoes off through winter and on through summer, purely down to volume of roadwork.

Farrier is happy to accomodate my requests as long as they suit the horse
 
Mine is always happy for the herd to have their shoes off over the summer. He says they self trim much more effectively than he would ever be brave enough to do, and it makes his job easier all winter.
 
Nope - mine will do what I ask for as the paying customer. Of course I ask their advice but, having had shod and unshod horses and a mix of shod in front/unshod behind etc. over many years, I have never had a farrier tell me what I should do.
 
My farrier shoes mine and another horse on my yard, mine is shod on the front as he has osteoporosis of the pedal bone last year so needs them for support, unshod behind. The other horse is not shod so no my farrier is not in this mindset

If your friends farrier thinks the horses feet will not suit it then he should explain rather than saying what he did
 
I used to ask my farrier every visit if my boy's feet were okay and if he needed shoes. An open opportunity if there ever was one, but farrier remained positive he could stay barefoot.

I was once on a barefoot FB group and people swore farriers were the devil that would shoe at any given chance. It was so disheartening reading all the horrid comments.
 
No but my experience is that they will reach for shoes as the solution if you are having problems rather than troubleshoot underlying issues or look at hoof boots as a possible option.
 
On the opposite end of the scale there are those who will push barefoot to the ends of the earth, swearing it's a cure all for everything. Someone I know has a morbidly obese Sec D who clearly is highly uncomfortable on his feet (vet has tried to drum it into the owner that the horse needs to go on a diet etc etc and highly suspects arthritis amongst a multitude of other issues caused mostly by excessive weight) yet their barefoot trimmer keeps insisting that it's nothing to do with the horse's weight and that it just needs some extra corrective trimming here and there. In the meantime the poor horse is hobbling around crippled.
 
Moomin1 said:
On the opposite end of the scale there are those who will push barefoot to the ends of the earth, swearing it's a cure all for everything. Someone I know has a morbidly obese Sec D who clearly is highly uncomfortable on his feet (vet has tried to drum it into the owner that the horse needs to go on a diet etc etc and highly suspects arthritis amongst a multitude of other issues caused mostly by excessive weight) yet their barefoot trimmer keeps insisting that it's nothing to do with the horse's weight and that it just needs some extra corrective trimming here and there. In the meantime the poor horse is hobbling around crippled.
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That's a welfare issue, have you reported it to anyone? I reported a neighbour of mine for neglecting her horses' feet.
 
ycbm said:
That's a welfare issue, have you reported it to anyone? I reported a neighbour of mine for neglecting her horses' feet.
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I don't know where they are anymore. They left the yard they were on a couple of months ago (because the yard owner tried to intervene).
 
Moomin1 said:
I don't know where they are anymore. They left the yard they were on a couple of months ago (because the yard owner tried to intervene).
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Poor horse, there are some idiot owners and bad trimmers (and bad and good farriers and trimmers)
 
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