# Horse Hoof Trimming



## KristyHall (Jan 25, 2011)

Hello,
I've owned horses over a decade and have always hired a farrier to trim my horses hooves. I have two Calvary line Arabian mares that are intelligent and tough as nails with hard hooves. I don't shoe my horses since they never go on anything harder than the soft fields. Well except when the cross my drive way when I let them graze the front yard and this never seems to faze them)  I am considering trimming their hooves myself to save money but I was told that if done wrong it could cripple the animal. The thought of hurting my girls worries me. Any opinions on home hoof trimming? Any warnings and advice anyone can give me?

I greatly appreciate your time.
Kristy


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## adoptedbyachicken (Jan 25, 2011)

While it is true you can hurt a horse if you really cut into the hoof badly (as in cut until you drew blood) if you are a reasonable person the work is safe for you to do.  I keep hearing this threat of 'crippling' horses, well you would have to really try IMO, to make a cut way too deep.

I do all my own trimming and will never go back.  When you do your own you do them when they need to be done, and only what needs to be done, rather than someone else trying to fit them in to the average rotaion of all their customers, or the circuit that they want to drive to keep expenses down.  My horses are much better off, and I'm not standing around waiting for a farrier that will maybe show up 2 hours late, or not at all.  Even with 9 horses I can get them all trimmed in less time than I used to waste waiting on a farrier.  My costs are of course way lower as well.

There are many sites and books out there to help you learn, as well as DVDs.  www.hoofrehab.com is a great place to start, Pete's DVDs are fantastic.  http://www.star-ridge.com is where I order my rasps from (with good hooves if you keep up you will never need nippers so save yourself that cost) they have really good ones reasonable priced.  Don't just get a tack store rasp, you will get frustrated and tired really quick.  Depneding on the horse you might need a hoof knife. 

Find a local barefoot trimmer that will work with you at first, have them put a correct trim on the horses and then follow it, with them checking up on you every few trims.

Good luck!  Have fun, it's a great way to expand taking care of your horses.


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## KristyHall (Jan 25, 2011)

Well that makes me feel better. I use to do both domestic and wild animal rescue and rehabilitation and have clipped nails and claws of all sorts of species and rarely cut too deep. Usually when the animal was struggling too much or had  at torn nail I had to finish removing so i could doctor it. So I had hopped it  would be similar, simply trim the excess growth, clean the hooves and file them to avoid tears and cracks?
I have two horses, a mother and a daughter, and both are very calm and gentle. My farrier did not want to do them at first because he had an opinion that Arabians were too jumpy. I was very proud when my filly had her hooves done for the first time. She stayed calm and only started to squirm when he was doing the last hoof and she was just getting bored.
He said most people let their yearling push them around and he was impressed that I had her so use to being handled already. 
It will be easier on my old retired mare since she has a history of abuse and when I rehabilitated her, she has grown devoted to only me, and gives anyone else a hard time. I have to be at her head the entire time the farrier works on her. She doesn't kick or really fight, but she becomes visibly nervous and will breath heavy and keep her head held high in the tense alert stance. If I walk away she will do her best to follow me though will stay put if he really insists, even though she isn't happy about it.
So I suppose this is more that just money. I think It will be easier on her state of mind and on me and my worry wart self to learn how to do it.
On a local trimmer? Well I cannot  find anyone willing to teach me without charging a large fee.


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## miss_thenorth (Jan 25, 2011)

We have a barefoot trimmer come do our horses.  Our trimmer is teaching my dd, along with some online courses.  Here is the link.  http://www.equinesoundness.com/courses.htm


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## KristyHall (Jan 25, 2011)

Thank you both for this wonderful information. I look forward to learning how to tend to the girls hooves.


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## adoptedbyachicken (Jan 25, 2011)

Sorry to hear you don't think you can find help.  Then just get a really good farrier in every once and a while, and do look at the links on Pete's site, read and see all you can on those pages, and get his DVD set to watch.

I fixed the seond link too, forgot the hypen.

There used to be a list of certified barefoot trimmers in the US, see if you can find it, they are well trained and are all willing to help owners learn, it's part of the registration deal.  They should not be charging muc more than a trim from being there with you.  Mine did not anyway.


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## ridinglizzard (Jan 25, 2011)

My husband is really into barefoot trimming for all our horses.  He does each horse faithfully on a 4 week rotation.  He had a great farrier who taught him initially, and then he has learned a ton from books, videos, and the good old internet!  Our horses are all relatively new to us, and most of them (4 out of 6) came to us with really poor hooves.  The horse who had the worst hooves came to us a year ago with huge cracks, long hooves, and pretty bad white-line-disease which had to be dremmelled out.  Now you would never know that they had ever been so bad; they are hard, smooth, and have a beautiful shape!  Another advantage to doing them on this schedule is that each trim is really quick once the hooves are in such good shape.


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## patandchickens (Jan 26, 2011)

Um, the problem with "if you do it wrong" is not DIRECTLY crippling the horse, obviously you can be careful not to remove huge chunks of sensitive tissues or pare the sole down to blood or anything like that...

...the worry with "if you do it wrong" is that it is awfully easy (in some horses more than others) to mess up the balance or structural integrity of the hoof, and cause long-term damage. Sometimes it shows up right away but often if the hoof is chronically-dysfunctionally-kept you will not see signs of it for quite a while and they can sneak up on you and be misinterpreted as other things like arthritis or training issues. And the thing is, if a hoof gets into bad shape through chronic mistrimming, it can be real hard -- sometimes virtually impossible -- to set it right again.

Look at how many PROFESSIONAL FARRIERS do a really crappy job and produce chronically-lame horses due to mistrimmed hooves.

If people who've been *trained* to do it (sometimes trained wrong, but sometimes trained basically right only they do not 'get' it correctly) and have *practiced* on thousands and thousands of horses can still so-often do such a dysfunctional and damaging job... I would suggest that it is not something to leap gaily into oneself.

In particular it is NOT AT ALL like trimming goat or sheep or wild animal hooves. The fine points matter much, much more with horses, for a variety of reasons.

That said, if you have horses with basically good hooves that are correctly balanced now, that is at least your 'best case scenario' for doing it yourself. Take pics of all four of each horse's feet, from the knee to the ground, from the side and from the front and of the sole, for future reference. And after you do your trims, or at least a few times a year once you've been doing it a while, check against those photos to see if you seem to be 'drifting'.

Honestly though I think that most peoples' horses are much better off with a GOOD farrier/trimmer.  Among the horses I've seen and worked with, the percentage of "I did it myself" -trimmed hooves that are really BADLY out of whack is much higher than among the horses done by a GOOD farrier/trimmer. (Good referring to skill, not to reputation or price bracket)

JMHO,

Pat


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## miss_thenorth (Jan 26, 2011)

What Pat says is true.  We got our horses 4 years ago. and were new to horses.  We found a farrier, and we blindly trusted her.  We figured, she went to school for it, so she must know what she is doing, since I certainly do not--regarding horses hooves.  Flash forward--last year, my QH was baically lame.  Up until I fired her, I had been mentioning every tiem that it looked like his heels were too high.  She aid they were fine,blah blah.

I went in search of a barefoot trimmer after that, and found an awesome one.  She took the professional course from the sight I linked to.  I, and my daughter have learned so much just from watching and listening to her while she trims.  There is so much to know about balance etc.  My dd is taking the horse owners course, and being mentored by our trimmer while she is learning.  My daughte has a good eye, (a strong back, which is why i am not doing it) and she is learning quickly.  Even after dd completes the course, Our trimmer will come every now and again to assess, and we will also take pictures of the hooves and email them to have them assessed.  I highly recommend the  equine soundness course.  In the year that we have had our barefoot trimmer, both of our horses hoof structure and integrity has improved  big time.  My Jiggs is no longer lame, although he did suffer some by having a bad trim before from the farrier, we suspect some coffin bone damage.
So, I guess what I am trying to say is don't take this lightly.  It is serious, and you _can _screw up a horses hoof by continual bad trims.


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## KristyHall (Jan 26, 2011)

Thank you for the information. I have looked up these sites. While the closest people are an hour away, I'll be contacting them and seeing if I can get them out here. I'm planning to offer extra gas money to make up for the distance.
It makes me wonder....
My old mare started stumbling and her knees swelling about two years ago when I started a new farrier. I thought it was just because she had previous injuries to her legs and her age so i retired her from being ridden. Perhaps she has been improperly trimmed.
Now I'm concerned.


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## goodhors (Jan 26, 2011)

Do your animals get ridden or used at all?  If they are mostly pasture pets, the tiny adjustments needed for performance animals, trims or reshod exactly every few weeks, won't be needed.

The kind of ground the hooves walk on can help or hinder the efforts you make with trimming.  Hard, abrasive ground may keep the hooves down so you really only need a swipe of rasp to clean up the edges, between hoof care sessions.  Winter growth of hoof is always less than spring and summer growth you see.  Sofr dirt, no work on hard surfaces, will allow more hoof growth that may need attention.  Especially if you are not riding or driving the animals to wear off hoof. Shedding of frogs happens when it happens, we just trim off the flaps and let horse walk it off.  I want clean edged frogs to prevent trapping dirt or rocks in the cleft areas, but never cut them down to just look neat.  I like BIG frogs, so horse has lots of impact area in his movement.

I will recommend that you spend the money to get fairly good equipment for hoof work.  This is because using better quality tools will make it easier on YOU.  You don't have to lean on a sharp rasp to remove wall, it cuts under it's own weight.  If you have to lean, rasp needs replacing.  Same with nippers, they cut like a hot knife in butter, not an EFFORT even on hard hooves.  If you have to work hard to close the nippers, get them sharpened or get better quality steel that will hold an edge.  Hoof knife should be sharp enough to shave with.  Again, sharp will cut even hard sole area without a big effort on your part.  That sharp hoof knife is like shaving cheese, just removing small, thin slices of sole so hoof retains the essential cupped shape for grip.  Pressing on that trimmed sole with thumb, it should be hard, never soft and giving to the pressure.  Foundered animals, certain special individiuals may have naturally thin sole depth, which is why you remove see-thru slices, not too much at once.  You can feel when you are getting down too deep, with softer tissue, EASIER cutting.

Hoof trimming is NOT rocket science, they taught us when we joined 4-H.  Leader thought all the kids needed to know how as part of animal care.  Never lamed a single animal.  tTrims were not perfect, but as the animals were used, hooves wore back to where horse WANTED them to be!  Hooves are living, always changing with use.  We LEARNED to be better, developed our eyes on truly seeing GOOD trimming work.  You can't "fix" bad conformation with corrective trimming, you just move problems to another area.  You NEED to let the horse dictate how his feet are trimmed, so he is not sore or developing other issues by being off-balanced.

You might be able to find some reduced price, good nippers on Ebay or Craigslist, save a bit.  I am looking at prices of $70 or more for name brands. Maybe safer just buying new nippers.  You can get a good price in reselling if trimming doesn't work out.  Buying new rasps is usually the better way to go for them.  Most folks use their rasp WAY too long as a money saver.  They are dull and take effort to use, which usually helps unbalance the hoof they work on!  I really do recommend the nippers purchase, they will save you time with hoof removal, may be needed if you get a torn corner.  

You just need to remember that you are NOT getting paid for how much hoof you remove, or saving time between trims by cutting off a lot (Amish trims).  You can always remove MORE with a second or third thin cutting, but you CAN'T STICK ANY OF IT it back on the hoof!  You want both pairs of hooves to match each other in length, angle as you compare them.  Club footed horse or scar injury would be exceptions to matching hoof pairs.

Not sure if you could catch some rides with various hoof care folks, help develop your eyes looking at other animals.  Lots of time to ask questions.  Go for it, learn how to trim, it gains you knowledge.  You may want to hire someone later, but you will have a better knowledge of hoof care, can see if their work is what your horses need or they are just whacking it off with no skill at all.  Then you fire them, get someone else.  Good luck to you, tell us how it goes.


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## KristyHall (Jan 26, 2011)

Thank you goodhorse.
My old mare is no longer ridden and spends most of her time loafing around the  ten acres of mixed pasture and forest. The three year old I have hasn't been trained to ride yet. Three years ago around the time she was born I was in a bad car accident and went through two years of physical therapy so I have picked up her training the past year. She is broke to to being led and petted on but thats about it. Partly I'm just afraid of being hurt  since I have permanent back hip neck and head injury, so I am taking it reaaallll slow with Dakota, the three year old. Thank goodness she is as calm and laid back as her mother!


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## goodhors (Jan 26, 2011)

You might think about sending the filly off for some training by another person.  Even if they just put on 60 days, practice tying, sitting on her quietly doing walk-trot-canter, you can then keep going with her.   I would think it would be much less threatening, if horse has shown she is quiet, easy for the trainer.  Also a big benefit to her "leaving home" with being apart from mom, handled by other folks, meeting new horses, gaining a great deal of self-confidence in managing new stuff.

We had to do that last year, "wean the baby" (6yr old) who had never been apart from the rest here.  He went to a VERY nice trainer, who said his temper tantrums didn't impress HER!  And we knew it WAS just temper, he DID get over it.  Learned a lot from her, got worked 5 days a week, made new horse friends, stayed ALONE without dying in his own paddock.  Just exposed to the busy training stable showed him a lot of stuff he wouldn't see at home!!  He was a BIG boy, lots better attitude, work ethic when he returned home.

3 going on 4, is often a great age for the new stuff.  Mares usually have a better attention span at that age than geldings.  Even if she went, came home and got mostly turned out, you will be ahead for doing your next training steps.  She can think about it for a couple months or until next year when you review, then start progress with her again.  Attitude in older horse introduced to training is often more stubborn, they don't WISH to cooperate.  Been making their own choices too long.  Some training work younger, seems to prevent that stubborn problem from happening.

If you have been severely injured, riding might bother you over time. Driving is something to be considered.  Horse could be trained to both ride and drive.  We are big into Driving horses.  Have to say you NEVER get saddle sore!  Lots of ways to use horses that you may not have considered.


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## KristyHall (Jan 26, 2011)

I have considered sending her off but I'm being a whimp.
The stables I had my horses at before I bought the 20 acres and brought them home, I later learned, had allowed untrained people work with them and they had become abusive to some horses, including my already skittish mare. They used twitches as punishment creating sores and wounds on my mare's upper lip, and incorrectly floated her teeth, all while i was not there. Then when she screamed and reared, hit her with the wooden handle of the twitch. I was told about this by several customers, who also removed their horses because of this event. Who knows what else could have been going on when no one was there! I removed the horses right away and kept them in my one acre yard while I finished buying the 20 acres. I was so angry! It took me months to repair the psychological damage done to Sammy.
 I was still in high school at the time and was preparing for college while taking care of my mother when she first became ill with this neurological disease that she suffers now, so I feel extreamly guilty about not spending more time at the stables to catch this earlier. It is still hard for me to think about
Then when my mother sent her horse off to be trained to a different stable, the crooks sold the horse out from under her!
Do you have any suggestions on checking out stables. I am very nervous at the thought of my girls ever leaving my sight again


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