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.
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.
