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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 349
 
Location: texas | My horses are barefoot, we use a natural trimmer, we are down here n south texas
Yes its all about the balance....
And the feet are tale tale sign when ur horses body is out, u can see the wear pattern on the feet |
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 Poor Cracker Girl
Posts: 12150
 
Location: Feeding mosquitos, FL | I've been trimming my own for about two years now. I use an air-powered grinder with an auto body sanding pad on it. It's easier for me to handle then the big plug-in grinders and the speed is more adjustable. I try to stay as faithful to the natural shape of the foot as possible, trim to the water line/white line, and make sure it's balanced and level all the way around. Cut off all flare like a maniac and watch the foot grow and expand.
I'm amazed at the difference I've seen in their feet. My old guy has historically had a problem with long toes and underrun, contracted heels. He grows a lot of foot and was being trimmed every four weeks with front shoes to attempt to keep the running forward under control and keep him sound on some of the hard clay ground around here. Once I started trimming him myself, his feet have literally expanded to probably twice their size. They look like they belong on a draft horse. His frogs are huge, his heels are no longer contracted and he's sounder than he's ever been. I still have to keep his toes trimmed back pretty hard but he's moving better (now that's too hurt to run barrels on again... of all the rotten luck) than he's ever been. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| teamthompson - 2015-11-20 7:36 AM
My horses are barefoot, we use a natural trimmer, we are down here n south texas
Yes its all about the balance....
And the feet are tale tale sign when ur horses body is out, u can see the wear pattern on the feet
I am in the Corpus Christi area. Could you PM your trimmer's number if they are taking new clients?
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Expert
Posts: 1409
Location: Oklahoma | I have the pete rameys dvd set best investment i ever made! Barefoot trimmers and shoers was making my horse sore so made me learn! I try to do every 10-12 days easier on my back! |
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 Veteran
Posts: 287
| You can learn pretty much everything you need to know by reading everything you can possibly get your hands on and watching youtube. I trimmed ours for years cause we had so many, it was the only cost effective thing to do. And ours were trot and lope on gravel sound. People get nervous about it, but the vast majority of horses are not complicated to trim if you just pay attention to the horse and it's foot. Horses have been getting their feet done for eternity by fellas that ARE NOT rocket scientists, lol. Read your brains out, get decent tools and have at it. And also, I very much agree with the person who said to not get the to short. Especially if you are in fairly dry country like I am. Cause they will wear down even more with any kind of riding and they'll get sore. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 396
| All our horses are barefoot. We even bought a new horse this summer that had been shod his whole life. Pulled his shoes, put him in our program and actually haven't noticed any tender foot or any problems. |
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 Buttered Noodles Snacker
Posts: 4377
Location: NC | bump. Would love to hear more about this. I have always tried to keep my horses barefoot and never realized there really is a difference to a 'bare foot trim' until I had a 'Barefoot Trimmer' do my mare last. I am down to one horse that I am just getting going so would love to learn to trim her myself. Would love to hear what books, youtube videos and dvds you guys used. |
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Veteran
Posts: 287
| Go on YouTube and search barefoot trimming. And google. There is seriously a ton of info. Once you feel like you wanna try it yourself, just go slow and take a little off at a time. Especially with just one horse, there's no need to rush. Just rasp a little off every couple days and don't really get to ambitious with the hoof knife. I don't trim the frog at all unless there is flaps trapping fungus. More shoers are starting to leave the frog alone more around here which is good. And the other difference in a BF trim is the Mustang roll. The other thing to pay attention to is the bars. You want to make sure those are compacted and holding false sole in there that needs to shed naturally. It's not to complicated, though it seems that way at first. Just get your hands in there and do it. |
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