Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Thanks Cassie. I will be signing up to do the home study course from Equine Education Institute and I have a couple of cd-roms that I have been able to obtain on the hoof, hoof balance, etc.  It is definitely a work in progress and I know there is sooo much to learn. I will look in my area to see if I can find someone who might be able to "coach me" a few times. I am not sure that the Strasser method is right for me as it seems to be a little extreme, although I am not saying it doesn't work for a horse with more serious problems like founder.

My horse does have one leg that turns out a little so I have to be conscious of that. While it hardly shows when her hooves are kept short, if she goes too long without a trim, her leg will become more obviously crooked the longer her toes get. So I make sure to keep up with trimming and have been getting her done every 6 weeks. Which is one of the reasons why I would like to do it myself - sometimes farriers are not always available when we need them :)

I do want to leave my horse barefoot as much as possible but for competitions I will most likely use easyboots. I just do not have enough (any) rocks to condition on and many areas that I would go to would have tons more rocks. We just have sand or dirt (or mud) trails.
Lysane

> Hi Lysane,
>
> I have been trimming my own horse since December last year. It can
> be good and bad. I have done several home study courses and have had a
> Strausser Hoof care specialist work with me along with a regular
> farrier. I would suggest you read everything you can so you can make
> your own decisions. I have been focusing on the Strausser approach
> mainly because I have problems with shoes last year and I adopted a
> severely foundered horse. Strausser has some very definite ideas on
> trimming the bars back and exactly how the hoof should be formed. A
> good site to read for her ideas is www.naturalhorsetrim.com . I still
> question which style is correct. Some believe no horse should wear
> shoes and other feel it is good to keep a horse shod. My suggestion
> would be to find a style you think best fits your horses an then find an
> actual trimmer who
>  will tutor you. Both the trimmers I work with are
> happy to help me free of charge; others may ask for fees. Either way
> you will have a professional critiquing your work so you don't get them
> severely off balance. On the strength part of the equation first do one
> hoof like you are them you'll be strong enough to do two and so forth.
> I can trim about two horses in a day without killing myself. And the
> nice thing is I can just put it off till tomorrow if I want. Well those
> are my thoughts on the trimming thing.
>
> Cassie
>
> ________________________________

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