RE: [RC] pulling shoes now OLDER horse - Ranelle Rubin
Title: Message
..and to add another dimension to this discussion, if your horse is not balanced in the upper part of his body, he will never stay balanced in his feet!
Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. ~ John Wayne
From: sherman@xxxxxxxxxxx To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] pulling shoes now OLDER horse Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 22:21:23 -0800
It is possible that
a good trim given by a traditional farrier will be very close to or the same as
a good barefoot trim. My traditional farrier comes out every 3 mos or so and
touches up my maintenance trimming. I don't use a "barefoot" trimmer. I do
always remind him that I'll be riding barefoot so need to leave the
toe callous and I ask him to put a little bevel on the hoof which I usually have
to touch up within a week. Other than a few little items he does a good job as
he does know how to balance the horses hoof. I wouldn't have to mention these
items to a barefoot trimmer...at least I shouldn't have to, but like I said,
there are different ideas going around about how to trim, some not as hoof
friendly as others. Most barefoot trims leave the toe callous alone, sole is
not rasped or knifed off, but old flaking sole that comes off readily
is removed, the edges are "beveled" to avoid chipping and cracking, often you'll
see a very slight lift of the hoof wall at the quarters. Some trimmers
aggressively trim the bars, others do not. Some trimming methods advocate
cutting into the sole to "create" concavity, some advocate letting the hoof
develop it by the trimmer providing a good trim. When I had my horses shod, I
never paid attention to the length of the bars or how high off the ground the
little frog was, it didn't matter because there was no pressure on either the
bars or the frog. When a horse is barefoot, these things do matter, at least to
some horses, but all are individuals, just like their
owners.
I don't really
consider myself "very" knowledgeable about barefoot trimming, and after 4
years of looking very closely at hooves, shod and barefoot, and dealing with 5
barefoot horses, and reading the websites devoted to barefoot trimming, I'm
always surprised at how much I don't know. There was for a while a trend for the
pros to have free info and case studies on the websites. More lately, it seems
they'd rather have you attend their clinic or buy the book or DVD. There is
still lots out there to pick information from, at least for horses without any
real hoof problems. My horses problems are long toe/underslung heel, but my
farrier gets it nicely balanced for me and I can keep it that way for a couple
of months. When he had shoes on, it would get exaggerated in between shoeings.
Now, it pretty much close to as good as it can be.
It might be that
your pasture trimmed horse had a good "barefoot" trim, or possibly was one of
those horses that had good genetics and you'd really have to screw up to make
the horse's hoof sensitive. That's great, but not all trims are equal and I
don't think owners would be having the success they are having without a trim
designed for the horse to be ridden with it. And yes, a trimmer can mess up a
horse's hoof just as easily as a farrier can. It certainly is an individual
decision, based on the horse's needs and the owners needs.
Kathy
OK, so how can
you tell the difference between a good “barefoot” job, and an
exceptionally good trim given by a “traditional” farrier? Enquiring
minds want to know… Since you sound very knowledgeable with regard
to this technique, can you provide me with a sort of “nutshell” answer in
a short paragraph? Seems like there’s got to be some basic general
difference between the two that can be simply stated. I can follow
up by reading the books and watching the DVDs
later.
“Unfortunately,
a successful barefoot trim does not always allow the horses to travel over
any surface comfortably…”
This does not
sound much different from when I simply rode my horses “unshod” in the
past. Under certain conditions I could do it and the horse’s feet
would stay looking great, and under other conditions I couldn’t.
Therefore, I’m still a bit perplexed as to the basic difference between
“properly trimmed” and “barefoot trimmed.” It would seem to my
uneducated eye, at least, that one major pro of “barefooting” – as opposed
to shoeing – is that it would certainly cost less. Especially if you
have more than one horse to deal with!
From reading all
these posts, it seems as though one can have as much of a problem with an
“invasive” and improperly trained barefoot trimmer as with a poor farrier…
and you can have the same fantastic results with both a superior barefoot
trimmer and an expert and knowledgeable farrier. Appears to be
simply a case of having to look carefully at both methods and deciding
which is best for the horse, the pocketbook, and the surrounding
terrain. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing any
comments… Thanks!
