While not a standalone by itself, I bought a book from the ABC Hoof Trimming website. It has some fundamentals that align with ELPO. I found the gauges and tools very helpful. The language on the website sounds cultish, but the book itself is informative.
Tex and Libby – if you guys do the 4-day workshop hosted by Daisy please let me know how it goes. I’ve been eyeballing a few courses but they are all geographically far from me. The ELPO courses in CO seem very interesting, I was considering timing it with a vacation week in CO possibly in 2025.
Farriers in my area really don’t seem to want to pass on their knowledge. It’s almost proprietary - maybe because they are worried it will introduce competition. My neck of the woods has a dearth of genuinely good farriers – but plenty of young men who think they know what they are doing.
I’m reading @LamenessRus’ experience with interest because I’m trying to decide if it’s the best course for someone like me. I’ve been eyeballing her courses for some time. I’ve heard wonderful things about her personally.
The biggest thing giving me pause at the moment is whether or not I can get the time off work, as I have another trip the next weekend.
That’s been my experience, as well. I try to engage in discussions with my farrier and she will comment a little, but not a ton. And she is clearly very opposed to my touching my horse’s feet at all in between her trims - I have two who are barefoot and one in shoes. She comes highly recommended by my vet, however, and she apprenticed with an excellent farrier, so I just try to ask questions without offending her. I can’t afford to lose her.
That’s such a shame! Most good farriers have more interested clients than they know what to do with anyway. My farrier is very open to questions, guides me on rasping between visits, skips my barefoot horse every other visit or so if I’ve done a good enough job, and gives me her old tools when she replaces them. She’s also thanked me for including her in vet visits and letting her work on my TB, who she says has taught her a lot.
Sadly, there are a TON of farriers and trimmers whose ego is bigger than their knowledge, and they have no desire to engage in education much less be asked good questions about why/how.
I probably should have added in the previous post that, unless you come in with solid hands-on experience, you won’t walk away knowing how to just go out and start trimming (at least I didn’t). (Which is reasonable - as someone said upstream, and I think we can all agree, you can’t learn how to trim in a weekend.) The course heavily emphasizes anatomy (to a degree I was very impressed with) so that you can start building a 3D mental model of where P3 is in the hoof capsule, how to understand what kind (if any) rotational deformities you are dealing with (is it the roll, yaw, or pitch that is out of whack?), and how you can use external landmarks from the knee down to guide your approach. She heavily emphasizes the use of radiographs as an educational tool as well as (as much as possible) to guide your trims, but in their absence, how do you visualize the internal bones in relation to the hoof capsule?
She also emphasizes a holistic approach - how is the horse standing and moving before you trim? How about after? She pointed out very subtle postural points and changes that most vets wouldn’t know what to do with, but she factors that into her model of the horse in front of her and considers that in her trim. I don’t know about everyone else here, but most farriers I’ve worked with will watch the horse walk and maybe trot the first time they meet the horse, then never watch them move again beyond going from the stall to the cross ties. Which, if you’re rehabbing a foot issue, how can you tell how it’s going?
I’ll also add that I did not take her online foundational course before hand, which probably would have helped me understand her approach. I am taking it now, though, and while I’m making slow progress, I am definitely enjoying it - it’s part review, part in more depth, and I think there is a lot of information I will still need to digest. I also bought some of her books which are a great review/supplement of her material. Someone smarter than me probably doesn’t need the in-person AND online AND book approach, but I really, really like her philosophy and think it meshes really well with what I’ve been needing for my generally-sound but otherwise still not-quite-right horse (who is now admittedly very unsound and is at another rehab for a soft tissue injury, but when we get over this acute injury hump I’m hoping to incorporate more of Daisy’s integrative approach to fixing what I think are chronic postural general malaise issues we’ve been dealing with that no vet seems to know how to fix - which I am utterly convinced are from the feet which most vets think are “fine,” even though they are clearly not).
Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions
I’m going to come back and read again and go to Web sites later… A 2 week class might be perfect. There is the Mission Farrier school close(ish) to me but it os set up for ppl wanting to go into business and I just want to save some money!
After hay, most years farrier work is next biggest expense.
On recommendation of a vet/chiro I was using, I’ve started following David Landreville. He has a website with tons of videos for $10 per month, and does weekend clinics. I’ve signed up for one in July.
I’ve been trimming my own for 15 years now, since I got disgusted with the pasture trim a supposedly good farrier was putting on my gelding. Even without knowing what I was doing at the time, I made him more comfortable immediately (from “goat on a rock” stance to standing square). From there I got Ramey’s book, watched his videos thanks to @Kyrabee and also got some periodic help from a local barefoot trimmer and oversight from a good lameness vet. To @Xanthoria’s point, the vet said there would be a lot more happy horses in the valley if the farriers trimmed as well as me, and that was when I was totally inexperienced and fumbling. Not saying it to brag, but more to say that it’s sadly rare to seed a good, balanced trim from a farrier, at least around here (there are a few).
But anyway, I’m going off on a tangent. Since going more towards the heel work that Landreville does, my Appendix mare who tended towards an upright, contracted heel, demonstrably built the back of her foot as they quit fitting the hoof boots she’d been in for >2 years. His philosophy is to simulate natural wear with light weekly trimming. I haven’t always met that mark, but am going that way. A small 3" angle grinder can make the work easier when you’re not as skilled with the knife and nippers (i.e., you can see what you want to take off, but struggle with getting the tool to make it happen). It helps immensely on dry summer feet.
The Daisy Bicking courses sound interesting; I might give those a shot next. Trimming your own is really rewarding; it’s so nice to be able to fix something you don’t like right then and there rather than waiting for the trimmer.
I have done the ELPO’s 3 day course. I went in with no trimming experience other than reading/watching the informational material they have on their website. I learned so much and I think it’s a great way to get started. They have a bunch of cadaver feet to practice hoof mapping and trimming. They had each student map a hoof and then cut the leg in half lengthwise so you could see if you marked P3 in the correct position. They also had any student that wanted glue-on experience make their own plastic shoes and glue them on. The last day was trimming a real horse, which I personally didn’t feel ready for. But I didn’t make the horse any worse so that’s a plus! Now I feel like I need another week of trimming cadaver feet before I go near a real horse. Nothing like seeing the visual of how close P3 is to the sole to make you even more nervous about messing up! (I think I just need more hours with the tools, as it’s a brand new skill for me. I feel like I have a solid idea of the concepts/what to do, I just have a hard time making that happen)
The instructors were all extremely kind and friendly, as were the other class members. The course went well past the estimated end time the first two days. I had an absolute blast. Would definitely recommend.
That said if I were going into his clinic with zero experience, I wouldn’t come out of it expecting to know how to trim.
If you are starting from zero, I would try to find a course that focuses on anatomy so you start with a good understanding of how to picture what is going on inside the hoof capsule. Then learning how to use the tools and building strength in your body is a whole other learning curve and that only happens by doing. It’s not going to happen in the span of a short course.
I’m doing the Canby, OR one. It looks like your profile is hidden, but feel free to get in touch if that’s the one you’re going to (or want to discuss afterwards).
