Out of the 1000 or so farriers in the Los Angeles area my podiatry vet and I concur that probably only 4% to 5% know what they are doing and my vet thinks that that figure is generous!
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OMG was my first thought… wow wow wow…
If we know where you are we might be able to help you find a new (competent) farrier… Thank GOD you had him pull his shoes.
OP start educating yourself too…
hopforsoundness and barefoothorse are two good places to start.
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just want to chime in re: “why didn’t the vet say anything about a new farrier?”
Not many vets want to burn a bridge with a client’s farrier, especially since most vets and farriers share a similar swath of clients. I know that my vet[s] would be very, very tactful about farrier trim jobs because it is extremely unprofessional and detrimental to their practice to have them badmouth a client’s horse. What’s worse is clients can and do burn (unsuspectingly) their vet and/or farrier by saying “Well vet said my horse’s feet are garbage” or some extent, when vet was very careful to say something along the lines of “perhaps Dobbin’s angles could be adjusted in XYZ manner…”
It’s a tough crowd and there’s a reason at least in my area that there are several farriers that do not get along with one of the top vets because he is not afraid to mince his words – at the same time, it has caused some serious issues/drama among professionals when farrier and vet cannot or will not see eye to eye and be on the same page.
Back to the actual OP, please listen to SharonA… this farrier does not know what he is doing, he really doesn’t. You’re lucky that all your horse is doing is tripping.
Also, you don’t know what you don’t know – treat this as a valuable learning experience and move on to a better farrier.
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I wondering if this guy even had any formal training… That has got to be the worst example of farriery I’ve seen in a long time. I’m surprised your boy is only tripping and does not actually appear lame.
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I won’t bash the farrier. We have had three horses with tripping problems. We got solutions from a Vet/farrier team. Emphasis on TEAM … Shoeing & trimming to an X-ray is much more precise than feel or “Duckett’s Dot” (Google it) The ideal is a farrier that works at the vet clinic. Both can review the xrays and combine their skills to fix your problem. The vet can see the hoof as it’s trimmed. Merely talking to each other is second best.
A huge proportion of shoe & trim jobs are done well by ordinary Farriers… as in hundreds of years past. It’s a skill and talent. But when you have a problem (tripping) use everything modern technology offers.
I don’t think it’s all that bad that you pulled the shoes right now. Find yourself a new farrier pronto and do some frequent, small trims (after one good one) over the next several weeks to see if you can get the foot back to where it’s supposed to be faster. It will also let those heels expand a bit. Get Xrays done. Provided that the horse is sound enough for turnout barefoot for a little while. I wouldn’t ride until the horse is more comfortable (not tripping).
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By far not the worst I’ve seen, even recently 
And trust me, it doesn’t take an informally trained farrier to do this, and worse :no:
It’s not bashing when it’s an objective commentary on the very, very unbalanced state of feet.
[quote[]We have had three horses with tripping problems. We got solutions from a Vet/farrier team. Emphasis on TEAM … Shoeing & trimming to an X-ray is much more precise than feel or “Duckett’s Dot” (Google it) The ideal is a farrier that works at the vet clinic. Both can review the xrays and combine their skills to fix your problem. The vet can see the hoof as it’s trimmed. Merely talking to each other is second best.
[/quote]
These feet are so badly trimmed, with so much obviously excess foot, that anyone who knows anything about properly trimmed feet could make these minimally 50% better without any xrays needed. Unless there are some issues that require trimming to something “wrong”, like low ringbone as an example, there is no reason any competent farrier needs xrays to trim 99.999% of the feet in his care.
A huge proportion of shoe & trim jobs are done well by ordinary Farriers… as in hundreds of years past. It’s a skill and talent. But when you have a problem (tripping) use everything modern technology offers.
Except that when the very first thing that needs to be fixes is the long-imbalanced feet, that’s where you start. There may be (now) other things going on, but until you start with the most obvious cause, there is too much money to be tossed down the drain chasing symptoms. That’s how so many horses needlessly get hocks and SI joints injected - chasing symptoms, and never addressing the cause, whether it’s terribly trimmed feet, poor saddle fit, poor riding, and other issues.
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Thank you everyone for your input, these forums really are an invaluable resource and I appreciate you taking the time to chime in!
I just wanted to update what’s happened so far.
Yeah, I noticed his suspensories and stuff looked weird. That’s what really freaked me out. Again, this was kind of a progression… his feet didn’t used to look like that and it didn’t happen overnight… it just reached a bad tipping point, I guess, before I really noticed it. He was on Previcox for … unspecified creakiness that couldn’t be pinpointed. Stiffness that he would seem to work out of.
When I told old farrier to not bother with shoes since I couldn’t even ride him… Since I never really got a full view of the underside of his foot until the pads were off/barefoot, I was amazed at how horrible his front heels/frogs looked compared to his healthy, barefoot, rear feet. Everything looked so contracted and squished. Not surprising he could have been having heel pain from that. Old farrier never mentioned it at all.
I asked my best pro friend resource and was recommended a farrier… I was so happy new farrier came ASAP when I said I thought my horse needed urgent help. New farrier was like, uh yeah these are pretty wonky… and in five minutes trimmed off so much toe that the feet immediately looked a lot more normal.
However, new farrier came just two weeks after the last trim by old farrier, so, couldn’t take off TOO much… did as much as possible. Left shoes off, said hoof quality is good and no reason he can’t be barefoot. Horse looked tender for a few days and I left him alone since the angle was changed quite a bit.
Fast forward to a few weeks later… he’s doing a lot better! I’m still just lunging him at this point so he can do whatever he needs to do with his body to adjust… but… it’s looking a LOT better. He isn’t 100% trip-free, but it’s not happening ALL.THE.TIME. like it was. His stride is looking a lot more normal to me.
PHEW???
I imagine it will take a bit more time to get the feet just right and for him to adjust to them, plus get back into shape, but I’m feeling hopeful.
I will try to remember to take some pics of how his feet look now to compare!
I’m going to try not to cry about the amount of vet $$$ I may have poured down the drain only to find out it was the feet all along… sigh
Also, now to compose a tactful text to old farrier… ugh…
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That is great news! Thanks for the update. I would love to see new pics.
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It could take up to a year. Be patient.
