It is not hard to do. It is hard to do well, that’s why good farriers are at such a premium.
I will rasp between visits to keep things tidy, but every time I do, it just reaffirms that a good farrier is worth way more than they charge. I can only do 2 hooves a day & my guys are very well mannered. It is hard demanding work, & doing a bad job can cause all sorts of issues over time.
These threads always surprise me. Why? People think it’s so easy.
Some die hard BF fans would have you believe it is, but many of these people are completely comfortable allowing a horse to be lame for 2+ years in it’s “transition” to BF glory.
The reality is that farrier science really is a science.
It’s like asking “why do I need a vet, I’ve got the forums and some books”.
Not every horse needs shoes, but every horse needs a fully educated professional involved in their trimming. One who works in conjunction with a professional vet to fully understand what an individual horse needs to be the athlete it’s rider expects it to be.
It is a very rare owner who is capable of learning the job.
While you’re hacking away 20 minutes at a time, your horse’s soft tissue is suffering with its feet unbalanced. To what degree that impacts long term soundness will vary.
I get it. Finding and keeping a good farrier is tough.
But the quest is a worthy one.
I went back and read through all 82 posts and found one person who said it’s “not that hard”. Who is saying it’s so easy? Pretty much everyone else has said it’s a lot of work and a lot of educating oneself.
I think folks doing their own horses, may sometimes fool themselves about the quality of their work. Yes horse goes along, not sore or lame, foot looks alright, like the hooves in videos! What is lacking is the experience gained from trimming volumes of hooves. The seeing before and after hoof, handling MANY hooves on usable horses, to learn " a good job" was done on horse after the trim. I see quarters not level with toes and heels using those short rasps. Not going to kill a horse, but not the best job. Pushing harder on one end of a rasp will get uneven walls. Not switching hands on rasp handle when you switch sides on the horse. Little things that may be hard to spot as sweat drips in your eyes!
One of the hard to figure things is because “You don’t know what you don’t know!” as a trimmer. Maybe some book or video didn’t cover an important point and now you don’t even know about it! Like riding WELL, it takes a lot of saddle time doing things correctly each ride, to finally be able to look natural, fall into the proper position in the saddle, ask horse for what you want and get it.
Heck, some folks just buy the tools, then set themselves up as hoof trimmer professionals! “How hard can it be? I will make lots of money!”
I’m not expecting to do it easily! Or well. Not at first, maybe not ever. On the other hand, the fact that it is hard and not easy to learn does not mean that one should not try to learn. Just throwing up my hands and saying, ‘I can’t possibly do this, only experts can’ isn’t my style.
I would prefer to have a regular farrier. But. The current situation has made me very aware that I need to be able to trim them well enough to maintain them in between gaps and extended farrier visits. I knew getting into drafts that it was a potential issue. I had hoped for it not to be, but it is. It is made more definitive by the look in the big boy’s eye by the time we were on hoof number 3 when I finally had the one remaining draft farrier who regularly does this area come out. To say he and the new farrier are not a match is an understatement. He loved the old farrier, as did the pony.
Thankfully, they are barefoot, barring medical issues unlikely to ever be shod, and frankly not performance horses in the normal sense: like most farm horses they walk, a slow trot in harness might at times occur.
My biggest advice if you are going to try it, buy a really good quality rasp, hoof knife, nipper etc.; the better the quality the easier it will make it, and wear gloves (found that out the hard way). I’ve only done touch ups on my horses so can’t offer advice beyond that.
“Doing your own?” As in, no farrier ever?
Or just rasping off a bit between farrier visits?
Those are two different things. If someone says that some rasping is quite do-able, that is a long way from saying they don’t need a farrier. That’s not what was said.
Do your drafts have good feet now? Do they have excessive flaring or cracks?
They have very good feet, even after a summer stomping flies.
I would like to do them entirely myself for the most part. I’m not so hard headed as to say I never want to have to call the farrier again. But, given a number of factors, if I can get to the point where (like a lot of other posters who do their own work) he only comes out once/twice a year, I think everyone will be happier.
I’m not going to go any farther into why I am set on this on a public board because I value the relationship that I have been able to repair and rebuild because despite what it seems in my posts, there is no question he is a good farrier just not the best match at this point in time.
@B_and_B I am hoping this works out well for you! Sometimes other factors mean doing things yourself, learning as you go. Been there, no real alternatives except doing it yourself. Like Red Green says, “I’m pulling for you!” Ha ha
Thank you!
I love the Red Green show!!
@goodhors Thank you for your post and advice. My rasp and knives are 20 years old. Knives not sharpened in years. No wonder it’s been so hard. Geez. I’ll report back on my Cody James Dymondback in medium. Should arrive today. What a GREAT thread.
Just a quick review on the Cody James Dymondback medium. WOW. Talk about making something less work and much easier.
I’m glad to hear that. I’ll have to try them out.
I did order the gloves in the link above somewhere - non cut gloves. This rasp is sharp like you can only imagine. Glad to have them and thank you whoever it was that suggested.
I might have to give it a try. I cannot find the Vallorbe Spirit rasp in stock anywhere. Bought a box of their V-sharps, but the fine side is like a regular rasp, not the design of the Spirit, which I use primarily on the finer side.
When I was at agricultural college, I took a hoof trimming course to see if I might be interested in becoming a farrier. I learned that there are so many ways that trimming and shoeing can go horribly wrong! Throughout my 30 years in the horse world, I have also seen some real hoof care disasters. If your horse has a straight-forward situation, it may not be that hard to trim yourself. My farrier has shown me how to do maintenance rasping to extend time between trims, but since both of my horses are trimmed in alignment with x-rays, I lack the expertise to maintain that myself over time.
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