Hi I'm new to this forum and have only been 'bare' since May but it's something I have been thinking about for years but as there was no one else in my area that was barefoot I stayed with the crowd and carried on having my horse shod. No real problems with my farrier with my previous horse but he was getting older and somewhat slower( the farrier that is!!) I then went to NZ for 2 yrs and many horses out there are shoeless mainly coz it's harder to find a good farrier but they are going into it in a big way. Had a standardbred off the track and he came barefoot, no problems with him.. I then returned to the UK and bought a 5yr old warmblood mare with low milage who was shod so carried on with old farrier but she was a bit more fussy with him. After a yr I moved house and turned out mare into new field which has big stream running through and was very wet everywhere. Within 2 weeks she's pulled both her fronts off in the field and she was only shod a week before we moved.. So that was my kick up the backside to seriously change my system. I have a driving friend who had taken all her horses barefoot after buying one barefoot and has great success so contacted her and she put me onto Nic and the rest is history! Still have a looooong way to go with getting the management and diet right, seem to go 2 steps forward and then one back but made a bit of a boob with the MgO as wasn't giving her the correct amount! Read the info wrong so have upped it this last week and seems better already.
It's definitely a lot of work but worth it, I'm moving back to where we use to be this weekend and haven't told any of my old riding mates what I've been going this summer so will interesting to see what their reaction will be. I wonder who'll be the first to accuse me of being 'cruel' etc!!
Can we add our details of who trims? I trim for myself, but that is only because there was no barefoot trimmer obviously available in this area at the time - 5 years ago. I did and eeeeenormous amount of research and read absolutely everything going. I probably drove Nic nuts asking her what her experiences were on the courses she was going on, and each time she visited here over the years she checked my horses for me to see if she could see if I was doing anything wrong. That's me, what about you? _________________ smartiesdiary.blogspot.com
Glad you like it Carolyn, (I loved yours on H&H!!) I'm enjoying finding out a bit more about everybody's stories. I am doing my own trimming now Find my ridden horse a lot easier as she virtually self trims. The yearling has inherited her mothers good feet (don't wish to be controversial ) so am lucky there too.
Glad you like it Carolyn, (I loved yours on H&H!!) I'm enjoying finding out a bit more about everybody's stories. I am doing my own trimming now Find my ridden horse a lot easier as she virtually self trims. The yearling has inherited her mothers good feet (don't wish to be controversial ) so am lucky there too.
It's such a great incentive to get out there and do the roadwork in spite of the wind and rain, isn't it - knowing that you aren't going to have to get the rasp out if you can get enough miles in on a rough enough surface! It certainly kept me going in the rain yesterday (that and the thought of maybe, just maybe, jumping some hedges tomorrow out hunting - pllllleeeeeeeeze). _________________ smartiesdiary.blogspot.com
Did she give you a titbit when you did what you were told, or is it verbal reward only
Hmm...I usually get hot tongue and cold shoulder more often than rewards
No - honestly - the wife went first with fat cob - it was a girls together thing with her and the trimmer (Anni) and a friend who went barefoot too...and eventually the evidence mounted up so much that even this stubborn old curmudgeon had to grumble his ungratious way to taking the shoes of his horse and the pony!
Fell of after yet another incident, hated horse, so turned him away with another herd while I decided what to do, took shoes off as he's a bossy b*****, after a year had a few months of fantastic behaviour and first time ever he was fit and healthy, no need for shoes, we were in love.
Then I blew it.
My old farrier still trims him and the pony, and if he can assimilate the changes required and do the right thing as well as talk the talk (which he is very good at) he can stay! This is a bit of a fluid situation as almost eveything he has learned and trained others to do is being turned on its head. I think if he can continue I will learn to trim for the long term, but if he stops I have a trimmer ready to step in.
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Still have a looooong way to go with getting the management and diet right, seem to go 2 steps forward and then one back but made a bit of a boob with the MgO as wasn't giving her the correct amount! Read the info wrong so have upped it this last week and seems better already.
Find my ridden horse a lot easier as she virtually self trims. The yearling has inherited her mothers good feet (don't wish to be controversial 
) so am lucky there too.