How often does your horse get its feet trimmed?

[spotti]

I was picking Faith's feet out the other day and I got to thinking about how fast her feet grow and how she probably could benefit from being trimmed every 3 weeks instead of every 4...to me this sounds like a rather absurdly short amount of time between trimmings! It's not like R doesn't trim them back enough - he actually trims them as short as he can get them to see if they will last...they don't .

So does Faith just have freakishly fast-growing feet or are there other horses out there who need a manicure and pedicure every couple of weeks?!!?!

[scattymare]

Eddie is shod and gets done approx every 7 weeks. This time she's gone 8 and is looking a little long in the toe (farrier coming Sunday)
Flossy is done every 6-7 weeks as we're doing smaller trims to get her hoof shape back to normal. Harvey tends to go twice the length and will be done about every 10 - 11 weeks dependig on when farrier is coming for either of the other two.
I guess it depends on the horse, diet and what work they are doing to depend on natural wear.

[haffyfan]

Mine are done every 4 weeks too.

Occasionally it creeps into 5 but you can always tell when it does and they are all but desperate for doing. I think barefoot horses need more regular footcare (often than shod ones) although most people assume the opposite of course

[yann]

It's an interesting subject, there is a theory that the hoof responds to wear so the more you trim the faster they'll grow. I trim myself, and experimented with my cob, apart from having her toes rolled she went nearly 6 months without a trim. She doesn't land evenly in front so the hooves did deviate a bit laterally, but apart from that she was fine. My farrier who does my other horse watched her walk down the yard and commented how well she was landing too.

The only reason I trimmed the deviation off was so we could get her boots on more easily when we need to, the underside of her feet and her heels still haven't been touched by a rasp since just before christmas, and show no signs of needing to be yet.

On the other hand my Tb is shod every 5 weeks

[racaille]

P and R are shod and trimmed every eight weeks, which is normal here. Mr T has never been trimmed in his life - I would love to see my farrier trying to pick his feet up

I had Lad trimmed when he first arrived as his feet were poor after standing on sand for years but now he's on sand and stones I'm hoping he'll never need trimming, like Mr T. On the other hand, he always seems a bit footsore when I take him down the lane to the 'green' field (no grass in it now, just a few dry weeds but they enjoy searching through ...)

[fleabitten]

This is quite an interesting topic because on Thurs we had a BHS day at the RS and we were discussing the shoe and noting all the different ways a shoe wears down and she said that these shoes are 4-5 weeks worn and it was amazing how worn they were - even the nail holes had gotten bigger, and one side of the shoe was worn more than the other etc. I never realised this before - it sort of made me realise the importance of getting your horses feet looked at frequently - i mean we used to go 8 weeks at least before getting the farrier out and god knows how worn the shoes were by that stage, if going by the 4-5 wk ones was any indication.

[ceej]

willow gets done roughly every other shoeing for Harry - they dont grow fast at all - interesting what Yann says about them compensating and growing faster (and probably weaker)the more you trim. I am amazed any horse needs it as often as every four weeks....I guess if you have boots all the time you have to keep them pretty much the same size all the time...

[spotti]

I suppose...but we haven't used our boots in almost 6 months since we moved yards as all our hacking is off-road. She doesn't do much 'work' though...could that affect her wearing-down-rate?

I too find it interesting about hooves growing faster the more they are trimmed (perhaps they are like human hair?) and we've tried leaving Faith's feet for longer than 4 weeks but they just chip and crack . Apart from their freakishly-fast growth rate, Faith's feet are far better now than they were when I first met her...they used to be long in the toe, square, low heels, flat feet (which to be fair she still has, but apparently that's probably genetic) and big chips and cracks and splits. Oh and they used to grow in ridges - not the horizontal ridges that show previous lami damage, but vertical ones. Now she's on better food (Happy Hoof) and has proper foot care her feet are tonnes better, they grow smooth (no ridges), the only sort of 'down side' is that her feet are now that good that they grow uber fast!!!

She does have white hooves...two of which are striped...if that makes any difference?

[spotti]

Faith has also had a fair few mild lami attacks in her time, so her feet grow quite wide and she gets a gap between her sole and her hoof wall. If this isn't trimmed back to being close to the sole she seems to get footsy and uncomfortable.

I don't really know what I'm talking about re:feet but that's what seems to work for Faith *shrugs*.

She's just a special pony

[jane]

Debbie is shod but she gets done every six weeks, today she was shod at 7 weeks, he shoes were like razor blades but she does do a lot of work.

We were talking to the farrier about trimming and he said it just depends on the individual horse, no hooves are ever the same, workload, environment etc will all play a part.