[just_ride]

Does anyone trim their own horses hooves? I have watched the farrier do it many times and it does not look to difficult. The reason I am asking is I am losing my job soon and I am trying to find ways to save money on the horse expenses. I already have to sell two of the four horses and can not stand the thought of parting with Willie. I thought about asking the farrier to teach me, but then I am taking money out of his pocket.



Wiillie

[sian]

it is harder than it looks! but you could pretend to do it to see how sucsess full it will be lol! what you do is with the tools go through the steos of what you have to do with out doing it......that way you can work out wheter or not you can!!

hope everything turns out ok

[IdRatherBeRidin]

My uncle does, my only advice is to learn from your farrier or someone VERY expierienced before trying it yourself, i know your trying to SAVE money but maybe if you payed him he'd teach you?
WIllie is VERY handsome!

[Simon Says]

i have a kid at my barn who does it, he thinks he knows what he is doing, but his horse comes up lame evrytime. it is an art and you need to beable to understand that entire hoof and the inportance of angles, how your horse stands, i wouldn't recomend it, farriers go to school for these things.

[HappyJoy]

if you decide to trim hooves yourself, don't just try to jump in a do it, there is a lot more to it than you would think. take a course or two (or three) and make sure you know what you are doing, because if you mess up the hoof you mess up the whole horse. i was tempted to try trimming hooves for my horses too, but then i read more about and talk to people who knew what they were doing and realized it was a very bad idea. plus it would have taken a long time to save money because the tools around here are super expensive and the farrier only charges $40 for my two horses. just always remember to be careful with hooves and not to rush into anything.

[cassidy]

i think i f you want to learn i would get your farrier to teach you


also rememebr its not just knowing how to do it its have=ing the tools to do it!

[just_ride]

Thanks................

[julie&chico]

Honestly, leave it up to the pro's! it is way harder than it looks, and there is so much you need to know about the hoof....if you wanna save money you could feed round bales instead of squares......good luck

[cowgurly02]

You really should take a course or get your farrier to teach you properly if you want to do it yourself. I do Dodger's myself, but my dad is a farrier and taught me how. I would never shoe him though, my dad does that.

[riding_reaper]

It would be neat to learn but I dont think I would have the guts to do it no matter how well I had it down. Just one of those things that if you make a tiny mistake you could seriously hurt another living thing.