How long do you go between farrier visits?

Mary Poppins

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Oct 10, 2004
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Ben had his feet done today (he is shod in front and barefoot on the backs). In his previous home they told me that he would often go 10 weeks between visits. I can't get an exact date of when he was last shod but it is likely to be 9 weeks. The farrier (who is very well respected) said that he had excellent feet and they simply grew slowly and that he could have waited another week from today. He is going to take another look at his feet in 8 weeks and go from there.

Does anyone else wait this long between farrier visits? The farrier does all the horses on the yard, most are shod between 4 and 6 weeks. He said that you have to treat all horses as individuals and if his feet don't need doing, he doesn't want to shoe him for the sake of it. His feet are apparently in really good condition and in his opinion have been well looked after in the past.

I feel uneasy about going 8 to 10 weeks, just because everywhere I have read tells me I should be looking at 4 to 6 weeks.
 
Junes have been on 10 weeks and still fit but farriar is booked in for next week. she has very poor growth and they are just starting to look concaved, she could go a lot longer as she hasnt really grown but i dont want her going to long! Im more concerned about her unshod backs as they werent trimmed last time as she didnt need them doing
 
Junes have been on 10 weeks and still fit but farriar is booked in for next week. she has very poor growth and they are just starting to look concaved, she could go a lot longer as she hasnt really grown but i dont want her going to long! Im more concerned about her unshod backs as they werent trimmed last time as she didnt need them doing

That makes me feel better. Do you know why she has poor growth? Is it just one of these things - I guess humans nails grow at different rates and horses are the same?
 
Caymen is every 6 weeks in summer and in winter up to 8 weeks. He was shod last week and we arranged for 7 weeks this time and see how he is.

Caymen has very slow growth but his feet get a bit crumbly so he needs regular attention.
 
no idea,

she is very lami prone but without shoes she couldnt even walk across the yard as they were so flat.

just have to keep an extra close eye on her
 
The yard manager said that his feet may start to grow quicker now that he is having hard feed. In his old home he was never fed hard feed so I guess it's possible that he wasn't getting the vitamins needed for his feet to grow?

I know absolutely nothing about feet - I need to go and buy a book!
 
Feet first by nic barker :)

Im not sure about the hard feed thing - hoof growth is a response to demand on the foot. To cover miles in the wild, the horse has to grow feet rapidly to stop them wearing off too fast - but without that demand the hoof grows slowly - so if his workload over harder surfaces particularly increases then you may see a difference :)
 
Mine is shod on front and barefoot on back. I have mine done religiously every six weeks. Each time he comes I book in-advance for the next time. Mine was done last weekend and the farrier picked up his backs looked and put them down again. He took nothing off, not even a reshape. He did reshape the backs a bit last time. But he takes next to nothing off. The fronts this time had nothing on them either. The farrier said he was more like a normal horse. Your average TB.
Six months ago it was a different matter. The farrier trimmed off nearly and inch off both the fronts and six weeks later it was a good half inch. His feet just went crazy. The farrier thought he had a false sole the time he took off nearly an inch. He discounted that theory on the next trim though.

When I first had my horse he was barefoot allround, and was done every eight weeks. I changed farrier just after having fronts put on, and he preferred to do every six weeks. I think actually it suits mine at about six. Especially if he does put on growth as they start to rattle at about 4 weeks.
 
All my 4 barefoot boys are seen every 6 weeks at the moment, during the summer 2 of them were trimmed every 4 weeks, they grow loads of foot.

New girl is shod alround at the moment, she needs doing every 6 weeks to correct hoof balance, backs are going to come off next visit, hopefully fronts in the future.

I don't feed hard feed as such, all on low sugar high fibre diet.
 
Not saying anyone is wrong but almost all the feet I've seen left longer than 6 or 7 weeks have looked too tall to me. Even if the shoe is still on tight and there's no flare, if that's the case it's still interfering with the horse's biomechanics and risking contraction in the back of the foot.
Tess doesn't grow masses of foot and there's rarely much to come off, but I can see a clear difference in her movement after she's reshod after 5 weeks or so.
 
Not saying anyone is wrong but almost all the feet I've seen left longer than 6 or 7 weeks have looked too tall to me. Even if the shoe is still on tight and there's no flare, if that's the case it's still interfering with the horse's biomechanics and risking contraction in the back of the foot.
Tess doesn't grow masses of foot and there's rarely much to come off, but I can see a clear difference in her movement after she's reshod after 5 weeks or so.

I don't really understand what you are saying (but i really don't know anything about feet!), the clenches were not risen and the feet were not growing over the shoe. Saying that, his feet did look better once he had been shod but I can't explain why.
 
The feet are growing continually from the moment the shoe is nailed on, which means the foot is getting longer and the foot becomes less and less 'balanced' (as in right for the horse in all measured dimensions) and this can begin to affect how it moves. It's eventually like us having to wear stacked shoes constantly, you can't walk as fluidly as normal and it can set up muscular aches and tensions.
 
6-7 weeks although now we are going 8 weeks.

When I took Joy barefoot I dropped backed to 6 weeks over winter which was a shorter interval than with shoes. It's only now (1 year on) I've gone to 8 weeks even though he only really rolls the wall when he comes. He knows he doesn't need to be seen to be doing much to make me think it's value for money and apparently that's quite rare.

I personally would rather have a professional see my ponies feet regularly, regardless of whether anything needs doing as it's not just about the trim, the little man is prone to seedy toe occasionally and I'd rather that was caught sooner rather than later. Also, farrier was first to notice an issue if stiffness in Littles which lead to him being diagnosed with arthritis sooner rather than later. My farriers visit is so much more than a foot trim.
 
Finn was getting a full set of shoes every 6 weeks but then the farrier advised us to push it to 8 weeks.

He said Finn has got extremley good feet and dont seem to grow that quickly!

Perry has a little trim & shape every 8 weeks too! :)

Id feel uneasy going any longer tbh, although when we moved yards we had to go around 10 weeks because our farrier was away, it didnt seem to do much damage but i would'nt like to make a habit out of it!
 
The other potential drawback to spacing out farrier visits is that the feet end up being shod slightly longer each time and the problem gets compounded.
 
5 weeks. Tobes grows a lot of hoof and having had to have a TB pts because of foot issues (not I hasten to add because I didn't have him shod regularly but breed problems and compounded by 10 years in a racing yard), although it is costly I am fanatical about Tobes being shod regularly. I just will not chance it.
 
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