trimming

[davidfearnley]

Are there any courses that teach you to trim horses feet. There is a girl on our yard who has horse that is really scared of the farriers and she asked me if id clip his feet. Obviously i dont know how to do this and would never even try without training.

[Vez]

Is there a reason why she is scared? I don't think there is a quick corse to learn how to do and I think it would be easier if you can somehow get her over her fear!

[eventerbabe]

i would think these days it would be nigh on impossible (and also illegal) to practise farriery yourself unless you were a qualified, registered farrier or an apprentice with a registered farrier. With the ammendments to the farriers act things have been tightened up.

ah, just reread the law and barefoot trimming falls outwith the farriery act. So i guess barefoot trimming is deemed acceptable with minimal training/qualifications.

[Bay Mare]

The KC La Pierre course takes a year to complete in which time you have to attend a certain number of courses, do a theoretical course including exams and pass a final exam. Whether you stick to the KC way or join the EPAUK you have to undertake CPD to remain registered with them. The KC course costs about £10k when you factor in equipment, accomodation, food etc plus, of course the courses themselves.

I'm pretty sure that AANHCP is similar.

People do attend one course and start trimming. There are also people who haven't attended a course and who have picked it up along the way. Personally I wouldn't use someone who wasn't suitably qualified.

There are changes in the offing with regards to training etc in the UK. Hopefully there will be some kind of regulation too.

[MelanieD]

Could she get an EP or UKNCHP trimmer out? Different enough to farriers that horse may cope and are generally more patient and willing to try different stuff like clicker training and more NH type methods. There's KC courses and some people are happy to trim staightforward feet after only doing one course, need to do multiple courses and homework to actually qualify. Or there's UKNCHP training but think you have to do the whole training rather than only one course. Or could horse be sedated to have feet sorted out in the first place then get farrier to show you a basic tidy up trim so pony doesn't have to be done by farrier quite as often?

[Wally]

If the horse is scared of the farrier then I bet you £1 to a pinch of snuff, once you pick up a foot and start work on it you'll get the same reaction.

The horse, for his own sake must be trained to accept a farrier or hoof trimmer. Why does she think that if the horse won;t accept a farrier trimming the horse's feet he's going to allow you to do it?

[Yann]

I would look to tackle it from a behavioural perspective too and get a sympathetic trainer such as an IH RA to work with the horse and owner and get them on the right track. If it's the actual shoeing process the horse is worried about rather than plain foot handling then lots of exposure to other horses being shod close by and maybe a dummy run or two with a sympathetic farrier will also help.

As far as learning to trim goes you can do courses, but some trimmers will actively encourage you to get involved if you're interested. I've actually done the last two trims on both my horses, initially under their supervision, and then checked by them, and so far so good. It isn't rocket science (unless you want it to be...) and IMHO is a world away from going out and doing lots of other people's horses. It's also very satisfying.

And as with all things the job someone does is more important than their qualifications, some of us have been more than happy to use one particular unqualified trimmer in the past and I would do so again in future if the need arose.

[mayoguinness]

Its not illegal to trim your own horse barefoot. I'm really into Pete Ramey now and love his book "how to make natural trimming work for you". Defanatly like to go on one of his courses:)