What is the deal with different ways to trim?

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I know that going barefoot is better and all that but I have heard that there are multipule ways to trim the hooves. Lance is 3 and is barefoot, mostly because it is cheaper but now I think he will stay that way, what is the best triming method for compeating horses and does anyone know of any ferriers who do this in Colorado.

[CMR]

I hate shoes myself, but I am against picking one "type" of barefoot trim and applying it to all horses. Reasons are: Every horses foot shape is different, every horses feet grow at different rates, every horse has a different thickness of hoof, and many more. A "trick" that I've heard a few places is to take your hand and place it about two inches or so down from the coronet band. Cover up the bottom part of the hoof. Take a look at the part of the hoof that is visible. Now remove your hand. The hoof should look exactly like the top part. It shouldn't be flared out, cracked, or anything like that. I hope that makes sense, I'm not very good at explaining myself. :rolleyes: Just find yourself a farrier who knows *something* about barefoot trims(I say this because I know some farriers who do fantastic shoes, but do crap barefoot trims, and vice versa). As long as your horses feet look nice once he's finished, I'd be satisfied with that(I would explain what I mean by "nice" but it's so hard, and I only know what looks nice because of the length of time I've been around horses, which compared to some is only about a second :p )

[Yann]

When it comes down to it there are really only 2 major different ways of 'barefoot trimming'. There might be minor differences between them in the detail and application but generally people like Pete Ramey, Jaime Jackson, KC LaPierre and good farriers all do a fairly similar thing. The Strasser method is quite different and approaches the foot in a completely different way, some of the theory behind it is controversial.

[Kimo]

I really like Pete Ramey. He's flexible and adjusts to the horse. I also like how he's always learning and adding information to what he does. His book and website have really taught me a lot:

http://www.hoofrehab.com/

[Bay Mare]

To be honest it usually comes down to availablility of trimmers!

Personally I wouldn't go down the Strasser route but would have considered the others without too many reservations (I had reservations going barefoot to begin with so that isn't a slur on the other 'makes' of trimmer ;) ). We already had a KC trimmer come to our yard, I looked into it and liked what I saw so went with it. We've now got EIGHT horses barefoot and a student EP :D

[Yann]

And a few farrier trimmed unshod working horses too ;)

[Shadowlark]

www.barefoothorse.com

Might be a good place to start doing some reading, I am pretty sure there are trimmer links for north america off of there :)

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Thaks all!