Everyone stresses about having the farrier out to trim or shoe their horses every 6-8 weeks, everyone except me it seems. (In a previous blog I discussed my experience and motivation to not shoe my horses, to let them go barefoot.) My property has a lot of rocks and I choose to let the horses trim their own hooves naturally, on the rocks, as much as possible. I have a rasp and nippers so I can clean up their hooves if necessary but I rarely ever have to.

I have the farrier come out to trim all 3 horses about every 6 months. I do this just to make sure the hoof is still "balanced". Sometimes the farrier will still tell me that there is nothing to trim. One of my horses actually went a full year without having to do anything to her back hooves. This saves me a lot of money.

The problem with this is that most farriers only want customers that have a regular schedule. It's difficult to find someone willing to come out every 6 months to trim, and then not always have to trim all three horses. I recently found a new farrier that my horses really like, which is more important than anything else. He is willing to work with me and the needs of my horses. He lives less than a mile away and he doesn't mind working on Saturday. He also shows up on time, I have never had a farrier do that.

A good farrier is hard to find. One that shows up on time is even harder to find. I will get on a better schedule of having him check my horse's hooves and I am willing to pay him even if there is nothing to trim as long as he continues to show up on time and get along with my horses, especially Harvey.