Trimmah

by David Dow

I have found myself not shoeing as many horses as I thought I would. Actually, only about 10% of my current stable of horses are shod. And after the winter shoes are pulled, that will go down to about 7%. I don't mind, I can do most of my work out of my pickup with no cap or trailer. And if I have to travel any distance, I take my sons 30+ MPG little sub compact. I don't mind that either. What bothers me is the attitude I can get when I talk to other farriers about what I do.

"Oh, you are a TRIMMAH!"

Ok, we live in Maine and that's how we talk. Don't get me wrong, I really don't care what people say to me or think of me. I do my thing and let you do yours and you know what? We both should be ok with that. What gets me is the attitude of trimming that is projected to the clients by the farrier organizations. It is the attitude that is projected to the horse owners by the farriers themselves. Oh, it's just a trim? Yeah, let me get back to you when I can get to your area....

So, the farrier never calls back and two weeks later, when the poor horse's feet look like little elf boots, Farrier Dave gets the call. I am making a living off of the trim rejects.  I haven’t marketed myself as a trimmer. I have marketed myself as a minimalist farrier. I try to take the least invasive method possible to make your horse safe and sound. I figure if you jump right to the most aggressive, where do you go after that? I have read the different barefoot philosophers books and watched their videos. Do I follow them to the letter? Hell No! Can I talk their talk and debate with the horseowners who have every video and book and web site bookmarked and belong to the clubs and newsletters and email groups and have a tattoo on their body of their favorite barefoot expert? Yes. I can explain why I won't do a Mustang roll taking 1/2" off of the toe. I can explain why I will not rasp the hoof wall so that the sole of the hoof bears full ground weight. I can explain to a friend horseowner who trims her own horse's feet why she shouldn't go out every day and just "touch up" her horses feet with a dremel tool. I can talk the Strasser Trim talk because I subscribe to the Strasser Trim newsgroup. I just got done watching Pete Ramey's "That’s My Horse" series for the third time. He actually has some very interesting points. I can explain why I do not use the $50 hoof gauge that is under the seat of my truck. I can explain why every horse's hoof won't be at 54 degrees and have 2 3/4" toe length and why I don't really care. And I can explain why it is ok for their horse to eat hay stretcher.

My point here is that unless we as farriers embrace the fact that there are people out there who are marketing to OUR clients that they have a new way of doing things that WILL do wonders for their horse, we WILL lose OUR customers. A case in point is the Mustang that I trimmed a couple of months ago. The horse was hit by a car three years prior and had a serious back injury. The vets and chiropractors have told her that it is a disc and structural issue and to get her trimmed correctly and she will be comfortable but never sound to ride again. The owner told me all about the Wild Horse Model and how her horses will never have metal on their feet. I trimmed the horse using my normal balancing methods and she pulled out her hoof gauge and checked it and it was within the standards and the toe length was measured and we were good. We scheduled another appointment and went on our way. The day before I was to go out to trim the horse the next time, this lady posts on one of the equine boards about how she has a new farrier and she is working marvels with her horse. So I email her and ask what is up. Oh, she says, this new farrier is going to fix her!! She has these shoes that are going to make her sound again!! Really, I wrote back, what kind of shoes are going to make your horse, which a vet and chiropractor and previous farriers told you won't be sound, sound again? 'Cause I think I might need some. Oh, she said I don't know what they are called but this farrier went to school in Colorado and she says they can fix almost any horse. Oh, Natural Balance shoes. Check for sole bruising, hun.....

There is a lot of snickering and joking that we do when we talk about the different methods. I went to a World Championship Blacksmith contest at Equine Affaire and the joke was with all of these English and high brow people here we should have a Mustang Roll contest. We call them crazies, we call them Barefoot Uber Alles istas(BUAistas), I call them -ites. We put down their methods and ways. We know that our methods have science and experience behind them. We need to know what we are up against. We need to know what methods are out there. We need to know them as well as we know what we do. We can not allow better advertising to beat common sense and tried and true methods. We need to, in a professional way, educate OUR customers and their friends and the general public that we can trim too. We know how.

And we shouldn't make fun of those of us who are "TRIMMAHS!" and "SHU-AHS".

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