What to expect from a trim visit

Here is a short article on what happens when I visit you and your horse.

Appointments

Appointments are generally available Thursday to Sunday. In exceptional circumstances I can sometimes make alternative arrangements.

On the first visit, bring some time – I will allocate you two hours, though generally it will be around 90 minutes. When I’m there you will understand that there is a lot to discuss and do! Subsequent visits should be shorter, but please don’t book in a riding lesson half an hour after the appointment time – I want to give your horse’s feet the attention they deserve, so I’d rather have you set aside an hour, and we may finish earlier.

Assessment

This sounds more serious than it is! Both on the first as well as subsequent visits I will speak to you regarding your horse’s health, diet, turnout, workload, and anything else that may help me assess hoof health – this includes vaccinations, worming and changes to any feeding or turnout routines.

Don’t worry – I’m there to help, not to judge! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask; that’s what I’m there for.

If you could have the legs and hooves cleaned for me coming; that would be great. I can potentially get a lot of information from looking at the hooves and mud covers up all of that – also at the top of the hoof. Both the visual and physical inspection will profit a lot from clean hooves, and my rasp will work much better on dry hooves.

The assessment also includes walking or trotting up the horse; we will need a flat, straight, even hard surface to see your horse move.

Pictures

I will take before and after pictures for my records and tracking any progress. Sometimes looking back at pictures helps a lot in assessing developments, and if there is good progress it is also incredibly rewarding – I may send you a couple of pictures a few months down the line to show how well you’ve both done.

Trimming

The trimming may be the longest or the shortest part, depending what the hoof offers and needs. I appreciate calm happy horses, but work a lot with nervous, young or inexperienced horses, or horses with bad previous experiences. If you let me know about any issues we can work on that; I also know a very good behaviourist if you need professional help.

Recommendations

I will provide you with verbal recommendations during the visit or afterwards, and I will either leave you with written recommendations there and then or follow these up within the next day with more extensive written recommendations (mostly when the recommendations are longer or staggered in some way, or when I need to have a look online at feed you provide and cannot find the details on the actual packaging).

What you can do

Have a look at my other article on Trimming. It has a few pointers that may help you leading up to the visit; how to make the visit nice for your horse and keep your horse entertained while I do my job.

Again, if you have any questions please let me know.

I am looking forward to seeing you and your horse!