3 reasons to trim your horse? Are you sure?

I post a lot about horses self-trimming and in fact this blog has got something of a reputation for that, which I guess is inevitable, but its a fact that many owners, trimmers and farriers find the concept of a self-trimming horse controversial.

So when I put up a post like Tuesday's blog - a cautionary tale similar to many others I have heard before and blogged about before - it can still cause strong feelings for and against.

As ever, the people who are most sceptical about horses self-trimming are those who have little or no experience of it. By contrast most owners who have tried it have been pleasantly surprised by how well it suits their horses and how much sounder they often become - which in itself speaks volumes!

So today's post is an attempt to clarify some of the misconceptions about self-trimming and when its a realistic option.

1. "Without a "balanced" trim horses will suffer injury or lameness".

When I posted Tuesday's blog there was an outraged comment made on FB by someone who, I suspect is a trimmer; it may not have been intended as such but it came across as a classic piece of scaremongering:

"It is dangerous in this domestic world to encourage horse owners to neglect balanced timely trims as very few horses get enough exercise to wear off growth, especially imbalanced heels and overly long breakovers. This puts a huge stress on the entire limb/thus the whole structure, and in upper level movements, over time, can lead to ringbone, side bone, and navicular problems from torque on the inner structures. "

I don't know how many horses this person has rehabbed but I can guarantee that every single horse which comes here for rehab has tendon and ligament damage. Its documented on MRI in most of them and has been demonstrated by scans and nerve blocks in the rest.

Most also have the "imbalanced heels" and "long breakovers" which this trimmer feared. Lets also add in medio-lateral imbalances (very common), under-developled palmar hooves (100%) and conformational issues (very common). Most have also been regularly trimmed or shod - it is certainly not neglect which has led to these injuries.

One of the things which doesn't happen when horses are here is trimming. So what dreadful consequences occur?

• Even with modest amounts of movement horses self-trim (bear in mind these are lame horses - at least initially - so they are not covering huge mileage). 
• All horses develop healthier feet - particularly improved dorso-palmar and medio-lateral balance and more robust digital cushions and frogs. 
• Long breakovers and imbalanced heels correct themselves - at the horse's pace - and in response to stimulus and loading, meaning that internal structures strengthen at the same time.
• Horses become steadily sounder as tendon and ligament injuries heal and most return to the same level of work or higher than before they went lame

And here's the clincher - most horses then go home from rehab to normal yards (see below!) and continue to improve even when they aren't trimmed and they aren't on our tracks...In fact its far, far more common for problems to arise following a trim than because a horse hasn't been trimmed - there are some interesting statistics in this post. 

Sure, horses with untrimmed feet may look untidy to our eyes but it rarely causes a problem with soundness unless there is also something else (eg laminitis) going on as well. Over-zealous trimming, on the other hand, is a frequent cause of lameness.

The problem, as always, is that trimming is a one-trick-pony. A trim can only ever take away hoof wall or (heaven forbid) bar, sole or frog. Most horses don't go lame because of having too much of any of these and - given even limited access to harder surfaces than a soft field - are more than capable of dealing with an excess very efficiently. This is why trimming as a tool for improving soundness has big limitations. 

2.  "Most horses can't manage in a domestic environment without trimming".

This is the commonest reason why most owners believe their horses need trimming and why their horses could never self-trim. The phrases I hear and read all the time are "my horse doesn't do high mileage"; "my horse only works once or twice a week" and "I don't have a track for my horses like you do at Rockley".

With that in mind, here are a few facts for you to ponder.

• Most ex-rehab horses are self-trimming on normal livery yards. No-one has the sorts of tracks at home that we have here. Generally consistent work on varied surfaces is all they need. 

• Hooves are incredibly dynamic. They grow in response to stimulus, not at a pre-determined rate. Change work levels and growth levels will change too - so self-trimming is possible both for hard-working horses and horses in light work.

• Even horses in no work can self-trim. Our broodmare and her foal were completely self-trimming despite never going out on the roads and having no access to our tracks, which we needed for the rehab horses. Instead they had turn out in a small concrete yard and the fields - that was all - but on a balanced diet* even this limited mileage and stimulus was enough for healthy hooves which never needed a trim and never chipped or flared.

* And this is VERY important.

3.  "My horse needs trimming every few weeks or the feet become long and flared even though he is in light work".

Well, its certainly a possibility that the feet are over-growing because the trimming is interfering with their ability to match growth levels to the mileage they are being asked to do. 

After all, a trim will replicate many, many miles of wear, which would normally happen over several days or weeks, in just a few moments and the hoof is bound to respond. This can lead to the hoof putting out far more growth than it needs, simply because the trim was too much stimulus in too short a time  (big thanks to Bruce who first put this idea into my head!).

In response to increased mileage (stimulus) the healthy hoof will compensate by increasing growth rates and in response to less stimulus, growth rates will slow down. You can see how growth rates could be confused in a horse who is doing low mileage (so little stimulus on a daily basis) but having regular trims (huge spikes in stimulus for a few minutes every month).

Hooves are evolved to cope with changes in stimulus and can grow very fast, if they are doing high mileage over tough terrain, or very slowly, if they are doing low mileage on easy ground - but they cope best with with steady changes, which a trim doesn't allow.

 If you regularly trim your horse try tapering off the trimming and keeping everything else consistent - you may be surprised how well he adapts. 

And if you are worried about flaring, check and double-check your horse's diet and have a read of this post too: http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/flare-deviation-and-does-it-really.html

Finally, there is nothing wrong with trimming* but you may find its not as necessary or as beneficial as you first thought.

*Provided that you follow the golden rule: the horse must  be as sound or sounder (over ALL terrain) after the trim as before and the way he lands and loads his foot must be as good or better after the trim.