Posted by Anne Daimler on December 02, 2003 at 08:36:44:
In Reply to: trimming a TWH posted by Stephanie on November 30, 2003 at 19:22:08:
: I recently purchased a walking horse. My farrier is A QH guy. Is there any special way he should be trimming my new horse? I've heard leave the hoofs long and others so not to. Also heard they need a steeper angle to help promote the gait. Now I want to hear the right info from someone who actually works on walkers. I live in Florida and leave my horses unshod as we ride on sand mostly.
No matter what the breed, a healthy hoof is a healthy hoof, and a naturally gaited horse will gait better if its hooves are healthy. A less strongly gaited horse will choose to gait if its feet are not comfortable, since the weight is distributed more evenly with the broken gaits. This is why you see so many gaited horses with very steep toe angles.
I, too, live in Florida, and I trim many gaited horses, some of them TWHs. My TWH owners report their horses' gaits smooth out and that they no longer have to "urge" them into their running walks. They also report that horses who used to trip and stumble a lot become more surefooted with a correct barefoot trim.
You're going to find a lot of controversy on these boards about what a "correct" trim is. I do the Strasser system and am very pleased with the results. My mare is a Curly with a lot of MFT blood. I use her for dressage and trail. She has awesome walk, trot and canter gaits, and can also do a flat walk, fox walk and foxtrot (although she is not strongly gaited, i.e. doesn't choose a broken gait over hard trot).
I urge you to start educating yourself about hooves and make your decisions based on what you learn -- not what I or another farrier or barefoot trimmer tells you is so.
Anne Daimler
SHP 2002
DeLand, FL