Possibly impossible to answer question?

Anamaere
Anamaere Posts: 60 Member
Is anyone here a farrier/barefoot trimmer and how do you calculate the calorie useage from your work? I'm a barefoot trimmer and am completely stumped on how much extra I should allow for serious work days. I'm assuming it'd be more of a weightlifting than a cardio (assuming a well behaved horse LOL the naughty ones can turn into a cardio workout if it all goes wrong!)

Susan

Replies

  • alipene
    alipene Posts: 945 Member
    Here's a blog I found that suggests that horse-shoeing is approximately 50 cals per 15 mins for a hundred pound person - there's an equation whereby you can put your own weight in
    :
    http://simplyhorse-crazy.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/who-ever-said-riding-isnt-sport.html

    No idea if it's accurate though. I agree, there must be different degrees of shoeing activity!
  • Anamaere
    Anamaere Posts: 60 Member
    Thanks :) The general consensus between farriers/trimmers is that just trimming is harder than shoeing, and as i'm 258 lb atm ill have to do some maths for it LOL
  • grumpers
    grumpers Posts: 46 Member
    gosh that area area looks familiar. Are you somewhere in California? Like your horse!
  • Anamaere
    Anamaere Posts: 60 Member
    haha! I'm actually in Australia in Queensland. The horse is Gemma, she's the oldest and the biggest of my little herd and is in semi retirement now. My profile picture was taken at a fun show i went to in early September. It's actually one of the only pictures I have of myself on a horse and makes me sad really. Once i'm further along in my weight loss I'm going to scrub up all the horses nice and possibly do a photo shoot of sorts :)
  • SMCLosesIt
    SMCLosesIt Posts: 45 Member
    Whereabouts in queensland? I am near Kilcoy.
  • emnpepper
    emnpepper Posts: 16 Member
    I realise this is an old thread but I've just joined this group and read this thread!
    I'm in Queensland too - have a couple of horses at home close to Brisbane (west)
  • Anamaere
    Anamaere Posts: 60 Member
    awesome :D I have my little herd of 5 about 30km south of toowoomba. is nice to find another queenslander :D
  • Kidostud
    Kidostud Posts: 307 Member
    I also trim my horses myself. Boy, it's hard work!! I don't have a clue how many calories you burn, but it must be a lot. And I'm sure you have buns and thights of steel, as those work pretty hard, espesially with the hind feet!
  • Anamaere
    Anamaere Posts: 60 Member
    haha i found out how to calculate it using met values :) at my current weight it's abotu 500 cal/hour. i use a hoof stand and sling for the back feet as i just cannot get the posture right for holding the feet up haha
  • Kidostud
    Kidostud Posts: 307 Member
    I find it very difficult to trim while having the hoof in a sling / hoofstand, because then I have to use one hand to stabilize the hoof and only have one hand to trim. I find I just need more power! I have the correct stance, but can't keep it up for very long, so I just take lots of breaks!
  • Anamaere
    Anamaere Posts: 60 Member
    it does take a fair while ot build the muscle stamina. i have a slightly funky stance so i can hold the foot in place ont he stand with my body/hip while still rasping with 2 hands. if i dont use the stand i just cant stop the horse's leg slipping off my lap/knees without twisting
  • Kidostud
    Kidostud Posts: 307 Member
    I take my hat off to people who trim / do farrier work for a living. I only do my 3 horses and then I'm pooped!! I wouldn't do it for someone else unless I get paid a hell of a lot of money per horse!!
  • BellehavenfarmDawn
    BellehavenfarmDawn Posts: 248 Member
    I was a Barefoot Trimmer and DeShoer too! bravo. I became interested in learning more about this topic, ESP to understand grass and hay connection with founder. I took an inexpensive course with Dr. Eleanor Kellon who is a vet, trained at Penn who has specialized in nutrition. the work issue never figured into what I concentrated on. HOWEVER, I remember her saying that only racehorse actually need grain type feed based on what they do. she said even endurance horses do just fine on correct forage.

    Having siad that there is always,the exception. she offers inexpensive consults and a group of her well trained students handle a large portion of questions on a Yahoo site. If you are interested pls email 4sweet.feet@gmail.com.

    I learned how to test grass, hay and feed. Make a chart of what my horse needed based on his size and work. based on the feed I then figured out which macro and micro nutrients he was getting compared to what he needed. REALLY interesting. Just off the top make sure your horse is gett ing enough loose salt. Minimum requirement without sweat is ...oh crap I can't remember if it's 4 T or Tsp! But there was no salt in my horse's diet, and they can not get enough from salt blocks which are designed for rough cow tongues!

    Dawn

    free choice hay should get you there, up the quality if you need more Wgt. but if anyone is interested in learning more, I ca not recommend the basic nutrition courase enough. adult learning, no tests, discussion on Yahoo for each class.

    dawb
  • BellehavenfarmDawn
    BellehavenfarmDawn Posts: 248 Member
    OH Dear. I assumed we were talking about the horses work. LOL Hectic Day. I never worried about calories but I really stayed on top of water!

    again Sorry
    I am soo horse focused
    So where are you trimming?
  • BellehavenfarmDawn
    BellehavenfarmDawn Posts: 248 Member
    I get it about photos. I do have a cute one from a Paper Chase but normally I am actually shocked at how big I am.

    My daughter is in Sydney. am meeting her in Auckland, NZ for 3 weeks. I will take care of her toddler daughter Matilda. I HOPE I can find a stable where I might borrow a pony to play with!!! Matilda is 15 months. she rode Veggiemite at a pony ride, part of a festival 3 weeks ago.

    If you know any horse folks in Auckland let me know. I can always teach them to trim and do body work, current passion.
  • BellehavenfarmDawn
    BellehavenfarmDawn Posts: 248 Member
    GRRReat photo!
  • BellehavenfarmDawn
    BellehavenfarmDawn Posts: 248 Member
    Yeah another Owner Trimmer! I began trimming professionally in 2006 and I quickly realized that what I loved was teaching owners to trim their horse. I gave everyone private seminars, sort of! I even bought 3 Brombie hooves from Brian Hampson to show people what feral hooves looked like. all in all I taught about 75 owners. I spent so much time with people that I paid myself just about nothing, covered expenses and usually had a great lunch.

    totally loved watching the entire horse transform. and then, I thought, once the hooves are rehabbed, what of the body. And how can ground work, in hand and mounted rehab too. It never ends ????
  • Kidostud
    Kidostud Posts: 307 Member
    OH Dear. I assumed we were talking about the horses work. LOL Hectic Day. I never worried about calories but I really stayed on top of water!

    again Sorry
    I am soo horse focused
    So where are you trimming?

    It is so interesting how we want to get slimmer and slimmer, watch what we eat and excercise and try to keep our body fat down, but we want our horses to be fat! Someone once said to me that if I had the percentage of body fat that my horse does, I would start dieting immediately. That made me think!! The horse's hoof is such an interesting topic and the connection between the modern lifestyle and the way we keep our horses so it is convenient to us, and bad hooves is a very real problem.

    I was extremely lucky to be moving to a little country town and my horses are now standing on a 60ha property which has sparce grazing, very hard and rocky terrain, lots of uphill and downhill and my horses must move a lot to find grazing. I feed only roughage and a tiny little bit of concentrates in which I can mix their mineral and trace element supplements. You should see how their feet have improved in the last two years since we moved here!! They gallop over the rockiest areas and their feet are mostly self maintaining. Now in summer I can't trim them without soaking first and even then, it feels as if my rasp is blunt!

    Wow, can't believe we're having a barefoot discussion on a diet site!!
  • Anamaere
    Anamaere Posts: 60 Member
    lol apologies for my absence. I trim in se qld around toowoomba (if that makes any sense to anyone). I'd agree with the whole persont hin/horse fat thing kido. i get told regularly that my horses are 'too fat' but i know if gemma carries any more weight she's uncomfortable and doesnt enjoy jumping. to be honest my horses arent fat, they're a 5/10 on the bodyscore system, rather an a 7 or 8 like the show horses we deal with! some of the poor buggers are so round they are actually difficult to trim, despite the fact they're 17hands.

    since i've started taking care of my own horses feet i've noticed a vast improvement, especially since we're now on my own property and i can control their diet/terrain/etc properly. my neighbours dont understand why i'm trucking IN gravel whilst they're getting rid of it lol. my lot, now that everyone is at a good weight ( had a growing gelding and older, in work mare that needed a little weight added as they're recovering from an agistment property with zero grazing) get a bit of grass/lucerne hay of an evening as a motivator to get them to come up from the paddock (and two are locked in overnight due to one being horrendously accident prone at night). after work they'll get a bit of maxi soy or pellets (depends on horse and work) or some nice pure lucerne (alfalfa) hay.