Trims aint trims !

The question is always being asked: what's the difference between a farrier trim and a barefoot trim?
This gets asked enough times to warrant a good answer!

Firstly, we need to sort out some names.

Barefoot trimming seems to stick because the aim is to ride the horses barefoot.
Some people call it natural trimming or natural hoofcare, but the thing is there "aint nothing natural" about people riding horses and, besides, we don't want to be blindly following nature, we're only borrowing the good bits.

As for 'farrier' trims, or 'pasture' trims, they're probably best grouped under the heading of traditional trimming.

What's the difference?

There shouldn't be a difference. A trim is either right or it is wrong.

However, traditional trimming does not really consider the function of horses' feet. Balance yes, but function no. It is simply concerned with cutting a long foot short which translates to "standing up" the feet by leaving a bit of heel on and shortening the toe through the sole plane. As a consequence, a traditionally trimmed foot mostly has difficulty when asked to work unshod on rough ground
Caatje

My best whisper is a thought