Horse Poll: How Much Does It Cost to Have Hooves Trimmed?
Friday September 12, 2008
I was looking at my article The Basic Costs of Horse Care and wondering if I should adjust my breakdowns of the various costs.
Two things that have gone up very recently are farrier costs and hay. With the higher gas prices, farriers are having to pass along the increase in expense to their customers. Trims can easily cost over $30. Hay in our area has gone up, partially due to the higher fuel prices, and partially because we've had a very wet summer and top quality hay is hard to come by. Large round bales are already selling at $40 a bale, compared to $25 or $30 last year. We can expect the prices to go even higher as winter sets in. Have you noticed rising prices recently? Take the poll and leave your comments below.
Comments
Since both my husband and I are hoof care providers, we trim our horses. Our clients however, are charged anywhere from $35 for a non-pathological trim, to $60+ for treating pathologies.
Hay is over $6 per 40# square bales of grass hay, round bales (900#) are $75 delivered. My hay man has given me his strongest assurance that his prices will not rise, and that he will have plenty for us. I hope that is true!
Our farrier charges us $30 each for two horses, $20 for a standard donkey, and $15 for a miniature donkey. The one horse has a front club foot, so she does a special orthopedic trim for him. I feel this is more than reasonable, plus our farrier is very kind to the horses. We have been paying $25 for a large round bale of mixed grasses hay (800#), which is certainly a bargain after last year. I think we are lucky with both our farrier and our hay provider.
I own 4 Draft Horses and a quarter horse. It took 3 1/2 hrs. to trim 4 Draft horses and the charge was $45.00 per horse. $30.00 for the qtr. horse. We use a stock for this procedure. Location, Medina County, Ohio
I was paying $30/horse – and $60/front shoes – now have an amish who is excellent with all of them and he charges $15/horse trim and $25/front shoes. Hay is around 2.50/3.00 sqaure bale.
Paying $75 for trims on two horses, one being a draft. I was told by more than one person that if I had to get the draft shod, it would be $300 and one farrier even said $400. This is central Texas