07/11/2025
Kelly at Horse Weighbridge North East always writes really interesting and insightful posts, this one particularly struck a chord with me and made me want to share my thoughts about what being ethical as a trimmer means to me.
There are, in my opinion, two parts to being an ethical trimmer.
1) The actual trim - whether we are doing that 'right' in order to help the horse not harm it.
2) How we treat the horse.
It's that second aspect I want to talk about here.
Treating horses in an ethical way as a trimmer is not just about being nice to them and not hitting them with your rasp (or a hammer, apparently 😡) when they don't stand, it's about 'seeing' their issues and speaking up about it, and doing that even though it occasionally gets you fired by clients.
I think the biggest ethical issue faced by trimmers is working on horses which are lame and/or in pain, so standing for a trim becomes hard or even painful for them. I'm thinking specifically about horses who have current or old injuries or have reached that time where they have age-related issues, but this segment of horses is much larger than most people would expect, and certainly larger than I expected before I became a trimmer.
🐴The Ethical conundrum 🐴
The horse needs to be trimmed, because to not trim it will lead to hoof issues and also imbalance, which will then cause or might even already be causing body problems higher up, but the act of trimming and asking the horse to load more weight onto compromised legs or weakened body parts causes pain and distress. In my experience this is always worse the larger the horse, because of the greater weight on whatever the problem area is. So what do I do, morally?
I will always try with a horse and see if they can manage first - often I can make it so the horse is more comfortable, or distracted with food. Sometimes, however, these things aren't enough. As Kelly mentions in her post, being ethical means being able to recognise signs of pain and distress - we have scientifically recognised pain ethograms available to us nowadays, and anyone working professionally should be familiar with these and also with reading behavioural changes. Once I am bent over under the horse (😅) I can't see the facial expressions or upper body, so additionally I have a list of trim specific red flags I have identified which I can see/feel even from under there. I think these are worth listing because if you see these I believe that it's often indicative of lameness/pain:
🚩 When I pick up a front leg, if the horse tries to take the weight off his/her diagonally opposite hind leg, or the fetlock joint on that hind leg 'knuckles over' instead of remaining straight.
🚩 Repeated swishing of the tail (in the absence of flies)
🚩 Heavy leaning on me (front or hind). Not just regular cob 'I can't be bothered to lift my leg' behaviour, this is 'my other body parts can't pick up the extra load so I HAVE to lean on you'. If you let go of the leg the toe hits the ground first, because the horse CANNOT lift itself back up to get the clearance to put the foot down correctly.
🚩 Kicking - If the horse seems otherwise calm and/or stands fine for the front legs being trimmed but kicks when I go for a hind leg, I might suspect it is linked to pain.
🚩 Hind legs which feel 'tight' when the horse is asked to extend them out behind, often followed by the horse pulling the leg away and lifting it high, towards the belly.
🚩 A strong feeling of anxiety that comes to me instantly and out of nowhere. This is a very weird one, but stick with me. I was told about this when I was an apprentice and I thought it was a bit 'waffy' to say the least, but I can confirm it is 100% a thing. I can only guess it's like the reverse of how a rider can transmit their anxiety to a horse, a horse can transmit it's anxiety to the person trimming it.
🚩 Sliding forward off the hoof stand (when a front leg is brought forward on to it). This tells me the horse can't hold it's core strong with a leg forward. Sometimes it is only one side, sometimes both. Not necessarily a pain issue if none of the other warning signs are present, but certainly something I note.
🚩 Absolute refusal to lift a leg. Often we can trick the horse by walking it forward or backwards and catching the leg in flight, and again if this is the only issue and once it's up it's ok, then I would still continue with the trim, but again something to note.
There's more, but these are the main ones I can bring to mind. I always point these things out to owners, and if I feel that the horse is too uncomfortable holding it's feet up to be trimmed then I won't trim the horse, because I think that is the ethical thing to do. I hate hearing "oh, he's always done that" or "well, he canters around the field so he can't be that bad" or even "he's so dramatic", because to me that is dismissing the horse's obvious pain.
When I first started trimming I felt bad if I didn't trim a horse exhibiting the above red flags, but now I believe that just because you can MAKE a horse do something doesn't mean you should. Horses are so, so compliant. They will do anything you ask them to if it's not a problem for them, so when they show signs indicating the discomfort is too much, I won't push them. One it is dangerous, because a big horse who can't hold themselves is the most likely one to hurt the trimmer, but mostly because it's not ethical. I'm not talking about nervous horses, or untrained 'naughty' horses - the above red flags I believe are only linked to pain.
Horses know what you are about immediately - they are far better at reading body language than we are because they are largely non-verbal. Horses therefore know when they don't have a choice - you don't have to be beating them or shouting, but some horses will comply even when it feels awful for them because they know you aren't going to give them another option. I don't want them to think that, just to get the job done, and to be honest I can't make them think that anyway because, as already mentioned, they know what you are about.
🐴The ethical solution 🐴
So how do I overcome the other side of the ethical coin, that we HAVE to do the trim to prevent or address other welfare issues? Sometimes if it's a minor pain issue then just trimming in a considerate way can be enough.
When it's not, there are veterinary options available. It might be a gentle sedative so we can do what needs to be done with the feet, and kickstart a cycle of recovery. It might be getting a vet out to assess the horse and provide treatment, or prescribe correct pain medication. Sometimes sessions with a chartered physiotherapist might identify how to build strength and flexibility in areas to relieve the problem parts.
What I have found is that when owners listen and get a vet to address the pain issue, the horse can magically stand for it's trim, which is how I know I'm right about this.
Sometimes we can bodge it, but most of the time just giving it that one Bute the owner has kicking around in the tack room isn't going to be enough. Frequently these horses are already retired, through injury or old age, and 'fixing' the issue may not be affordable, or even possible, but more often than I would have expected the horse isn't receiving any treatment at all, when pain management, at least, is available. I think that too often pain indicators that show up during a trim are seen as a 'trimming issue' but I see them as an indicator of a problem which is present all the time for the horse.
From my experience, when a horse is in significant pain and has been for some time, they often need a targeted loading dose of pain killers to really 'get on top of things' as well as correct care/rehabilitative therapy before we can move forward. That's not meant to be veterinary advice - I can't give that, and unless they have been through vet school, most owners can't either, so involving a vet is crucial. There are people who would rather spend a fortune on supplements, herbs and magnetic wraps than just get the vet out to examine the horse and get it on some pain meds. I used to stick with them thinking I was helping the horses by staying involved, but I don't do that anymore.
So in summary, I think 'ethical' means recognising pain and distress and controlling that first, even if it's not fixable, because only then can can we really say that it is ethical to trim the horse. And as a professional, walking away from the owners who won't do this, even when it's clear they care about their horse, because by staying we risk legitimising poor welfare.
