Six to eight weeks — with an inspection built in
A Gypsy Cob needs trimming every six to eight weeks. The traditional cob foot is a good one: broad, round and open-heeled, with hard horn that stands up to road work, and many cobs drive and ride barefoot all their lives. On timing alone, a cob is an ordinary horse. What makes the farrier visit more important for this breed is everything the feather hides — a Gypsy's lower legs disappear under a curtain of straight hair from knee and hock to ground, and the hoof, coronary band and pastern live out of sight beneath it.
What the feather conceals
Under that hair, several cob problems establish themselves quietly. Chorioptic mange mites favour feathered legs and cause the stamping, rubbing and restlessness owners often blame on behaviour. Mallenders and sallenders — thickened, crusty skin in the folds behind the knee and in front of the hock — crack and sore if they are not softened and monitored. Mud and wet bedding held against the pastern by wet feather set up pastern dermatitis. A six-to-eight-week trim is the natural audit point: feather lifted and parted, legs felt, skin checked, and the foot itself finally visible in full.
Barefoot cobs, shod cobs and road work
A leisure cob turned out on dry ground and hacked on grass may sit at eight weeks, its broad feet wearing evenly. Driving cobs working regularly on tarmac wear the foot faster but unevenly, and many are shod in front for grip and wear — a shod cob needs the farrier at about six weeks, before the fast-growing, well-fed hoof loosens the set. Cobs are famously good doers, and a rich diet grows horn quickly; an overweight cob on spring grass is also loading those round feet with laminitis risk, which argues for the shorter cycle and a weekly feel for heat and pulses under the feather.
Trimming notes for the cob foot
Farriers aim to keep the cob's foot as open and balanced as it wants to be: toe kept back so the big body breaks over easily, heels supported rather than allowed to crush under the breed's substantial weight, and flares dressed before the heavy wall starts to lever itself away. Between visits, owners can do more for a cob than for most breeds — pick the feet out daily despite the hair, run hands down the backs of the pasterns feeling for scabs and crusts, and notice stamping. Feather can be kept cleaner and drier with pig oil or similar traditional dressings, but avoid trimming the feather short purely for tidiness unless skin problems require access; it is the breed's protection as well as its glory.
Why cobs get forgotten
A cob's feet rarely look urgent: the horn is hard, the pony is sound, and the feather conceals the growth that would be obvious on a clean-legged horse. Yards discover at week eleven that the toes have crept and the heels have run. Logging each trim in KinsLe and letting Care Teams prompt the next one keeps a Gypsy Cob on the six-to-eight-week rhythm, feather and all.