Really?! Hoof trimming

Ok, today, I was going to bring you a post about hoof trimming.

When we separated, my SO and I separated the horses. He kept Peg and Pearl as they were bought for him although I forked half of the money. Anyways, I had trimmed the horses in June (mid-June) and they were left untouched since then, even if I offered to trim them several times (we still talked). It was in dire need but I was thankful, for once, that their hooves grow really slowly. So, my plans were to trim Peg and document the whole thing, but my camera decided differently. I was getting ready to start and took one picture... cleaned the hoof and went to take another one when I noticed that a button on my camera had gone missing. It was obviously the one I need to press to take the picture. I looked frantically on the ground to find it... no such luck.

Maybe it was the -35C that was affecting it... I'll never know. Thankfully, I can still turn it on and off, just not take pictures with it, which kind of defies the whole purpose of having a camera, but at least I can get my pictures out. It was old, but still worked fine and I wasn't really planning on buying one so soon!

Anyways, Peg's feet were a bit overgrown, one had a crack in it, so I decided to just go to work on her front feet right away, it was brutally cold and I didn't want to spend more time out than needed. So I started trimming with the nippers, but Peg's feet don't grow too fast and have always been in mediocre shape (compared to Dandy's, let's say). I decided to go with a toe rocker trim, because her hoof is so stretched forward that it is becoming ridiculous.

A toe rocker is a strategic trim that you should only do when the whole hoof is pulled forward or has become oblong. Remember, a front hoof should be as round as possible. In order to do such a trim (which is also called "backing the toe"), you need to leave a little bit of heel (not trim the heels directly to the level of the sole), I would say to leave about 3-5 mm, leave the same lenght in the quarters too. Your vertical cut should be between 10 and 2 o'clock on the hoof (imagine the hoof as a clock). The purpose of this is to remove all of the wall (thickness wise) between those points. The wall should be inexistant and backed up to the level of the sole...

Below is one of Dandy's feet... now, If I was to do a Toe Rocker on her foot (which doesn't need it at all! This is just for information purpose), I would remove all of the wall material between 10 and 2 (or in this case 4 and 8 o'clock) past the white line that you see (which is the Water Line) and right to the edge of the sole, which is greyish in colour. I would leave the rest of the wall (Quarters and Heels) as they are in this picture. The purpose of the Toe Rocker is to permit the hoof to land heel first (given that there is no Thrush or heel pain) and eventually make the hoof rounded, giving a shorter breakover, therefore greatly improving stride and comfort for the horse.

Now, you can't apply this strategy every time you trim, you can alternate between a Toe Rocker (which I don't have a picture of... GRR) and an aggressive Mustang Roll (like in the picture above, that's a very good Mustang Roll, Maybe I would do it a little more aggressive than that if the horse had a really oblong hoof). Then you can go back to the Toe Rocker for the next trim, etc. Once your horse's hooves have regained a somewhat normal shape, you can stop applying the Toe Rocker and just continue with a good Mustang Roll for the next trims. Using too much of the toe rocker might make your horse go flat-soled, so only use it if it is really necessary and don't over-use it.

As I have probably mentionned before, I like doing my Mustang rolls so there is no more pigmented area in front of the Water Line (which is the really white part that goes all around the hoof, the White Line is yellowish / Light grey, you can see it if you look closely at the picture above, right between the Water Line and the Sole). This eases the breakover and reduces the amount of "pull" the hoof has to endure at every stride, therefore reducing the risk for White Line disease and founder. I always compare it to a fingernail, If you have a long fingernail, it can easily be ripped off if enough pressure is applied, as opposed to having a nice short nail that is harder to rip off or break.

Cracks aren't normal in hooves and there is no way on earth that anyone will ever convince me of the opposite. A crack is formed by an unatural leverage force that is applied or created by the badly trimmed or too-long hoof. If treated early, you can probably trim the whole crack out, but if left long, the crack will continue to grow with the force exherted on the hoof. A toe crack necessitates a good toe rocker that extends to the quarters, make sure that the hoof doesn't have any "corners" that would exhert more pressure on the toe and making the crack even worse. The goal here is to remove ALL pressure that could affect the crack. If this is done correctly, the crack should be able to grow out and the hoof will return to normal again.

Every horse has different hooves and some might be able to take more aggressive trims than others, my advice would be to always be carefull and never go and trim a horse too short too soon. Trim a little at a time, when I first start on a horse that I don't know, I only take out the basic. I touch up my trims every week and it is amazing how the hoof can change in such little time. Take the time it takes, don't rush nature, work with what you have, your horse will thank you and will never go sore or lame!

I really wish that I could've provided more pictures... I'll try and buy a new camera soon and show you what a toe rocker looks like. Have a great week!

Lots of change

Hi everyone, I'm back!

There has been a lot of changes in my life. My boydfriend and I are back together since about a month ago. We are working things out. I've been really really sick for the past 4 months, this has landed me in the hospital several times with life threatening breathing problems. Since the doctors have not yet found exactly what causes my illness, I wasn't being properly treated and ended up taking medication that made my condition worse and nearly caused death. I have to say that I nearly gave up the fight... I did it for my family and friends that were very worried about me.

I have also been working on Misty's training, if you remember Misty, she is my new paint mare that I bought in April 2010.

Misty has been going under saddle since the beginning of September 2010. She is doing W/T and we are working on a bit of canter, she has extremely smooth gaits, is way too smart for her own good and learns everything like a breeze, she has a natural reining stop on her and doesn't move once stopped until she is asked to go forward again. She has had her feet trimmed 3 times now and her hooves are improving greatly. I have not been taking pictures of that since I need all the hands I can get when I trim, since she is not yet 100% used to holding her foot up for so long. She does pick up all four feet without a problem, she is great to lead and has even been bareback riding! (I don't have those pictures on my camera, they're with my mom). Misty seems to take everything in stride, she is absolutely not spooky (deer, fowl, dogs, etc.), can go alone and has been on the road / in moderate traffic once without any problems.

This is the first time anyone has ever sat on Misty (that's me on her. I forgot to mention that I lost 45 lbs...). I had my sister holding her but she is doing great, paying attention to me and basically stood still the whole time. That was enough training for that day.

The week after, we took Misty out on her first ever trail ride. The ride lasted no more than 10 minutes. Misty did great! That's my sister on Misty at the trail head. Misty is being ridden in a bosal and responding fantastically to that.

Weeks go by and we are riding Misty every week (1-2 times) and slowly building her endurance. She is doing wonderful. Here are a few more pictures! The last one is me on Misty at the end of October, we did a little schooling session and I decided to ride her back home. My sister mostly rides her and has done most of her training under saddle.It turns out that Misty is by far the smartest horse that I have ever worked with, she seems to understand her job and does her best to please. She also has very light aids doesn't like too much pressure which is nice. She has a lot of stamina and could probably go all day, but we are not there yet, I want to make sure she is in good shape before going on longer rides. As of today, she has gone for as much as 1.5 - 2 hours, mostly walk and some trot. We are planning to start her conditionning when Spring starts. Right now, it's icy, cold and miserable so we are only taking them on short bareback strolls when it's not too icy (haven't been on a horse in about a month... I'm starting to NEED it!). She has been introduced to a bit and has worked in it for 2 rides.

I think this is enough material for today. It's been mainly focused on Misty, but don't worry, I haven't given up on Dandy. Her vision seems to have stabilized and she can see a tiny bit out of her right eye when the day is really bright. She gets along great with Misty and Wakan (the long yearling gelding) and has spent a good part of Sunday playing around with them. She doesn't canter on her own in the field, but she does trot and she did throw a few good kicks and bucks. It was very nice to see her go and enjoy herself, made my heart feel light and happy. I will have more on her in the next days! I hope I haven't lost all of my readers.

Welcome back to my blog and I'm sorry for having been gone for so long.