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.

I'm in shreds :(

I've come upon some bad luck and I might just lay off of the blog for a while... I'm in shreds... totally demolished.

My SO and I have separated last week. If you asked me, I never even saw it coming... I might be blind or stupid, but in my mind all was going better than ever... it hit hard.... I love that man with all my heart and all of this as left me crying, not eating or sleeping for the last 4-5 days.

To simply add to my misery, I have found that Dandy has injured herself Saturday night or Sunday morning. Since she is still at my SO's farm (and I'm not), I couldn't check up on her as much as I wanted.

I came to see her yesterday and she seemed fine from a distance, so I went and checked the others... then, I returned to Dandy. There were many flies on her so I ran my hand on her face and down her neck to her chest... and when I got to the chest... I froze, my face changed. This wasn't Dandy's coat... I was rough and humid and sticky. Yes, Dandy has managed to injure herself. There is some sort of laceration or a deep rub mark on her chest about as big as a hand and a small cut on her shoulder. I took her out and rinsed it off... it was swollen and had the same consistency as hamburger... obviously, it was painful for her. I cleaned it and put some disinfectant on it.

This brought my spirit right down... I feel so helpless and I already don't feel competent enough to take care of horses, and this happens! I was in pieces on the ground. I realize that Dandy is not as happy as she was 2 years ago... she stays away from the others but always looks for them. She does not go into the shelter even if all of the others are in.

I think that she was trying to keep up with the herd as they were running in the pasture, and she must've ran into a fence or a tree, I have no idea. The wound is not life threatening, but I can't help but think about what else could happen... is this her way of telling me "This is it"? I will not be able to care for a blind horse like that and I know it. So what should I do? Have her put down? give her away to a kids camp? Would she be suitable for that or would she just end up at auction? What are my options??

Obviously, I'm in no state of mind to make an official decision about her. My mind is all over the place and this is just the cherry on the cake. I know that Dandy is almost blind (95% I would say) and I know it is affecting her quality of life... she no longer cares for anything, she likes to see me, but she doesn't do anything else... Am I making her suffer? Am I selfish? I don't know the answer, my mind is already flooded with other types of questions... I don't know what to think. I've had no luck talking with surgeons who could fix this and I would have to trailer her far in order to get it done, but nobody around is specialized to do this... and it might be too late (cataracts are too advanced).

I need to take a break, take a breath... so please forgive me if I am absent for a few weeks.

Not much new / Blindness

Well... I might as well have crawled under a rock for the past 2 weeks. All in all, I couldn't work with Misty because it was raining for the last two weekends. I didn't ride much either.

We did ride on August 14... (I know, long time ago!!). We did a 2.5 hour ride with Dandy and Pearl. The only thing I guess I could point out is that Dandy's blindness issue isn't getting better.

I took her out on a ride that day. It was kind of sunny and clouding over. We took a bike path up to a bridge and accross a river, where I met friends for a quick chat. On our way to the bridge, we decided to canter a good part of the way, the horses were warmed up, we had been riding for about 30-40 minutes at a quick walk. So we decided to canter and all was going well, Pearl was beside Dandy, which always gives Dandy some confidence. All of a sudden the sun peeks out and trees cast a shadow on the ground, Dandy sees one particular shadow and slams on the brakes. So I went from a nice quick galop to a stop in 0.5 seconds... thankfully I didn't fall off and wasn't ejected. Dandy has a great habit of tucking her butt under when she slams on the brakes (If only I could get her to do it on command! Sigh!). I stayed on and as soon as she was completely stopped, she took off at a galop again. I guess she realized that it was only a shadow and that there was no need stopping... Thank goodness I wasn't unseated! She spooked at a fallen tree, brand new pavement and that tree shadow. Dandy never spooked at anything inanimate before and I got really sad seeing that she was at that point. Still we made it accross a huge wooden bridge and she never batted an ear even though I was a nervous wreck while crossing.

You see, when I was about 12 years old, we took our first pony for a ride outside of the pasture, we took that same path (which wasn't a bike path at the time), we'd had to cross a wooden bridge smaller in size and it looked a bit risky... instead of turning back, we tryed to cross it (don't scold the child mind, we got scolded enough for it, plus we had learned our lesson). At the very end, one of our pony's back legs broke through the bridge. After much panic and terror, the horse finally got back to its feet. Fortunately, she only had a scrape on the leg, but I was left scarred forever. We walked the whole way back home in case the horse had an underlying leg problem as a result... we had a walk that is equal to a 15 minute car ride. I never liked wooden bridges after that. The one we had to cross this time was way bigger, higher up and longer... a lot longer. As soon as I heard Dandy's hoof hit the wood, my heart hit the floor and I was a complete can of nuts until we reached the other end. I guess this is what you call post-traumatic stress. Anyways, my biggest fear was that Dandy would spook and fall off of the bridge. The bridge is an old railroad track bridge and was revamped with high railings and a brand new 3 inch thick floor... But the mind is stronger than that. We made it to the other side and I guess everyone felt the tension dissapear. I gave huge praise to Dandy for actually taking care of me as if I was a newborn child crying. She always outdid herself when I was a total nervous wreck, she seems to feed on that, she knows what she has to do... I'm glad that she completely ignored my fear and forged on to the other side, never putting a hoof out of line. WHEW!

Pearl crossed the bridge fine too. I was better about my emotions on the way back.... confidence gain??? I think so! Thank you Dandy again. Anyways, on the way back, we borrowed a new trail, it was rough and Dandy tripped a lot... I guess she couldn't see the bumps in front of her... maybe she was tired, but I know her vision is fading. I wish I could find a place where they do surgery. If I ever do, I will immediately ask that they evaluate Dandy and give it a shot. Sure, it's expensive, but Dandy is worth much more than that to me. If surgery is not available to her... I will eventually retire her to working only on flat ground, no trails. If that doesn't work, I will retire her completely. If I see that she is unhappy, i.e. running into things, not finding food or water sources, getting hurt somewhere... well... I will have to make the heart wrenching decision to put her down. I am not looking forward to that day, but I am aware that it might happen... just like she might do great without sight and be happy well into old age. I have to prepare for every scenario, but the grim one makes me want to cry like a baby. Just thinking about it makes my eyes water.

If ever she goes, I will lose my best friend... the one that understands me the most, the one that absolutely loves me and shows it... the one that is greatful to see me and is very happy to work with me. We've been through a lot of things together and she has always been there for me. I was always there when she needed me and we understand each other very well. I would be losing my partner, my horsey soulmate.

I hope this day never comes... I know she will pass one day, but she is very young and I hope she has many good days ahead of her. I will keep assessing her blindness... right now... she can trail ride but I don't like putting her in hard trails... she can still canter on the flat, she even does schooling very nicely, so she is not done working completely and might always stay this way.

I know it will never get better, unless I could find a place where they could do surgery. I am 99% shure she has cataracts... the surgery is similar to the human one. I will look for a place close to my home, but I have never heard of one yet. :(

Wish me luck!

Drum roll Please!

After almost a week of being super duper busy, I finally sat down to upload my pictures yesterday at 10:00 pm... I would've rather been sleeping, but here they are! BTW, I absolutely LOVE the picture above, the colors, the textures and the movement... I don't even remember taking it... eesh!

On Friday, August 6, I've succesfully put a saddle on Misty... for the first time in her life. I was very pleased, she was nervous and probably asking questions like crazy, but she trusted and followed quite well. Here are a few pictures of that adventure:

Above: Misty is getting brushed thoroughly for the first time... She seemed to enjoy it. Her skin is sensitive, so I went easy with the plastic curry... overall, she was ok with it.

Above: Then came the saddle pad, she got to meet it, chew it and play with it first, then we put it on her back... she was ok with the putting it on part, but was a bit antsy when it wouldn't come off, so she moved her feet a bit, but never ran off or bucked... she was pretty quiet... so I brought the saddle over.

Above: Before swinging the saddle over, Misty met the saddle and chewed a bit on it (which I stopped her from doing immediatly, without being too mean, she didn't know what this thing was!). After we've seen that she was ok with it, I had my sister hold her (that's me holding her in the picture) and I put the saddle gently on her. I was a bit nervous and actually held the saddle (and my breath) for about 2 minutes almost over Misty's back before resting it on her... I remember that she was quite explosive when we first started working with her and I was afraid that something like that would happen and damage my precious saddle! lol

Anyways, the saddle on her back didn't bother her, so we proceeded to tighten the girth. A bit antsy, but I've seen well broke horses move more than that when cinching up. We progressively walked and thightened the cinch, then walk again and so on.

Here is what she was like after two short walking sessions with the saddle on:

You can see that she is a bit nervous, not much... the saddle is squeaky and she listens for that noise. She is a little distracted because her friends are in her field of vision and she wants them to come back, but she got better after a few more walks.

After having walked a few times more, I decided to try my hand at putting my foot up in the stirrup. So I grabbed my helmet and off I went. When I first put my foot up (no weight) Misty was wondering what was going on, then she moved a bit and I followed her until she settled. I put a little weight and repeated with more weight each time. The last thing I did was put all of my weight in the stirrup... Misty didn't move, wasn't even off balance (I'm impressed 'cause I'm not a small person, as you can see). I immediatly proceeded to unsaddle Misty and let her go. She stood great for unsaddling and I even let the off side stirrup and girth down so it rubbed on her when I took the saddle off... no reaction at all. She was off to see her friends which had migrated to the far end of the field... she walked then trotted away from us and when she was far enough, she shifted into high gear and ran at a full galop right to the other end. She is better about being apart of her friends now, but I guess she likes to be close to them if given the chance... who doesn't?

All in all, a good session with Misty. It lasted about 45 minutes... as you can see, we were loosing daylight and I didn't want to over do it. Sessions will be kept short and we will progress slowly in order to make a great riding horse.

I'm not dead!

No, I'm not dead... I've been sick to no end. I've caught a cold, in the middle of Summer.



I did nothing with the horses all of last week, all of my long weekend and all of this week. I feel bad about it because they could all use the exercise... not because they are fat, but because it keeps them in shape. I'm sure THEY appreciated the break, with only visits with treats and scritches. I did take Misty out on her halter and lead, she did good, I even tied her and touched all four legs, but I only worked her for about 30 minutes on stuff she already knew.



Tonight, if I have the time, I am hoping to put a saddle on her, just to get her used to it. She's three years old, has never worked a day in her life, so it's time to make the big step. I don't know if I will swing a leg over yet, we'll see how she takes everything, if she seems ok, I might risk it and sit on her for a few minutes. I don't really feel like being thrown off so she'll have to be a star for me to get on.



I am just recovering from the cold and I do not feel like being thrown around.



I plan on riding the other horses tommorow. Peg is pretty much semi-retired and is only a relief horse when we are three people riding for short, easy rides... don't be fooled, she has a lot of spunk and speed still, but she can get sore depending on what we do with her and I don't like seeing her not being 100%. She lacks a lot of muscle tone, but she couldn't handle a conditionning program.



I plan on training Misty and have her replace Peg.



I'll probably be taking pictures if I have enough free hands to do so and I'll be posting them next week! Stay tuned to see Misty with her first ever saddle! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Time goes by so fast!

I was thinking the other day that I've now owned Dandy for almost 2.5 years!!!! I sure don't feel like she's been with me that long. I keep thinking that she did awesome in her training when, actually, a lot of work went into it and she didn't just transform in a young mischevious filly to a beautiful, well manered, bomb-proof mare. I worked on many things with Dandy that I hardly remember... collection, gaits and speed, trust and confidence.

Yes, Dandy will go through right about anything if I say it's ok... even if all the other horses are scrambling and refusing to put a foot near whatever is spooky, I can usually walk right by the spooking horses and step right on the spooky thing and she never bats an eye.

She wasn't like that when I started her, but a lot of work and praise paid off. I've put up a good number of fights with Dandy, some lasted almost an hour, some others, minutes, but I vowed to ALWAYS win those fights, even if I had to spend the day, even if I was tired, sweaty, sore, hungry and even if I really wanted to go home.

Now I have another unhandled horse in training... Misty. She is 3 years old, which is a year older than when I bought Dandy as a two year old. She is unhandled (like Dandy), but socialized (like Dandy) and I believe she's had some kind of training that went bad, but I couldn't be sure (like Dandy)... So I'm stuck with this horse that has probably been mentally abused or broken... I need to fix this the first. When I got Dandy, I spent countless hours just petting and being with her. Dandy had no manners and tried to kick your head off everytime you entered her pasture. At least, Misty doesn't do that, but she has been thought to pull back on anyone trying to lead her, this must've worked for her. I've been able to break that habit and now, she leads like an old mare... litterally, she is like a 34 year old mare... she walks slow, nothing phases her... I thought she would have more go than that, oh well!

When I got Misty, I couldn't even stand near her shoulder, she'd move and put me right in front of her, she was way more comfortable if there was a fence between us and wouldn't allow me to pass behind her no matter how far I was. I would touch her and she would cringe. Now, I can touch her anywhere, stand on either side or right behind her without any problem. Fences are no longer a shield and I can grab all 4 legs (Kudos again to my sister for being brave enough to pick up the back feet)... in all honnesty, the back feet were less dramatic than the front... it's just my comfort level vis-a-vis à back leg. Misty even gave us a little hard time by not wanting to pick up her feet... but I have my share of tricks for that and she learned that it was more comfortable to pick up her feet than to leave me hanging. I even trimmed her feet, all of them!

All of this to say that after 20 years on and around horses, they still impress me to the highest level. Their intelligence, their connection to all living things, the way they can understand and learn or teach us a few things... I keep being amazed everytime I train a new horse. Misty is the 5th horse that I will exclusively train and I can still stare in awe at them!

I believe that horses have a greater connection to humans than the one humans share among themselves. The way they can understand without us even having to talk or act, the way simple energy will either make or break a horse, their expression... I've always felt a strong connection with horses and for some reason, I've always wanted to be on one even if my immediate family didn't have and never had horses. I fell in love from the moment I saw them. They certainly make you much more self-aware and conscient about energy, weight distribution, balance... you know the primal things in life that seemed to have disappeared with technology.

When I was three years old, I took my first pony ride. I remember what was going on in my head... I just couldn't get over the fact that we could train animals to carry us, let alone such beautiful and majestic animals. I couldn't get enough of the leather scent, I was hooked on horses and I was only three years old. From then on, I kept bugging my parents to buy me a horse (or pony), I watched every show jumping, rodeo, parade, etc. on TV just to watch the horses. I could've watched the same thing 50 times and I would still want to see it, just to see the horse move, the mane flowing in the wind.

At five, I had a friend that had a horse (I didn't know she had a horse when I met her). So I started riding, supervised by her mother, we had to wear a helmet (those old black felt covered things that didn't have a chin strap... really it was useless!) and proper attire and we learned to ride from there. I had my share of falls but it never discouraged me out of horses. After about 15 years in horses, I started working with them and training. I am not an accredited trainer, but I've been around them long enough to know how they work and so far, my method is just as good as John Lyons... When we finally got Internet, I read about him and found a lot of similarities between his techniques and mine... there are only a few basic things that you need to understand to effectively gain your horse's trust and willingness to work.

1­. Never loose a fight.

2. Release of pressure is the reward (pressure can be energy from your body or physical pressure, like on a lead rope).

3. Never be affraid of your horse, if you show him weakness he will take it upon himself to lead the group (you) and the weak (you).

4. Be gentle and remember to give time to your horse to answer what you are asking of him.

5. Always reward, never punish (I only punish if I know a horse has bit or kicked me on purpose (i.e.: not trying to get rid of a fly or whatever)). If a horse hurts me, I take it upon myself to hurt him, at least minimally, back. Remember that they can kill you with a strike of a hoof. Be severe about what you allow them to do around you. Before I completely trust a horse, I do not let him put his head on me, unless I ask and it is usually for a very short period. After I completely trust them, I will put their head on my shoulder or let them press their heads on my stomach for as long as they like.

I believe that those tips are the secret to success with your horse. The training techniques only come after you have established that trust and companionship.

So tell me about what amazes you or has amazed you about your first or current horses.