Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Down One Floor Please

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled out the trimming tools.  Classy needed to be dropped one level.  He was just trimmed about 4 weeks ago, but has already had a major amount of growth.

Here are some photos from our trimming session.  I also started treatment on thrush using Pete Ramey's remedy which is posted on his website.

Here is the whole photo album, I'm just going to post a sampling here.
http://s1189.photobucket.com/albums/z434/FlyingCowgirl/Classy/Classys%20Hooves/

The following photos are Classy's left front hoof.

(Above Photo)
Left Front Hoof Before - just cleaned.  Lots of crumbly, chalky sole.


(Above Photo)
Sole cleaned, bars cut down and ready for the grinder


Left Front After  
(Above Photo)
Hoof walls brought back down and "mustang roll" attempted

This is what is going on behind me 
I did the trim in the pasture.  I wanted Freckles to hear and smell the grinder.  Since she hasn't experienced it yet, I wanted her to get a good idea and feeling from it.  I wanted her to see that Classy stands quiet and just lets me work and that there is nothing scary about the process.  She spent a lot of time, sniffing and nuzzling both me and Classy.   She's such a sweetheart.

I use an Angle grinder most of the time to trim down the hooves.  It works great and doesn't take much work to get your horse comfortable with it.  There are lots of videos that demo this method of trimming..

http://www.softouchnaturalhorsecare.com/

You can also check out the following Yahoo Group:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/abrasivehorsehooftrimming/

I'm not a professional and I know there is a lot to learn.  My technique could use a lot of fine tuning.  But, I though I would share my hoof trimming with you today.

Happy Trails and Stay Sound!

2 comments:

Andrea -Mustang Saga said...

That is a lot of growth! Mine are doing that too. I trimmed Soxy and Bella yesterday and the dogs sure got a lot of chewy bits of hoof as I worked.

Unknown said...

Well, I trimmed him a week before Fishtrap. Then rode at Fishtrap and checked his feet out afterwards and he looked like he needed a trim already. Shame on me, for not doing it then. Anyway, I think that Fishtrap just worked off some of that dead, chalky sole and I probably just didn't trim enough initially. But, I didn't want to get crazy with trimming and make him sore for Fishtrap. Figured Less was More in that case.