Emergency rasping when farrier is away

Wagtail

Wagtail

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My girl had laminitis when the farrier was here four weeks ago so I asked him not to trim her and we agreed I would call him when she was comfortable again. Sods law, when she came sound and I called, he was on holiday for 2 weeks! To make matters worse, her feet started splaying and cracking a few days ago. Her toes were too long and heels too high, so I have rasped them myself. I took a little off the toe and sides and about 5 mm off the heels, thinking that would take some pressure off her toes. But where her wall has started splitting away, you can see the dead laminae and she seemed a little sore there. My farrier should be able to get here (hopefully) this week, but have I done the right thing? One crack is now around 3 cm long and I am hoping I have done enough to stop it spreading up the hoof. Anything else I should be doing?
 
Wagtail my farrier's been away for eight years :D

You've done the right thing. If the crack looks as if it is going higher, you could take half an inch either side completely away from bearing on the ground quite safely. If you see pink (takes a lot of rasping!!) stop. White is OK, that's just unpigmented inner hoof wall.
 
Lol, thanks, Cptrayes. She has a good toe callus which is now taking most of the weight so I am hoping it should be okay. But it is good to know I can take that amount away either side of the split without hurting her.
 
If you look at the hoof as the toe is 12 o clock and the heels are 6 o clock, at the 3 o clock and 9 o clock the sides of the hoof rasp a cruve there will is the same as the instep in our feet, this allows for better flex in the foot and even the weight, whereas if there was no groove it would be like standing on an up turned bucket where all the weight was even and one side would eventually buckle. Hope that makes sense. Rasp her heels to the same height as her frog to take weight off the toe for heel landing.
 
Try not to panic wagtail. x

I can't help I'm afraid, the one time I did try to give advice (to a very worried owner) about a similar situation (very minimal rasping) the horse was sore. Big lesson learned by me!
 
putasocinit said:
If you look at the hoof as the toe is 12 o clock and the heels are 6 o clock, at the 3 o clock and 9 o clock the sides of the hoof rasp a cruve there will is the same as the instep in our feet, this allows for better flex in the foot and even the weight, whereas if there was no groove it would be like standing on an up turned bucket where all the weight was even and one side would eventually buckle. Hope that makes sense. Rasp her heels to the same height as her frog to take weight off the toe for heel landing.
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Whoaaaaaaaaaah there!

This level of advice can't be given safely without seeing the horse. There are many horses which would be crippled either by scooping the quarters if they don't want it, or by reducing the heels to frog level in one go.

Please folks, don't go buying rasps and doing this!!
 
cptrayes said:
Whoaaaaaaaaaah there!

This level of advice can't be given safely without seeing the horse. There are many horses which would be crippled either by scooping the quarters if they don't want it, or by reducing the heels to frog level in one go.

Please folks, don't go buying rasps and doing this!!
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I agree.


As an aside, actively scooping the quarters is something advocated by Strasser I believe.
 
Thanks everyone. Amanda, she is thankfully not at all sore after my hoof doctoring yesterday, but another major split has occurred. I will contact my farrier tomorrow (his first day back from hols), and if he can't come very soon, then I think I need to address those cracks a little more assertively!
 
amandap said:
As an aside, actively scooping the quarters is something advocated by Strasser I believe.
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If you know what you are looking for you can spot which ones need it and which ones don't and many/most? don't. In the ones that do, the sole itself curves up into an arch. Rasp the sides off a flatter soled horse and bingo, lame horse :(
 
Wagtail said:
Thanks everyone. Amanda, she is thankfully not at all sore after my hoof doctoring yesterday, but another major split has occurred. I will contact my farrier tomorrow (his first day back from hols), and if he can't come very soon, then I think I need to address those cracks a little more assertively!
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Post some photos and we'll try and help if you can't get hold of him.
 
I was talking about a slight rasping, see pete ramsey, no one was saying go and be a professional and rasp a huge groove, use common sense, and if you are going to take a rasp to your horses feet without knowing what you are doing you could do more damage that way, anyway just my offer of advice, each to their own, mine certainly have never been lame but then i have thoroughly studied trimming and my farrier has also shown me how and i trimmed my cob for 16 months with my farrier coming out every 3 months to have a look and touch up, never complained, and explained all the intricicies, its how competent you feel doing the job. I am not looking for an argument so i will walk away from the thread. Maybe OP should ask her farrier tomorrow if what i said was a load of cock and bull or if their is truth in the fact.
 
Wagtail said:
Thanks everyone. Amanda, she is thankfully not at all sore after my hoof doctoring yesterday, but another major split has occurred.
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Oh,I'm sure she isn't. It's just I am put off saying anything specific trimming wise now because of my experience. :) I felt so bad.
 
putasocinit said:
I was talking about a slight rasping, see pete ramsey, no one was saying go and be a professional and rasp a huge groove, use common sense, and if you are going to take a rasp to your horses feet without knowing what you are doing you could do more damage that way, anyway just my offer of advice, each to their own, mine certainly have never been lame but then i have thoroughly studied trimming and my farrier has also shown me how and i trimmed my cob for 16 months with my farrier coming out every 3 months to have a look and touch up, never complained, and explained all the intricicies, its how competent you feel doing the job. I am not looking for an argument so i will walk away from the thread. Maybe OP should ask her farrier tomorrow if what i said was a load of cock and bull or if their is truth in the fact.
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Putasocinit, read your post again from the point of view of someone who doesn't have your experience or training or brains and imagine the damage they could do if they blindly followed your instructions.

What you wrote could be eminently sensible for one horse and cripple another. You know the difference but you don't know which camp Wagtails horse falls into unless you've seen it.
 
Farrier had to take a lot of foot away, but it looks lots better now. Only problem is, she came in rock crunching and now is a bit footy over stones. I suppose that's only to be expected after a long overdue trim? She looks fine in the field.
 
Wagtail said:
Farrier had to take a lot of foot away, but it looks lots better now. Only problem is, she came in rock crunching and now is a bit footy over stones. I suppose that's only to be expected after a long overdue trim?
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Nope :(

No trim should make a barefoot horse less sound. He took away something she needed.
 
Oh dear! Damn it. I have been weeks getting her sound. She's nowhere near as bad as she was a couple of weeks ago, but very annoying! And to top it off, I've just spotted her with her grazing muzzle off. Grr. Off I go to wrestle with her head that is glued to the forbidden grass! :(
 
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