Following on from that fab thread, frog cutting and sole paring

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thatsmygirl

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The bare foot fab post has really got me thinking, the only thing I'm not happy about with my farrier is the way he slices off my horses frogs down the sides and pars what seems like loads off his soles, my horses are shod infront but not behind and it's these hoofs which makes me wonder if he should bedoing it? Oh and I can't change my farrier he's the only decent one around our area but don't feel he's quite grasped the bare foot lark. Anyadvice on this would be great. What I have been told is " if the sole builds up to much the horse will weight bare on his soles not the hoof wall hence why they are prob being pared back, any truth in this?
 
it sounds like its half right to me. I mean, they should have some concavity in the hoof so that the hoof wall and frog take most of the pressure, but achieving this by paring away at the sole doesnt sound the best way to achieve it, you need a good thickness of sole to keep the horse sound. Its an artificial way that makes it look right but actually not helpful to soundness. Frog trimming just to neaten the sides OK but farriers do sometimes trim as tho the horse is shod and trim the sole but dont level toe and heel or get the angle of the hoof right.
 
It's normal practice to pare the sole and frog in preparation for a shoe.

In a barefoot horse the sole and frog are exfoliated and kept in trim by the ground, but with a shod horse, this needs to be done via the farrier as the sole is too high off the ground to get that exfoliation.

IMO a horse is supposed to weight bear on the heel, frog and toe, rather than just the walls. That way the weight of the horse is spread over a greater surface area and the engagement of the back of the hoof allows the suspension system to work as it's meant to.

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2010/02/hoof-loading-shod-and-barefoot.html

Without shoes, stimulation of the sole and frog creates a callous (which is kept in check via exfoliation). This is the horse's natural protection. If it's pared away, the horse has no protection.....and will be foot sore.

That's one of the fundamental rules of trimming a barefooter - don't touch the soles.

Strasser noticed the horse should have concavity - it was all well and good, but it needs to develop naturally, not be carved out
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I had a really excellent farrier - or so I thought so until I learnt a bit more. Nowadays I'd run a mile rather than use him
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It sounds like you're probably better to stick with shoes on with your current farrier;)
 
I did not want to post this publicly, because it is my limited experience with one horse and after a lot of study, [ but OP s inbox is full!]
I have a horse with good feet, and I had my normal farrier do his normal pasture trim, which means feet look perfect, but his feet are not perfect because he has a slight twist I have been walking him up and down a tarmac road for two months, and have a small rasp which I use to round off the edges, two farriers have seen him and both said feet are perfect no need for them to trim or balance.
They did chip a bit at first, which is why I bought a small rasp, now they don't chip, but he is a bit footy, due to sugars in grass.
I am getting quite confident with the rasp, but it takes very very little off, so I can t do much damage, just keeping things tidy at the edges, and checking sides of frog are clean, and there is no flair.
 
ok to trim the frog if it is big and fat, (can feel like a thick sock in a boot to horse if left too big), you should not trim the sole. He may be trimming the bars which can overgrow and spread out over the sole. This in turn can lead to a lot of discomfort for the horse.
 
I don't personally believe that the frog should ever be touched other than to trim off ragged bits, or to snip off the point in a horse which has very flat feet and the point can catch on the road. If it's fat to start with, it packs down into really hard, solid rubber. If you trim it, it can't pack.

OP your farrier is COMPLETELY INCORRECT when he says that horses should not bear weight on their soles. They do. All barefoot horses in hard work bear their weight on their heels, their frogs and a ring of callous at the toe. Some also bear it on a ring of callous at the sides, but many horses seem to prefer the sides to be ground passive on a hard surface. They also bear weight across the white line onto the inner, unpigmented part of the hoof wall, but not the outer, pigmented part, which is usually rounded off by their footfall.



PS you should note though, that a horse which has such a pronounced sole callous that it looks like it has produced its own shoe very often does that because its soles are too sensitive (this is a feeding or metabolic issue) The callous should be a gradual slope, not a ridge. A ridge is a sign of possible problems.
 
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cptrayes said:
I don't personally believe that the frog should ever be touched other than to trim off ragged bits, or to snip off the point in a horse which has very flat feet and the point can catch on the road. If it's fat to start with, it packs down into really hard, solid rubber. If you trim it, it can't pack.

OP your farrier is COMPLETELY INCORRECT when he says that horses should not bear weight on their soles. They do. All barefoot horses in hard work bear their weight on their heels, their frogs and a ring of callous at the toe. Some also bear it on a ring of callous at the sides, but many horses seem to prefer the sides to be ground passive on a hard surface. They also bear weight across the white line onto the inner, unpigmented part of the hoof wall, but not the outer, pigmented part, which is usually rounded off by their footfall.



PS you should note though, that a horse which has such a pronounced sole callous that it looks like it has produced its own shoe very often does that because its soles are too sensitive (this is a feeding or metabolic issue) The callous should be a gradual slope, not a ridge. A ridge is a sign of possible problems.
Click to expand...

After a period of being a field ornament, the day after The Tank went for his first longer hack, he'd developed a 'shoe' in each hoof. This was a response to a sudden increase in workload, which his (lazy) hooves were not conditioned to. Over the next week his hooves strengthened underneath and the 'shoe' disappeared.

Clever hooves;)
 
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