zoregano
Member
My horse is unshod and has soundness issues so his feet go out of balance quickly. My farrier had moved him onto a twelve week cycle over the winter as he was living out and the feet were not growing that much. He was due to be done just after we went into lockdown and we are now at 15 weeks since the last trim. My farrier considers him to be in the "green" band on the traffic light system he is abiding by, so not considered urgent and therefore he missed our 12 week appointment. Personally I would prefer to have had him done little and often (6 weeks) but I defer to my farriers professional knowledge and better judgement and don't want to "upset" him.
When he missed the appointment I was not prepared to watch my horse's feet go out of balance and the toes grow longer pulling the heels forward so I started to do it myself - gradually, using a rasp underneath the foot to gradually abrade, closely watching the horse moving every day to confirm I was not causing him a problem. His movement was not good with the long feet and I consider that a welfare issue (others would not). I have a very keen eye for correct biomechanical movement of the horse and after a month of gradual rasping he is moving very nicely - probably as the toe/breakover is now coming back to where it should be. I am also referring to x-rays I had taken of his feet a while back, so as to not rasp too far down around the tip of the pedal bone and keep in mind the structures underneath and the HPA. I also am working to "hoof mapping" diagrams but mostly to my instinct (I have used very good hoof trimmer farriers years ago and always took a keen interest in what they were doing). Whilst he is now starting to move well (for him) I have also noticed that any flare that was on the hoof seems to be going - not by me trimming it off but by me trimming the opposite side slightly (which has grown more than on the flare side). The heels also seem to be going back to a more normal position as the toe comes off. This has all been done very slowly and gradually as I was paranoid about a) making him lame and b) doing something illegal.
My farrier is still not responding to me and I will have difficulty getting another farrier round here - I seem to "upset" them easily. What do I do? I'd quite like to keep doing it little and often but under supervision. It is difficult to deal with the twisted feet I had to start with but that also seems to be improving slowly.
When he missed the appointment I was not prepared to watch my horse's feet go out of balance and the toes grow longer pulling the heels forward so I started to do it myself - gradually, using a rasp underneath the foot to gradually abrade, closely watching the horse moving every day to confirm I was not causing him a problem. His movement was not good with the long feet and I consider that a welfare issue (others would not). I have a very keen eye for correct biomechanical movement of the horse and after a month of gradual rasping he is moving very nicely - probably as the toe/breakover is now coming back to where it should be. I am also referring to x-rays I had taken of his feet a while back, so as to not rasp too far down around the tip of the pedal bone and keep in mind the structures underneath and the HPA. I also am working to "hoof mapping" diagrams but mostly to my instinct (I have used very good hoof trimmer farriers years ago and always took a keen interest in what they were doing). Whilst he is now starting to move well (for him) I have also noticed that any flare that was on the hoof seems to be going - not by me trimming it off but by me trimming the opposite side slightly (which has grown more than on the flare side). The heels also seem to be going back to a more normal position as the toe comes off. This has all been done very slowly and gradually as I was paranoid about a) making him lame and b) doing something illegal.
My farrier is still not responding to me and I will have difficulty getting another farrier round here - I seem to "upset" them easily. What do I do? I'd quite like to keep doing it little and often but under supervision. It is difficult to deal with the twisted feet I had to start with but that also seems to be improving slowly.
