Hoof day

I finally got a natural hoofcare practitioner out today after way too long without consultation.

First I was happy to hear her say, "You've been doing this yourself? They look great!"

Then she asked how long he's had that toe crack. "23 years." "OK then!"

She is a follower of Bowker, Jackson and Ramey and we had much to agree upon about hooves.

I was glad she wanted to see him move - so many people just look at the structure and not the movement. She noticed right away that he lands crooked on his club foot - he lands outside-to-inside.

She tried to work on that but in the end we didn't see much improvement in the hoof landing. I'll keep at it and see. We both agree that the feet don't have to match, each foot must be handled independently.

Beforehand I not only picked but washed and scrubbed each foot and ankle. I put each foot in a bucket and brushed the heck out of them inside and out. I was careful not to use soap because I didn't want to mask any smells. She put her nose right into the frogs and said his hinds still need treatment. They look so much better but I'll keep at it.

As she worked she told me she does classical riding after Philippe Karl's school, and she owns a boarding facility that has implemented Paddock Paradise tracks and also computer-chip-assisted feeding stations. It turns out I'd seen her on TV in a special on Artgerecht Pferdehaltung - which translates "species-appropriate care." They call it a "Movement Barn" although there is no barn. Food, water, salt, shelter is all spaced out over the acreage on a track system and sand hills and environmental enrichment items are added too.

I look forward to touring her place in person - it's only about 5 miles from here.

I was happy to see her car is filled with easyboots and renegades. I told her it is not enough to be a barefoot trimmer, one must also help people transition by fitting hoof boots. The boots must fit precisely or else they don't work and people who ride outside of arenas have to go back to shoes. (This is confusing because what we call boots they call shoes, and what we call shoes they call irons. What we call irons they call hangers....)

What I did not like was her trimming Baasha's soles. She said she was looking for dead sole but he only had a bit on his hinds. I said, "That is something I never do with a knife - I only use a hoofpick to remove chalkiness." She said he didn't really have much to remove.

She attacked the frogs more aggressively than I do as well, I'm way too conservative there - I only trim off obvious flaps but she did more than that.

Interestingly she did not work the walls much. I don't let Baasha's feet get long so there wasn't much to do there. The hinds she filed a little, and the club foot got most of her attention. She got the flare rasped back and I have to admit it looks much prettier now.

I'll include two sets of photos. The first is her work, the second set is mine from a month ago.

The white line is stretched enough to let grit become wedged that you find with a rasp. You can see the difference in the two sets of photos, probably due to the grass starting to grow. I'm still not sure where the bruising is coming from because it's been a while since we've had frozen ground.

I'm sorry I did not wash the feet again in the first set of photos because simply standing on the stall mats blurred his white line. I was taking the photos as she worked and didn't want to interrupt.

For fun and shock value I'll add photos of Baasha's LF and RF from 2008 when he was in quarantine.

Here's a trivia question for hoof geeks - what do you think could cause a strong event line on only one hoof?

There are three views of each hoof. I gave up trying to label these individually because blogger doesn't have a working wisiwig (as far as I can tell).