No Hoof, No Horse: the first few weeks

 Finally realizing my previous farrier wasn't doing Tess any favors with his trims, and deciding to educate myself and take charge of her feet has been an fascinating experience: I have learned so much about the equine foot and all of it's myriad, dazzling complexity, still mostly mystery even to modern science.

Our re-occuring thrush-related hoof soreness is finally taking a turn now that her feet can wear more naturally. Tesla has thick walls, and no major conformational issues, so it was a bit deceptive as to how bad her feet actually were.

Good example of how things were: contracted heel & deep crack between heel bulbs; where the thrush was hiding out!

It has been a few weeks since I started trimming Tesla's feet. I've been pretty conservative (it's hard work so I do only fronts or hinds and file a little at a time!) mostly taking off the extra length, bringing the toe back, and rounding everything with a mustang roll, but they've changed right before my very eyes!





First, she shed some extra callus near the toe on her fronts (clear sign she was landing toe first - a big no-no!)

Then she shed a ton of excess frog off all four  (peeling off in strips to reveal healthy tissue underneath)

Now, her heel bulbs are starting to bulk up to provide cushioning as she lands correctly: heel first.

and here is our progress thus far:

I can still see that we have a ways to go, but the deep cracks are starting to fill in, and the thrush is starting to lose it's foothold!


Hoof diagrams from barefoothorse.com