Horses are born with feet that have a greater ratio of sensitive soft tissue (that’s mostly in the back of the foot) to hard horn (that’s mostly in the front of the foot). Most horses that are born and live their lives in the wild, maintain this ratio throughout their lives from daily miles of wear. It may not be an easy life, but moving is easy and for the most part, pain free.

My daughter and I developed our awareness of this way of trimming together. My brain doesn’t usually come to my rescue in many instances, but it does recognize and file patterns. My daughter notices fine details and intuitively connects hoof shape with comfort. Things like…shapes/colors/actions/times of the day/weather/environmental changes, etc. are what catch my attention and get stored away. When horses give me feedback it all goes into the data bank. Teaming up with my daughter over the years (when she was available) helped me become more empathic.

Horse: “What’s wrong with my feet?”

Me: “The last three guys didn’t know what they were doing and screwed them up.”

Horse: “Can you fix them?”

Horses won’t commit their weight to the back of the foot if it’s not shaped correctly. I trim off the hard dead retained frog tissue and smooth it down to the outermost insensitive ( but supple ) layer to give the back of the foot optimal comfort for load bearing.

The issue that I have with steel shoes is that every single horse that I've ever pulled shoes off of was better off afterward, if given the time they needed to heal from the damage caused by the shoes.

I've been criticized for years for doing too much "pretty work" when trimming. Some feel that it's not necessary to make it look nice, that good function is all that's important. In my mind I can't separate good form from good function.