Rosie (dbL)
November 2021 - Pulled shoes and set up trim
To determine heel height I follow the contours of the frog from the central sulcus (blue lines) but I defer to the seat of corn (red arrows) and it’s readiness to exfoliate. Then I just try to trim the bars flush with the sole so there’s no bar pressure.
Rosie was unshod on the hinds. It’s pretty obvious that her hinds are much healthier and less distorted. In my experience, this is a big advantage when rehabbing a horse from having their fronts messed up with flat trimming snd steel shoes.
January 2022
February 2022
December 2022
Rosie is a lesson horse. This is 1 year of progress after pulling shoes. She stayed in work throughout the process. 2 days after her most recent trim ( right in collage ) she came up to me for the first time and asked me to make some more adjustments to her feet. That’s the most she’s acknowledged that I was helping her.
April 2023
I’ve been trimming Rosie at liberty for around 18 months now. This was the first time she walked up to me and asked for a trim while I was trimming another horse. She wasn’t even on my trim list. I felt a big responsibility to get it right for her. I always feel that, but it’s even more important when they finally break out of their shell and ask. When I thought I was done with her trim I went to trim another horse in her paddock. She followed me and leaned towards me without touching me. My hearing isn’t that good so she actually startled me a bit when I turned around and she was so close. She wanted more done on her right front. So I found more retained dead sole to skim off. The reason I’m including this is because it’s hard to know how far to go on feet like this. If you get it right they remember and and they’ll ask for more. It’s the only way to know for sure if you’re doing it right. It’s worth all the years and trouble of learning it. There isn’t a person that could convince me this trim wasn’t a good one. I don’t obsess about toe length or heel height. I obsess about comfort and reducing distortion. The heels and toes will eventually conform to the inner structures if the horse stays comfortable while you’re helping them grow out the distortion. It’s cool when they acknowledge that
That bruise is from the coffin bone pressing down on the solar corium against a lump of hard, retained, dead sole. This calloused live sole is thick and doesn’t give to thumb pressure. The bruise will grow the rest of the way out by the next trim.
