March 2021 - Pulled shoes & set up trim
April 2021 - Second trim (2 week interval). The owner said he was doing good since pulling shoes and the first trim but was just starting to have trouble getting around. I gave him a trim and put Cloud boots on his fronts and he was immediately trotting out and galloping around the arena.
April 2021 - Third trim
March 2021 - May 2021
September 2021
October 2021
December 2021
December 2021 - 1 week trim interval
February 2022
April 2022
The red arrow is the old dead heel that needs to grow off. I try to keep this as non weight bearing as possible without invading live tissue. Horses almost always seem to like it when I get all the loose dead horn cut away from the damaged area as long as I don’t nick the sensitive live stuff. They often get super worried about it and put up a fuss but if I’m patient and persistent and every time they get their foot back it feels better, they’ll eventually let me get it and there’ll be more trust afterward. The green arrow is the new heel forming. I try to get this weight bearing as soon as possible. When I’m done with the trim at this stage, there’s usually only a hair of height difference above the ground between the dead heel and the live heel. It’s not even enough that you could notice it. It just makes a little less of an impression on the ground. Comfort and progress wise, this seems to make all the difference in the world when growing these heel abscesses out. BTW, this abscess was caused by the crooked trimming and shoeing of the previous farrier. It takes a while to grow the crookedness and damage out
May 2022
March 2021 - August 2022
Tuffie is another horse that has abuse in his past and trust issues around having his feet trimmed. He’s been a hard case. He’s been one of the most difficult horses to pick up and hold hinds and possibly the most stubborn sbout it. It took me years to learn to be persistent with difficult tasks without getting frustrated. Tuffie came along to teach me a new level of patience. After 20 months of outlasting his tests and fixing his feet ( damaged from years of flat trims in steel shoes ) he started coming up and asking me for a trim. If you’re wondering how a horse asks for a trim, it’s simple. They just come up and stand next to you when you’re trimming another horse and they don’t run off when you pick up their feet. He still requires some patience but he hasn’t been testing me as much as before. The real bonus here is that his caretaker is learning to trim his feet.
November 2022
December 2022
20 months progress
2 years progress after pulling shoes and wedge pads of Tuffie’s fronts
2 years progress after pulling shoes and wedge pads of Tuffie’s fronts
March 2023
September 2023
March 2024
July 2024
May 2025
Sept 2021 ( pre trim/post trim ) | Oct 2022 | April 2025
March 2021 (pre trim/post trim) | Oct 2022 | April 2025