• White Facebook Icon
  • White Pinterest Icon
  • White Instagram Icon

© 2023 by The Essential Horse. Mindy Schroder.

Mindy Schroder
Dec 25, 2019

A little of my journey

I have been trimming hooves for about 17 years now. For quite a few years I trimmed for others and did a lot of traveling to do so. I saw so many different kind of problems from club feet to foundered feet. With a small sprinkling of nice in feet mixed in. I had so many minis for many years, that I had to trim at least 5 of my own a day to keep ahead of schedule. That was when I had a trimming schedule of 6-8 weeks. I was a busy girl! (and am paying for that now with some arthritis and tendonitis...)

 

I feel like there is SO MUCH to learn about hoof trimming. There seems to always be new thoughts and ideas about what needs to happen to help horses have the best feet they can. Shoes, barefoot, hoof boots and those that believe hoof boots mean they have failed their horse. I heard this just the other day from a Facebook friend.

 

I'll share my thoughts and would love to hear yours as well!

 

I trim my ponies every week to week and a half. It wasn't until I started following this strict regime that I started to see some BIG changes in Zorro's extremely flat feet with under run heels and Sky's clubbed front foot. By sticking to this schedule I now know exactly what I'm going to find when I pick up a hoof to start working on it and also know exactly what I'm going to do with said hoof.

 

About 2 years ago I found David Landreville on Facebook and started closely watching what he was doing. I would ask him questions on his wall as well as message him. It's hard to help someone when you can't put hands on the horse's hooves AND watch how said person goes about trimming. He didn't know a thing about me and my history, not that would have mattered too much because even had I shared my history with him he still wouldn't know HOW I hold my tools, do I keep them sharp, do I understand how they work? (and I'll share that I didn't really have an understanding of how my rasp works when I first started working with him!)

 

I was lucky enough to attend a clinic he taught this spring, and I took Zorro, so he could have some hands on help from David. His feet were really starting to take a turn for the worse and I knew it was all my fault because I am the ONLY person who has ever trimmed his feet. I just didn't know what to do about it.

 

If you have followed my blog for very long you'll know that I used to watch and read what Crazy Lady Linda (of TACT Trimming) shared about trimming. Her methods would have ended up laming Zorro had I kept following her. I am so glad I have a simple understanding of feet so I knew when to walk away from her method. I cringe for all the horses out there she is "helping."

 

So I thought I would share a collage of Zorro's feet. The photo on the left is from May 2019. His feet were so flat it was difficult to rasp them without taking sole. If I didn't run the rasp over the entire bottom of his foot his sole would have protruded past the hoof wall. What this means is his soles were extremely thin. Not only that but he had ZERO heel buttress and the backs of his hooves were very unhealthy. Simply put, you HAVE to address the frog and the back of the foot to grow a healthy foot. To never touch either will result in thrush and under run heels as well as crushed heel bulbs and heel buttresses.

 

This foot is his best foot. Back in May this was the foot I was pretty proud of but also knew things were about to go very wrong. Do you see that shadow at the toe? That is the outline of his coffin bone.

The photo the right was taken just last week, December of 2019. He has been living on sand and gravel, on the track system. (He also lived on a track system with the photo on the left but there wasn't much gravel out there and zero sand.) I have been trimming him every week to week and half since May, with a few missed trims in there, but never going longer than 3 weeks. Now he has concavity, his heel buttress is healthier as is his frog. The soft tissue is stronger and thicker on the back of his foot as well.

 

You can see that his heels have relaxed and the central sulcus is more open. I keep the back of his foot nice and rounded which makes a heel first landing more comfortable for him.

I use my rasp to round the back of the frog. I will turn it sideways to get down into the central sulcus but I also use my hoof knife in there, to keep it open and clean.

 

Here is his right front foot. This is the foot that I always called his Ugly foot. This foot has turned in quite dramatically since he was about 8 months old. He would roll the inner edge of the hoof, smashing the hoof wall when he was younger. It was always super flat and with a very forward and crushed heel.

 

His heel is still stretched forward some but his heel buttress is getting bigger and stronger which will support the back of his hoof and allow him to walk correctly which will lead to the heel pulling back and under him.

This foot has concavity for the first time in his 4 years! I am so thrilled with how this foot has looked this summer!

 

 

 

We have a long way to go with this foot but we have some so far. This is why I suggest taking lots of photos if you trim your own. You can check your work and will see things that you may miss when looking right at the foot! It's also a great way to see that things ARE actually changing when you feel that they may not be. You can see how much soft tissue Zorro has developed on this hoof when looking at the side shot. Now if that heel buttress would move back this would be quite a pretty foot!

 

As for booting. This is how I look at it. I work hard to help my ponies have beautiful feet. I don't want that to be changed by them wearing something oddly out on the road, wearing off too much toe or getting a rock bruise that will cause them to walk differently and change the hoof. So I boot them. I also believe that good boots will provide shock relief and that is extremely important to me as well! So I don't think that booting means I've failed my ponies at all. Booting is a way I can further protect them and offer them the best I can!

 

I look forward to what you've been doing with your pony's feet!

0 comments0 replies
New Posts
  • Mindy Schroder
    Jan 13

    Question about booting your pony!

    Discussion 
    Mindy, I liked your post on the various boots for minis. It would be great if you would write a post regarding what situations / circumstances we should consider using boots with our minis. They would help with grip on slippery surfaces, but I am unsure about driving on asphalt or gravel roads, hard packed clay surfaces and sometimes I see photos of minis with boots only on the front. Lynn~ Thank you for this question Lynn! I actually am asked this quite a bit and thought the forum was a great place to answer so others can chime in with the various reasons they like to boot their ponies. My main reason for booting my ponies is wear and tear on their hooves. We do so many miles on the gravel roads that they tend to wear their toes down to nubbins. Sky was starting to get sore when I restarted her so I pulled out the old boots. Here is a blog about that: https://www.theessentialhorse.com/post/easyboot-mini-hoof-boot (If you have read the blog about boot comparison you will know that the Easy Boots didn't work out when we started doing our longer drives and had to cross water multiple times. They would fly off as we trotted down the trail. Not helpful! LOL!) Another reason I like to boot my ponies is I am looking for some shock absorption for them. Something that provides some padding between the pony and the road. When we are driving we are usually on a road surface, unlike trail riding when you spend more time on a trail or cantering through fields. Pavement, asphalt, gravel roads, can be very hard on their joints. So the boots really help with that! And add traction, as you suggested. I typically only boot the front feet as I have found they tend to wear their hinds a bit less. BUT if I have a pony that runs the toes off the hinds then I will boot them. Or, as with Zorro, a sore pony. Last spring Zorro had a little laminitic attack and was sore on all four feet. So I booted all four when we went on our camping, driving trip in the mountains. He drove 15 miles, 2 days in a row, booted on all four, slogging through mud that was over the top of the boots, crossing so so much water and trotting and cantering down the road. He never took a bad step and when we got back to camp his feet were clean inside the boots! AND we had all 4 boots! LOL! Funnily when we got back home he was quite clear with me that he prefers to be booted on all 4 when he pulls the bike. (He told me this by being quite reluctant to go forward when I tried to go back to just booting the fronts. As soon as I turned around and booted his hinds he trotted right down the driveway without a problem! LOL!) When I ground drive him I only boot the fronts. So, that's why I boot my ponies! Why do you boot yours? And do you boot all four or just the fronts?