I'm now back from an incredible trip to New Zealand and although I am missing the summer sunshine and the wonderful people it is fantastic to be back home.
While I've been away there have been no rehab horses here and our own horses have had a holiday - free access to the fields and the tracks and no work at all.
One of the questions I am most often asked about self-trimming hooves is how horses cope if they are not in work - its a common assumption that self-trimming is only feasible when horses are doing significant road mileage each week.
Well, I must admit I have never tried giving our horses quite as much time off as they have had this year and I thought you might be as interested as I am to see how the feet have managed.
I never trust photos to give a true picture of hoof health so I will add straightway that his landings are still good - heel first and with good media-lateral balance. I don't think I have ever seen him so hairy but I rather like the teddy bear look for a change!
5 comments:
Very interesting thank you. I am taking my TB’s shoes off again on Monday. He was previously bf for 3 years and successfully self trimmed during most of that time. My question is this: when the shoes come off , is it better to leave his feet alone or should he have his feet trimmed at that point before allowing him to then self trim. His shoes were already removed the last time I transitioned him so didn’t have this dilemma! TIA
Thanks for sharing. I've been wondering about this recently.
When I was a trimmer and I was transitioning a horse I always did very little to a horse fresh out of shoes because there is usually much less callus and strength over all so they need all the support they can get, and let their feet break off what they dont need and keep what they do while they heal
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