[Suzannah]

Yup, more feet, one at a time. Please give feedback and offer suggestions on this left hind. She has almost grown a completely new foot since I have started trimming her myself (February?); She had some serious issues with all four feet. The pictures below are not some of my best, but I hope you will get the idea. I actually took more off the toe to the inside of the foot, and the hoof is uniformly 3" from the hair to the toe across the front. I chased her off after completing this foot, and she was the most heel-first I have ever seen her.








I need to fix one of the head-on shots, so I'll re-post in a second.

Added: Head-on shots -

[Suzannah]

I know you're out there...lurking...sick of critiquing....anybody? Buehller?

[Suzannah]

Tralalala!!! I am the best, self-taught, four-month trimming person EVER!!! No responses!!!!

Yahooo!!!! They're PERFECT!!!!!!

(just kidding. feeling a little left out. the lady with the hoof pictures with shoes got instantaneous responses. I guess I should feel okay because if they were catastrophic, JB or Rick or some other very smarty-pants would jump in and tell me so. Still, a little feedback would be nice, as I am aware that the first paragraph is utter cr@p.)

[Dusty1979]

You know, I just hate to see someone hanging out there all alone! LOL

I'm by no means a pro, but have been working on my own horses feet for quite some time. So, I'll tell ya what I see from the pictures. Pictures can make things look so much different than they actually are though.

I'm seeing the inside heel a little longer than the outside (if my mind isn't twisting the picture around). The inside heel doesn't appear taken down as far back as the outside. Looks that way from the pics anyway. Can you see how you would not get parallel lines if you drew a line across the heel buttresses and the heel bulbs?

Hope I didn't confuse you. I think I confused myself! Otherwise, it looks like you have a very good grasp on this whole trimming thing, which does bring out bits of controversy here and there!

[wrightdanes]

Heels are not level, the bars are too long and layed over, the horse seems to have some sort of white line separation. You've got a pretty aggressive roll going on there - don't forget to leave a little wall for the horse to walk on! I'd take the quarters down a bit more next trim and knife off that excess bar.

Hows the horse working in the new trim? That's the sure bet on how you did. BTW - not too bad for a first time. Refresh it in a week and you'll probably see where the horse wants his feet to go. I'm glad to see you left the frog alone - looks a little ratty. Might want to try some coppertox or white lighting.

[Dawn]

How much knife did you use on the sole? Was all of that flaking off? Or were you actually cutting?

The bar to the inside of the hoof actually looks like it's longer than the wall is? The lighting is tricking me a bit. But I'm almost positive that's what I'm seeing. That bar is actually the primary weight bearing structure on the rear portion of the hoof.

I'd like to see a side view from ground level. It looks like there's some dishing going on in the toe.

There appears to be some white line seperation all the way around the hoof. What's caused the crack and what, in your trimming, did you do to help release pressure from it?

[barefoothooves]

You use a strasser method? Has that look about it. Not my fav. type of trim, but the hooves still look better than a lot of shod ones you find.

It would be nice if you also showed a sample of the fronts, or if you had befores and afters.

[Suzannah]

Yay! Thanks!!

Starting at the end (ish). I don't use the strasser method,per se; what makes you say that?

All of the stuff on the sole was dead, flaky sole. I didn't cut anything.

She had really awful separation, and this is the result of several months of backing the toe and tightening it up a little at a time. The roll is aggressive because she is very toe-first, and I have only recently realized that much of that was probably because her heels were too high/underrrun/generally very bad.

I know her bars are layed over, but I am not sure how to correct that. Every time I try to trim, I can only take off a little before the color changes. Too nervous to mess with the frog; I trimmed a little off the apex, but that's it.

The crack in the back started before I started trimming her; I have been trying to keep it smooth on the outside, clean on the inside, and the pressure off. It is actually much better than it was; it used to go all the way up; I consider the top half of her hoof "my" foot, and the bottom half belongs to the old farrier.

So, to summarize:

-attention to the bars; down a little on the inside by the heel, get them to stand up (ha! not laying over).
-level the heels.

[wrightdanes]

To take the bars down you'll need a good hoof knife or a good pair of nippers. Don't worry so much about the color changing, but rather try to blend the bar into the sole. As you remove little layers, you might start to see some gross looking black gunk where the bar has been resting layed over on the sole. I try to clean this up a bit and stop. Don't dig below the layer of the sole.

I don't see ANYTHING Strasser about this trim. Strasserites seem to try to form concavity in the hoof by removing sole (except from the toe callous). Obviously this trimmer hasn't removed much sole at all.

There are some good videos on u-tube shoiwn how to trim beack bars.

YouTube - Barefoot horse gets shoes.

half way through

YouTube - Hoof Care www.CocoCaballo.com

not in my opinion the best farrier - but he does use a knife well.

[barefoothooves]

Hmm, well, I just joined this forum and hadn't figured out how to bring up the larger images. Anyhoo, in the thumbnail pictures, the sole appears pared out, like a strasser trim. I didn't say a proper Strasser, just asked if that was the method that was being followed. I know how a strasser trim is done, but that was good to provide video clips. I don't care for the method, cutting sole, bars etc, for the most part, but I DO think it can benefit some horses in the right situation.

So, now I've been able to view the pictures enlarged. I disagree that her roll is too agressive, whoever said that. I wouldn't have removed ANY of that sole, personally (if you are doing it yourself, you can keep working on the walls as needed when that sole comes out on it's own). In my experience working the sole too much will encourage more bar growth as the foot tries to protect itself. So as long as the bars aren't bulging above the hoof wall at this point, I would leave them alone. They will start to loosen up on their own when they aren't needed. If you don't mess with the sole too much, they will be ready sooner.When you see them starting to loosen, you can cut off the excess, but I woulld never pare them down to the same height as the sole.

I've tried removing built up sole and bars that looked like that at the same time and the bars kept coming right back. It was too much change for the foot. Keeping a strong bevel on the walls and just keeping the bars at wall height or slightly lower was all I needed and the extra sole would come right out on it's own, then the bars would start to take care of themselves, and never had a horse get tender. They shaped up a lot quicker for me. And I'm talking about horses people drag home from an auction, with neglected and overgrown feet that would have been tender if I'd trimmed it right away to what I wanted them to look like. A few short-cycle trims and they cleaned right up and were able to be ridden with mishap or bruising.