"BE INFORMED"
Were you aware that an 8 week or longer trim schedule is way to long for your horse?
A 4 to 5 week schedule is recommended, the reason behind this is the longer you go between trims the
more damage you do to the hoof. The horse was designed to walk on his sole, frog and heel and wall. Not just the hoof wall.
Think of walking on the hoof wall like to walking on your finger nail. Every step you take rips it more and more.
Ever since I have taken over my own trimmings I have rid my horses of flares, winging, high heels and underun
heels, toe landing, frogs that are thrushy . Flares are painful to a horses and cause damage to the hoof.
Flares are caused by unbalanced trimmings. Winging caused by unbalanced trims. High heels and underun heels are caused
by 8 week trims or longer. My horses move better then ever due to being "Informed"
My first horse started to stumble /trip and short striding long before I even thought about trimming. When
I told the trimmer what problems I was having the reply was "it was conformational" Well it was due to high heels, toe landing
first due to the 8 week trimming schedule. Think about it this way. Walk in a pair of high heels and tell me how you are landing
on your feet. Do you walk on the balls of your feet and after a few hours on your feet do they burn and your toes hurt? Another
way is to slightly raise your heel off the ground, How does it feel? Are you putting weight on the ball of your
foot. When you walk barefoot see how you land on your feet, You land slightly heel first. This is the way the horse
should walk not on his toes or walls.
Underun heels and long toes goes hand and hand. You need to treat both by very scheduled trims to eliminate
it. My gelding that I purchased over a year ago had bad feet when I got him. I knew it. This is when I just
started to trim. When I first rode him , he stumbled, he short strided and had a limp
and certainly was ochy on gravel. He had contracted hooves along with knucking at the knees , heel pain and toe landing.
I'm now in the finale stretch on rehabing him. I wish I had taken pictures so that one could see the progress we both
made. Most people do not have time to wait so they put shoes on thinking that this will fix the problem, which in
most cases is just a temporay fix. I wanted to heal the horse from the inside not conceal it. The changes that he has made
due to weekly trims and now on a 4 week schedule his feet are almost there. His sole is telling me when to do more so
I can take more heel off. His lenght of stride has increased, he is landing flat, next he will be landing slightly heel
first. I have been walking him out in the pasture, we go 5 laps and are just waiting for the ice to
melt in the drive way so I dont fall. He needs more abrasion from the road. Another wonderful thing to witness is that he
is standing square now. Its remarkable, truly exciting to see!
07-22-06 Jerry was fitted with boots and pads, to further his healing. His digital cushions are soft and with
the boots and pads this will make him use his heel and get his digital cushions to firm up. He is now able to
walk across gravel , his length of stride is huge and is happy to go.