Video of Sassy 2 hours after she got her shoes off, 2 Aug 2013.

I took a little video of her so everyone can see she is not lame. Also that even after she
 had her shoes off she will willingly move out on the gravel road.

 

This is the link to the above video here.  If it does not work on this page. Sorry no music just me giving directions to my daughter.

I have a plan to check her feet next Friday for a trim. If I feel I can trim her lightly with no ill effects, I will give it a try.  I am very nervous about doing this on my own having only read a book. I have never done any trimming before.  The HGM seems so simple, I hope it works for us.

INFO about Sassy...
I do ride about 3 times a week for more then 2 hours at a time.  Sassy is in a dry lot with 4 other horses. She eats only grass hay from round bales. They get a new one about every 5-7 days.  She gets no other grain or supplements and only a small treat once in a while.

 I think ND horses are more hardy then other places I live.  Horses here are treated more like livestock and less like pets.  There are exceptions of course but Sassy was born out in the ND plains. She is the toughest horse I have ever owned. She grows 3 inch winter hair and will not wear a blanket at all over night.  She tares them off herself, even when it is forty below.

I forgot to mention that I only put shoes on Sassy once a year in the summer. I do a lot of training on our long dirt roads and you can not get much done if your horse is always wincing every ten steps.

Starting Sassy barefoot

8-2-13

 



I started Sassy on her HGM barefoot journey today. You can find the HGM web site at http://www.barefoottrimming.com/  I am interested in this method because it seems pretty easy to do. I think I can do it.  It makes a lot of sense to me that less is more.  We simulate the ground by just taking off a little bit at a time. This keeps the hoof trimmed as if the horse walked 30 miles a day.  

 

Sassy has never been lame or had any issues with her feet.  5 years ago she did cut off her left hind outside heel bulb so there is some deformation on that hoof and frog. Sassy is 8 years old now and it has never bothered her.

 

Here are some photos of Her hooves.

 

These are the left front sole, with and without shoes. The pictures with out shoes where taken about 2 hours after her shoes where removed.

 

It is amazing how different the hoof looks after the shoes were removed. Things where so frantic I did not really look carefully.  It was hard to take pictures and keep track of what foot is witch.

 

Anyway using the HGM as I understand it I should wait 3 weeks before trimming or rasping anything away. From the above photos you can tell she is very grown out. Her bars are long and coming off. The bars are uneven, the right side is more forward then the left side.  You can see the sole ridge where the hoof wants to be.

 

From My Farrier 

 

 It was very odd to just ask the Farrier to remove her shoes and not trim anything. I told him about my experiment and he was very happy to give me advice. He believes in the barefoot theory, but he said most people do not keep up with trimming their own horses.  He told me I would have a lot of hoof to work with as her shoes have been on for about 8 and a half weeks. She is pretty grown out.  He also told me to start slow and take off less then more to begin with.   

 

I was very happy he did not think I was crazy for learning to do this for myself.

 

Here are her right front sole views.

 

 

My biggest concern with this hoof is the deep crack in the frog. she has always had it and I have treated it with NO Thrush for a while now.  I may have to try something else. You can slightly see the sole ridge, her bars are coming off, the frog is small and pinched.  I cannot wait to get my bevel on!



 

 

These are the left hind. You can see the deformed heel bulb and frog. There is some hoof wall that is a bit weird also.

 

This is her deformed hoof. It looks bad in this picture. I see it all the time so it does not look bad to me. We will see how this hoof turns out.

 

Here is the right hind.

 

So on this hoof her bars are way forward to me. I feel like her frog is pretty big, but her toe is long. Pretty much the same story on all her feet. Grown out toes pulling everything forward.

 

Left front hoof, front view.   Sorry not much flat ground around the barn only gravel driveway.

 

 

Below is the right front foot, front view.

 

 

Left hind front view is next.

 

 





 

 

Right hind front view.

 

I was planning on going to a show this weekend but I am beat. I will go to the fun show on Wednesday night! 


I think next time I will put all views of the same foot together. I will also make some type of marker to put next to the hoof so I know exactly what hoof I am looking at!   The hardest part is taking the pictures.  

Thank you for reading my hoof blog.