Hoof progression

One of the things that scared me the most when I moved Daniel was hoof care. I know the saying "no hoof, no horse" and he has a lot of hoof! But, when I found out that all the horses were barefoot, and the other boarders used a barefoot trimmer named Dawn Willoughby; Sara and Richard's DAWN! I was quite relieved! I always liked her when I spoke to her at the old Legacy, and I just had a feeling this would be really good for Daniel.

Here are what his hooves looked like before Dawn took over. When I first started taking lessons on Daniel about 3 years ago, his hooves were "trimmed" every eight weeks by the barn farrier. This continued while I leased him. When I bought him nearly two years ago (even though no one at the barn but Leeandra and Lisa1 knew it!) I asked Leeandra if we could do every six weeks, because I thought he was tripping on all of that flare.

When we moved to Hampstead, and the barn farrier didn't travel that far. A woman named Coreen was doing a few of the other horses every four weeks, so I moved Daniel into her hands, thinking that four weeks had to be better than every six weeks. This is what his hooves looked like (flared out frog feet) when he started getting four week trims (My god! All of that blasted FLARE! UGH!)...

After a few months of trims every four weeks, we moved to Tory Hill. So, since in May '09, Dawn has been teaching me to trim him myself. She has had me doing weekly trims since mid-May. I took this pick in September '09, to show the progression to "normal" hooves, thanks to weekly trims and Dawn's great care...


At Dawn's last visit, she told me to stop trimming every week, and go every two or three. She said if I MUST do something (one of my fellow boarders told me I have a hoof fetish!) to simply sand the rough edges with a sanding block she left for me.... I have been on a mission, with Dawn's help, to get rid of all of that flare he had, and try to get rid of that blasted crack in his LF!!! Now look - a year after going from 6 to 4 week trims, and 6 months after going from 4 weeks to weekly (thank you, Dawn!)... there's still the *tiniest* hint of a crack, but, at the risk of jinxing us, it's almost gone! I think after another trim or two and it will be (fingers crossed)!


Dawn and I had a discussion about his hoof defect (you can't see it too well, but there is concavity in the wall), and I realize that foot may NEVER be *correct*, but , DAMN! I can't believe how much better it looks since this time last year!!!