As we all know and have been taught, or told at least the trim is the main ingredient of a good shoeing job .... What do you look for , use for reference ect in the trim ??? We talk about distortion and other problems ...so I'm just wondering how everyone else "finds" the foot in your everyday work ? Sometimes I wonder if I am crazy or do we sometimes just not have a choice in the matter .... Here one Olay five weeks really a mess IMO Be great if some others would post trim pics before shoe setting
Every time I figure out how to, or hear about a perfect method, the next horse blows the whole theory apart. I'm using the "go do 70 or 80 thousand feet and you might get the hang of it " method currently, but I think it may take a few more yet.
The biggest problem I find with people trying to find the foot is they have preconceived ideas, that don't make a whole lot of sense, that they are trying to achieve. As the angle of the foot is lowered the distance from the center of the coffin bone to the toe is increased. More often than not when people see a low angled foot their first thought is you need to back the shoe up.
I try to obtain as much symmetry in all directions as the foot will allow whilst maintaining hoof strength and integrity. Also trying to achieve level footfall which will in turn morph the feet during the shoeing cycle.
Trim n balance hoof as best I can with what Mums given horse to present me to work with use the shoe to compensate for the inadequacies of the hoof to balance the limb the shoe tricked n nailed to stimulate the coronet allow or encourage the hoof to symmetry This sadly I dont always acheve
So on those low angled feet do you think that lever is a detriment to the horses performance ? Or do you just shoe what have and forget whether it "looks right" or not ? Im one who alot of the time back up a low angled foot .. But here in the south the feet are often pretty wet , and setting the shoe back leaves the already weak capsule without full support ... So I'm looking for a better way .... Sent from my phone
The easy out would be to say it depends. LOL You also need to clarify if you mean conformational long toe / loe heel or the back of the foot collapsed for whatever reason including the now accepted low heel trimming. On a conformational lt/lh I I figure I could toe clip if I wanted. If I were to toe clip I would fit the heels longer. If you look at any of my pics the first post after is usually Smitty telling me he would fit longer. He lives in wet country and does a lot of toe clipping so...... On the ones with the back of the foot collapsed or the heels trimmed too low, that is an angle problem and toe clip or setting the shoe back isn't going to fix the problem. In general I set a low angled foot back a little. I've found they drift forward a bit throughout the shoeing cycle. Then again I don't fit with much length. Not fitting with length is mostly because of the management at the farms not doing there jobs. So it depends on the situation. As for the lever being a detriment, I would shoe any horse to the nondistorted hoof capsule without a rolled or rocker toe and have no problem with it. IMO, to toe clip a horse in wet conditions you need to be a better Farrier. I don't think wet conditions / weak hoof capsule have anything to do with it.
Nice job, If I could just say that a little bit of finish on your trim view and that would be top notch.
I wondered what you would think of my heel trim . If the trim on this foot is "blended into the bulbs " then probably not .... U think this foot would be better if I had left some heel ? How do you decide how much heel to leave ? Sent from my phone
Is it really "distorted?". I get so sick and tired of "per the numbers". Horses tell ya everything about them; one has to be smarter than the Donkey presented.
Need some advice on this one. Slight flare to the inside really straight on the outside. I was taught that the flared side was actually the longer side, but this looks off to me. As in the outside looks longer. Viewed from the front, the hair line is level. From the back, the outside looks pushed up. Is this sheared heels?
Look at and compare the wall length and heel height. What does that suggest to you? View attachment 1312 [/quote] What does the [on going] presence of growth/fever rings suggest to you? Couple that with your observations regarding the first photo. What does that suggest to you?
