Monty - before and after front hooves

As some of you know I finally got Monty (the rescue Hackney pony) home yesterday. I had spoken to my amish trimmer earlier this week, knowing Monty would be coming, and he is not able to make it out to me any sooner than his normal "10 week check" for my horses, which is in 3 weeks. Now I trim my own horses and have been doing so since December, with the trimmer just coming out for guidance while I am at the learning stage, every 10 weeks. But I wasn't feeling terribly confident about taking on a new horse with bad feet on the starting trim. However I couldn't stand the thought of leaving those feet on him for three more weeks - I couldn't even stand the thought of leaving them one more day!

So I decided to dedicate the morning to getting what I could done on his front feet - I'd tackle just the fronts today and give him a few days before getting to the rears. He is a smart little guy and very willing as long as you go slow with him. So starting this morning, he wouldn't let me touch him below the shoulder. With lots of cookies, some sweat and blood (on my part!), and a few rearing episodes from him, this is the end result!

His front hooves, before:



Left front, after:







One down, one to go!



Right front after:







He looks happier now!



I know they certainly aren't perfect, a lot needs to come off his heels yet, and lots of flaring still at the toe, and they need to be more even left to right, but I figured I'd pushed him enough for having only been here 24 hours. The interior structures are dropped so low they the sole is actually convex instead of concave right now, and I certainly didn't want to take off any additional sole in a hurry to get those heels down. I figured even a rough first time by me has to be better than what he had! I'll work on it bit by bit for the next 3 weeks until my trimmer can get out and fix him up properly. Hopefully in the next few days I can get him to stop kicking and let me get to his rear feet!

They look much better eh! Think of much relief he must have gotten. Poor horse.

That looks so much better! You did a great job! He's got to be so much more comfortable now without all that hoof. Poor little guy, he will come around.

Awww...he must be much more comfortable now! Bravo for being patient with him, too.

Thanks guys! He does have one fairly bad crack on his front left, it starts at the ground, travels up a bit, then goes horizontally for a bit, then angles up to his coronet band. It appears superficial, at least at ground level it does not go all the way through the hoof wall, just the outer layer. I'm guessing that might be caused from a twisting-type force when his feet were so long? Never seen a crack like that before? It's weird. Here, I've marked it on the picture below.

Wow, the first two words that pop in my head when I look at that first picture are, squashed dinnerplates.

Personally I wouldn't remove any sole at all. Especially if the sole is convex. If you don't have any collateral groove depth in the front then there won't be much sole depth up there either. I would let the hoof grow into the concave shape.

I'll bet he's happy to get those clunken squashed dinner plates off.

I can relate with ya on a horse that didn't want his hooves touched. My cousins horse when I brought him to my place didn't like any of his hooves handled. I think he had been traumatized by whoever did his hooves before. He actually nipped me twice the first time I was handling his hooves. But he trusts me now and knows I'm just going to help. And I can do his fronts without the halter.

That was my thoughts, I really wanted to get those heels lower, based on the angle of the front of the hoof, to quit pulling away the wall at the toe, but I didn't dare cut into that sole. I DO believe he has a layer of false sole on there now, but I'll wait until it sheds off on it's own. I would have liked to put a better roll on there, but he wasn't tolerating rasping terribly well. The sound of it scared him. I was able to do some, but had to do the majority of everything with nippers.

Hi, haven't time for an indepth reply ATM, but you've done a great job!

I'd be careful about how quickly you take his heels down - make sure he's comfortable on his heels. I'd also 'scoop' the quarters right back. I'd try to ensure his feet were *kept* well trimmed little & often & not let them get overgrown.

GREAT job! And I LOVE the braid hehe =)

Amazing job!!! I bet his feet are feeling 1000% better for him now.