Upset or helpful?

I have been learning to trim my horses' hooves these past few months.

Because of all that I have learned and knowing that my horses are way too fat, I have decided to eliminate grain in their diet.

I only put a 1/4 cup of grain in their pans a day now. I am aiming for none at all by early spring.

I think that they are sending me a message about what they think of this plan! I think they might be telling me that it's a bunch of "sheet" of what my goals for them are!

My other goal this winter was to scoop out their stalls every morning and night. Perhaps I was being too negative, maybe they were just helping? Maybe it's just nothing more than a "Thank you, let me help you out Mom"?

While I love it when my horses try to communicate with me, I just wish they could be more clear.

Did you trim those horses feet in that picture?

LOL! Yes, but, you have to know that we are in the transition period.

We have had two professional trimmings from a natural hoof farrier and my husband and I have only trimmed a slight amount off two times. We trim every three weeks so far.

Since their hooves are growing much slower in the winter our farrier has given us the go ahead to give her three months till she comes back again. She has witnessed our trimmings the last time she was here.

Also, the horse in the picture has the worst confo admittedly. He has low ringbone too.

Sounds like you have some critiquing you might like to add? Feel free to do so. I welcome all information I can get.

But, I really hope that they look much more like they should by spring.

No just curious.

That is funny, it's all in there perfectly!!

I am going to give you a bit of advice about the horses feet, leave more heel. She has VERY flat feet, and yes I know that this sometimes does happen regardless of how they are trimmed but just try to leave some heel next time.

Thanks, good eye. That is our goal on all of them at this point. They need more heel for sure! If you can imagine, there IS more heel now than when we first started!

I have to say, it's exciting to see them start to develope into what they should be like. We can actually start to see some concavity to the bottoms! That was exciting for me anyway.

It's also very nerve wracking since we are so new to this, we can only hope what we are doing is not doing them more harm than good. My great, fantastic new natural trimming farrier says we are doing fine. I hope so.

Perhaps after awhile, when they are further along, I will make another post and show some before and after pics. When I look at the befores, I wonder how in the heck could I ever let them get like that?

You would be surprised an how quick it can happen!! I bought a two and half year old filly last year and her feet looked worse then the one in the picture...it was soo bad. I didn't think that they would come back but now they look great. You can't even tell that before she has NO heel what-so-ever.

Just keep doing what you are doing and leave that heel be! Unless it starts to curl or get to be to much of course!! It took about a year before we got this mare's feet to how I like it.

BTW My hubby is a farrier so I'm bound to have a good eye! ;)

I would love to see more photos of those hooves - horse standing square, camera level to the ground from both sides, front, back and solar view.

To me what I can see (this photo is at a really bad angle), it looks like the tubulars are pushed forward, indicating at one point those heels were too long. When they are like that, its counter productive to leave the heels longer until the tubulars are growing in straight again. But, don't take my word on it right now until I can see more photos.

BTW - LOVE the message they left you!

Cat, Can do!

I will see if I can decipher half of what you say/suggest.

The hooves are not a big passion of mine, it's just something that I feel is right to be doing. So, it takes me a little while to get onto it, if you know what I mean?

But, I am committed, and there is no way I'll be going back to "traditional" at this point.

It may take me a few weeks to get those pic's for you though. I have two full time jobs, and will take the pic's as soon as I can. I will pm you when I have them.

FGRanch, I would say you should have an eye for it. I wish I was either married to a vet, or a farrier! Well, I would still want my same husband, just want him to be one of those! LOL! I'm sloooowly getting him to be a farrier though.

FGR, I am fighting this battle with my Lisa right now. How do you leave the heels grow w/o letting them get forward on you? It does seem better for Lisa than it was (I was just looking at some photos from this past summer compared to how she is now), but on one hand I don't want to touch her heels and on the other hand, I don't want them forward either.