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Mule hooves?

20K views 16 replies 6 participants last post by  Endiku 
#1 ·
I've been told time and time again that mule hooves need to be trimmed differently than horse hooves.

My 7 week old molly miniature mule looks like she's already needing a trim, her toes are very long compared to her little play mate's, who is 10 weeks old. I'm getting Sour's feet trimmed next Monday, but I was talking to my farrier (he's new to me, this is only going to be his second time trimming Sour's feet so I really don't know what I think of his work yet. He seems knowledgable though, and very honest) and he says that he really hasn't ever trimmed mule hooves before. So, ofcourse, I started looking for someone that specialized or at least has experience with mules but there are none in my area that I can find for at least 55 miles, way too far for me to have someone drive every 6 weeks o_O

Now I'm in a pickle. My farrier said that he could research mule trimming over the next week and take a hack at it (thats literally what he said O.O) himself, or I could wait a few weeks and keep trying to find some sort of mule trimmer. I'm really not sure that I will be able to though, as we have limited farriers in the area and not many are very reliable or truthful. They just try to con extra money out of you >.> should I let my farrier try it and hope for the best (it looks to me like she just needs a bit taken off of the heels) or should I risk waiting? I don't want her to get too long and possibly stretch tendons that shouldn't be stretched or something, but I also don't want her feet to be messed up on the first trim. What do you guys think I should do?
 
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#3 ·
I was told that mule hooves should/are more upright naturally than horse hooves, and that trying to form them into horse hooves will cause soreness... I was also told that the bars are thicker and the frog is in a much lower position than with horses, so forming the hoof where the frog is too high can also cause lameness. They're more oblong, too- and not so round. That being said, maybe her toes arent as long as they appear in my inexperienced eyes...Apparently the angles are very different and in some ways closer to a donkey hoof than a horse hoof.

This was just coming from someone at a seminar and a few friends though. I could be hearing it all wrong.
 
#5 ·
It's best when you follow live sole. You can't bring their heels all the way back, they don't go back as far. And you don't want a long toe. Their foot will be more upright, and not made to look like a horse. However, some mules tend to be more horse-like in their confirmation, and may end up looking more like a horse foot.

When I trimmed my mule's hooves, guided by a good farrier that knew what he was doing, he said do not make them look like a horse foot. You can't bring the heel back, as it naturally doesn't go back as far as a horse. No long toe. Just follow live sole. It's not hard.

I have pictures, but they are all showing the wrong way and why I don't have those farriers anymore.
 
#6 ·
I guess I'm just wary because I haven't had this farrier for long. He seems to know what he's doing...Sour's feet are a trainwreck and he's doing a good job of sorting them out and has a great plan of action from what I can tell.

I'll talk with him some more about it and let him trim Honor, I suppose ^^ her feet look more like her mama's than her sire's, so I guess she tends towards the horse side of hoof shape, and I hate to let her walk around with long toes while I fiddle around.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for posting those! I called my farrier and schedualed Honor for her trimming on Monday as well :) she's so tiny (38 pounds) that I dont know how its going to be possible to trim them well, but he's the expert! xD
 
#10 ·
She's a 7 week old miniature mule. With my limited experience it looks like she needs a bit more than a rasp, but we'll see what my farrier had to say. Hopefully her size won't bother him, as he's a miniature horse hoof specialist and trims horses like Honor's dam, Sour (34" and 225 lbs) often.
 
#12 ·
LOL, I can just imagine that!

As it is, she's a silly little girl. She has no problem with me messing with her feet- tapping them, cleaning them, holding them...whatever. If I take more than a moment though she just collapses over without warning and tries to take a nap while I give her a 'pedicure' XD
 
#15 ·
Mules feet can vary from mule to mule. We have had many saddle horse mules, but not any minis, so I guess they could be different.

The mules we have had all had more upright feet than a horse. They had higher heels and pretty short upright toes. Some are more upright than others, but all are much steeper in angle than anything but a club-footed horse.

I have seen people cripple mules by trying to make them appear more 'horse-like in their feet.

There should be no 'dish' in a mule's hoof. If there is any, the mule has been allowed to get much too long footed.
 
#16 ·
Like others have said, it's not that the hoof has to be trimmed differently, it's that the hoof is just shaped differently. Like Cherie said, on average a normal mule foot will look very similar to a clubbed horse foot. But, like another poster said, if he is sensible about trimming the hoof the way the hoof should be trimmed to maintain balance, then the mule's hooves should tell him how they need to be trimmed.

IMHO, if you trust him, go ahead and let him do a bit of reading and then give it a shot. A good farrier should be able to pretty well adjust automatically once they figure out the basic differences between the 2 hoof shapes.

That's been my experience with good farriers anyway LOL.
 
#17 ·
Thanks guys! He came out yesterday afternoon and trimmed both Sour and Honor. Sours feet are looking great- we're working on one that had started to flare pretty badly and had a lateral crack (I had no control over her hooves until about two months ago) but its already drastically improved and her gait is actually really starting to smooth out again.

Honor did pretty well, all things considered. She tried hopping around once or twice when she got antsy after the second hoof, but stood well the rest of the time. Kept trying to take the farrier's tools though, the little goof >.>

He cut her toes back about 1/4 of an inch and rounded them a bit because he said they were beginning to square themselves. He said she probably should have been trimmed a week or so ago, so thats my fault. I'm going to have her schedualed for every 5 weeks with Sour, and if she doesn't need it when he comes out for Sour, we'll just postpone it a bit. For some reason she had fairly contracted heels in the back, likely because her toes were already getting long (she grows them FAST! O_O) so he worked on that just a bit and we'll watch them. So far I'm happy with what he did, she looks more comfortable now and he did a lot of observing before actually starting to cut. All in all it only took about 35 minutes for both horses, too.
 
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