Thursday, September 6, 2012

September Hoof Care and Sheza Giant

Here is Shezy filly, out for her pedicure this morning. Oh yeah, Desire is standing behind her, too--you know, mostly hidden by her 16 month old baby!!! Desire herself is 14.3, just shy of 15 hands, by the way.


Yep, D confirmed it, since her last visit 5 weeks ago, Sheza has definitely gone through a growth spurt. It's hard for me tell since I see her almost all day, every day, but I had been feeling a bit dwarfed by her lately..

Always participating..mostly not with her teeth
 Looking so grown up, and btw she has GREAT feet!
 Sheza and Desire are both good at the ole rigid leg trick, it's like trying to bend a cement post when they're in that mood. 
 Sheza always starts out a little squirrelly for her trims but usually settles down. Today she tried a few push-off-D's-hand into a half rear but that didn't get her anywhere and D still had her hoof she gave that up. A great trick for her is paralyzing her with neck scratches. Her hooves get done in no time!

 Mom and baby portraits are getting more alarming every month..

 As D said, can't I just ride her now? She's the right height already! ;-)
 Desire and Blaze had uneventful trims--typically tense, and lazily unhelpful, respectively--and then it was Joey's turn. He got a little nervous about his Precious right side as usual but D got both fronts nipped and rasped with relatively minor theatrics.

She handled his left hind leg as usual, not trimming the hoof since she can't trim the right yet, but today she also handled The Precious itself, the right hind leg/hoof. The first time he stepped nervously away but the second time she ran her hand all the way down and rubbed his fetlocks for a brief moment and he didn't move a muscle! Gooood stuff. That was enough and everyone went home with tidy toes.

I have some rasping instructions to implement on the herd in the next few weeks, to work toward stretching the professional trims out and maintaining their quickly growing hooves. Lately it has just seemed silly to let them grow enormous amounts of toe for 4-5 weeks and then correct it all at once, as opposed to some continual maintenance when I have the time and strength and tools (well everything but nippers and a stand, working on that). Also, I don't know about you but it's hard to afford professional hoof care every 4 weeks for 4 horses, and I do mean every 4, max 5, weeks or there is so much new healthy hoof things start to get too long and messy. So I shall be brave and sally forth, rasp in hand!

8 comments:

  1. Good for you! That's how I started: I got sick of paying my trimmer to come out every 4 weeks, so I pushed it out to 6 weeks and rasped for maintenance, then 8 weeks...and then I added a hoof stand to the rasp, and a little pair of mini bonsai trimmer for nipping the bars...and then I got a hoof knife, and then finally a pair of nippers. Probably all over the course of two years, so no huge rush...but it can be done. ;) Having a good trimmer as a mentor is a *huge* help as well.

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    1. You won't mind then when your inbox gets flooded with HELLPPPP MEEE Hoof Photos ;)

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  2. Enjoy the back pain and constant maintenance lol! That's how I started, then I took classes when I got my Equine Science degree and then took lessons from my farrier for a year. It has turned into me keeping my four and friend Tonya's two who live at my house trimmed. Plus I am overseeing Tonya's other three horses while she trims, doing the neighbors two this winter and doing random horses for friends occasionally. I could turn it into a career and make money but I can only do one horse a day or it kills my back. The easiest thing I have found is to do a little maintenance work every two weeks. It is not as much labor for you and the troublesome hooves come along really fast. It's also great for horses like Joey that having training problems to overcome. I have Kate and Rifle barefoot on gravel year around. Ike came out of shoes at the beginning of the year and his hinds are fine over any footing and the fronts only need boots in gravel. Deja varies on how much grass he gets, the food can make a huge difference on how hard the hoof is for some horses lol. I am so excited for you though as it is really rewarding doing it yourself and watching how their hooves improve :)

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    1. Yeah I can see how knowing how to trim can probably turn into a career before you know--or just turn you into everyone's new best friend, in your case ;)

      I wouldn't mind some gravel in my paddocks which are pretty well just dirt, no rocky footing..been thinking about that..

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  3. Agreed on the price issue! Its why I've also branched out to do my horses feet on my own. Its definitely a little scary and quite a learning process - but I'm doing just a tiny bit each week to keep up with things so nothing gets crazy. So far, so good!

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  4. Good for you to start trimming! I need to start doing some maintenance trimming too, I think his feet will be even better if I can keep the toes back between professional trims. My trimmer gives me his older rasps, which are less intimidating for now.

    And Sheeza...wow. Huge and so pretty! Is she going to get even taller? As the owner of a tall horse, I hope not! Finding trail obstacles to stand on to mount is a hassle!

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    1. Yes, crazy toes! The girls and Blaze grow so much toe in 4 weeks that things start to go to shit, so I'll be working at that..

      Sheza...boy I wouldn't mind if she topped out at her mother's height, 14.3, which is what all the "height tests" (measuring various bones, etc) said..but she is only 16 months old and Arabs grow for a long time! So if she stays that height, I'll be surprised. Both parents aren't very tall but Sheza's grandpa is 16 hands..

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