Coming out of winter, spring is actually a dirty time of year. Hence the need to get things cleaned up. The horses' winter coats are almost gone. They wintered well. But their hooves definitely needed tending to.
Mollie, on the left, turns 4 this year. While Chief will be 10.
Horses are no easy keepers and their feet are a prime examples of that. Their hooves are basically our finger nails. They need cleaned, trimmed, and filed down often.
The first order of business is to clean the sole with a pic.
Then take your hooked knife and scrape the sole clean from all the built up junk. This also exposes the white line against the hoof wall, which guides your trimming.
This year I'm going to try going shoeless. For as much riding as we do, the horses really shouldn't need shoes. But to do so I want to leave the hoof longer than usual. So I trimmed it down about 3/8" up from the white line.
Rasping is the finest science. It's better to leave the hoof high and bring it down to the proper level with the rasp. This also levels it all out.
I find it super crucial to bevel the edge of the hoof up after trimming so it doesn't splinter.
Much better.
Two horses with four legs makes for eight hooves to trim. Me and my back need a break. With Covid being over now, I went ahead wormed the kids with my leftover Ivermectin horse dewormer. Hope they like the taste better than I did. Spring is in the air. Let's ride.
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