Jasper's Trim - by your's truly - Update

[juliab]

Okay so I tried to trim Jasper's front feet. I'm pooped! I had the most trouble with the darn hoof knife trying to get everything cleaned up I could see what I was doing. Methinks I need to invest in a better quality knife. Mine was $1.99

Anyway, he was not very long and his feet were not breaking up at all except for one quarter on the outside, so I just rasped with his foot on the stand. He kept trying to put his foot down off the stand so I had to growl at him a bit and then being typical Jasper, he looked all contrite and was good. I told him it was hard enough work without him messing around! Not the best pictures and no "befores" but here is how they look. I figure that if I do this every couple of weeks or so, I'll never have to use the nippers - that's the plan anyway as I'm terrified I'll go too short. He trotted out happily afterwards and I don't see any obvious flares or anything so hopefully I at least did no harm, but please let me know if you see anything horrible.


Sorry this one is blurry but I only took one:

[fancyhorse]

Your braver then I. I wont touch my horses' feet for plain fear that I will trim them incorrectly and cause problems down the road. They do look nice a pretty, though!

[animaldoc]

Looks like you're starting with a pretty good foot...your plan should work fine...you might want to have a farrier do them occasionally to keep them on track (gives you time to find someone you like!).....

[juliab]

Looks like you're starting with a pretty good foot...your plan should work fine...you might want to have a farrier do them occasionally to keep them on track (gives you time to find someone you like!).....

That why I picked Jasper. He has such nice feet and he's always been pretty good about having me handle them. I hope I can find a good farrier again, but it seems to me that the traditional farriers push shoes - I can understand why, it is how they make more money and they are business people. And the barefoot people that I've found so far all seem to be extreme and have some odd ideas that they know more about horses than vets! My vet really does know what he is talking about and he has proven to me time and again that he has my horses' interests at heart. He gave me some pointers and I have some dvd's and books. If I run into anything I don't understand or need an opinion, I'll ask him. Luckily all of my horses have pretty good feet. Good genes

[Dawn]

Looks pretty good! Don't know if you will get away without using the nippers during "peak" growth times but they shoudl start slowing down now so will be easier to keep up with while your body adjusts to the work!!
Thankfully our farrier did come tonight, is coming back to put front shoes on MP tomorrow since is doing another client down this way and I was right htat quarter crack he has is running deeper than we woudl like to see so want to give it some support to grow out with,, then hopefully back to barefoot!

[juliab]

I had to trim Jasper again today and it was good to look back at these pics and the date to see that it was just about a month since I trimmed him. He had grown a LOT of hoof - I had to nip about 1/4 inch off all the way around and then rasp in a beval. I know I'm supposed to do a "mustang roll" and I do my best, but I think "beval" is a better word to describe it I'm getting better at rasping too which makes it go much more quickly and Jasper cooperated much more this time - I only had to put his foot back on the stand once or twice this time. But I wish he was more like his mom, Fancy, who is PERFECT! Jasper takes after his Dad and likes to investigate my butt

It sure is nice to be able to get them trimmed whenever they need it and also not to have to write those big checks!