wrote
this comment to Lori Bertoluchi's post.......
Something is very wrong if you are able to rasp the SOLE. The
sole should never be that low (close to the ground) the sole shouldn't be
= bearing any weight.
*Jen a couple comments from me also. I
pretty much agree with what Lori stated and will add that what happens when
the horse is barefoot is
a healthy concavity develops in the sole (follows
dome of coffin bone). The sole often develops a
wonderful, hard callus in a half moon shape at
the toe. Yes, most farriers I have ever seen
will run a rasp across this nice callus as they
level the hoof wall. Believe me, it makes a
difference to the horse. My 4 year old,
always barefoot, went to a trainer for 6 weeks.
I trimmed him before he left (mainly rasp hoof
wall rounded and balance), and he was totally sound.
I sent his hoof boots, but also told this
trainer, who is also a farrier, that he could shoe my
gelding if he had to to keep him comfortable
during the training process. My horse was ridden out
a lot in the open, and I knew the terrain might
be rough. He did fine, until the final weeks when
his hoof wall was geting long. As a "favor" to
me, the trainer trimmed this guy before I picked him
up. He rasped across the toe, evening up
hoof wall, and removing the toe callus. My poor gelding
was ouchy for 2 weeks and had to go back in
boots.
A "regular trim" in my world, consists of nipping the extra hoof
wall,
*fine, but the barefoot trims also really give
the edge of the hoof wall a good rounding or bevel;to
prevent the chipping and flaring from the edge of
the hoof wall growing out. As Lori stated, and I believe, when the hoof wall
gets too long, it start to pry at the lamina, weakening the white line and
causing flare, plus chipping in order to self trim.. All the horses I trimmed
that came out of shoes had stretched and flared whitelines, often full of
fungus and rot...took some months to grow out healthy hoof, but once
leveraging was removed from hoof wall edge by beveling, they grew down tough,
healthy white lines.
paring out the sole with a hoof knife, then rasping the hoof wall
even and balanced -- keeping a nice concave cup shape.
*Hate to say this, I would fire you for this!- If
you pared out any sole with a hoof knife;or trying to
carve concavity! I will only pry out loose
sole, if it's really loose, or any sign of fungus under it...but my horses
self exfoliate their soles nicely. Without X rays, you really have no
idea how thick that sole is and where tip of coffin bone is either.
Collateral grooves may give some indication of sole
thickness, but that even differs from horse to
horse.
(Thus keeping weight off the sole and onto the hoof wall and frog
where it belongs.)
*Why do you believe the sole should not carry any
weight? When a horse lands in soft footing, the entire hoof will take
the brunt of the weight, heels, frog, bars, toe callus and even sole.
Horses that move and travel in soft footing typically have deeper cup shaped
feet, while those that work on hard footing or pavement have flatter feet,
naturally.
*I have personally seen so many really bad hoof
problems in the past year correct themselves once shoes were removed and the
hoof kept balanced until it had a chance to grow out. I saw horrible
white line rot, foundered horses, trippy horses, unsound for vague
reasons....all go sound and develop stronger hoof walls and heels once the
shoes came off....
I am not going to take a stand that all horses
have to be barefoot or that all can to perform the way people want them to,
but I sure have, in many, many years, seen far more bad shoes jobs than
good ones. And I think any cutitng or carving that goes even close to live
tissue should be left to a
