GeorgeGuns
01-01-2006, 02:52 PM
Okay, here is Chester, a young teen QH, before I pulled his shoes. Looks like a nice shoeing job, 6-8 weeks into this set of shoes
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFshod.jpg
but lets see what his hoof looks like just after pulling that shoe
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFShoeOff.jpg
bars are laid over and heel is underslung - these two conditions go together. We can also see that the deceptively straightish hoof wall was hiding a good deal of flare and overgrowth
and here it is after the trim
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFPostSole.jpg
bars trimmed to sole level, heel taken back but with little height actually taken down - had I gone down further with the bars and heels, I would have had to cut or rasp into sole, the dirt in the seat of corn (where the bars meet the heel wall) wouldn't be there if I'd either scooped out the area (strasser method) or taken it all down too far.
and to get an idea of how much extra hoof this guy had, notice that he has nail holes from his older shoeing below his newer ones in the first pic, but here the old holes are at ground level, and the newer ones are the ones still evident on the wall. This horse walked off very happy.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFpostSide.jpg
Chester actually had pretty good bars despite the length, and since he is on good rough pasture, he will probably self maintain well after his next trim - I've only seen him once so far, so this is a hoof in transition in these pics, not the finished deal. I didn't totally de-flake the sole because of his terrain - he will naturally wear it off and in the meantime it will protect the live sole which has a little more callousing to do. It will be fun to see the shape changes he is doing between trims - I expect the bars to grow so I can get rid of that little crack, and the angle of the wall at the very heel will widen to meet a wider frog. This hoof is technically a contracted heel - the point where the heel wall meets the very rear of the frog is narrow, this will widen on its own just for having the heels taken back to a better spot.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFshod.jpg
but lets see what his hoof looks like just after pulling that shoe
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFShoeOff.jpg
bars are laid over and heel is underslung - these two conditions go together. We can also see that the deceptively straightish hoof wall was hiding a good deal of flare and overgrowth
and here it is after the trim
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFPostSole.jpg
bars trimmed to sole level, heel taken back but with little height actually taken down - had I gone down further with the bars and heels, I would have had to cut or rasp into sole, the dirt in the seat of corn (where the bars meet the heel wall) wouldn't be there if I'd either scooped out the area (strasser method) or taken it all down too far.
and to get an idea of how much extra hoof this guy had, notice that he has nail holes from his older shoeing below his newer ones in the first pic, but here the old holes are at ground level, and the newer ones are the ones still evident on the wall. This horse walked off very happy.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v66/Coreen/Hooves/LFpostSide.jpg
Chester actually had pretty good bars despite the length, and since he is on good rough pasture, he will probably self maintain well after his next trim - I've only seen him once so far, so this is a hoof in transition in these pics, not the finished deal. I didn't totally de-flake the sole because of his terrain - he will naturally wear it off and in the meantime it will protect the live sole which has a little more callousing to do. It will be fun to see the shape changes he is doing between trims - I expect the bars to grow so I can get rid of that little crack, and the angle of the wall at the very heel will widen to meet a wider frog. This hoof is technically a contracted heel - the point where the heel wall meets the very rear of the frog is narrow, this will widen on its own just for having the heels taken back to a better spot.