Rant: I was trimming a draft horse's heel too short for years

An old client in Springfield pointed out his horse was always sore after my visits, which made me rewatch my own work. I realized I was taking the heel down flush with the shoe instead of leaving a proper cushion. Has anyone else had a specific flaw in their technique pointed out by a client?

3 comments

3 Comments

drewc621mo ago

Wait, flush with the shoe? That's how a lot of farriers do it around here. Are we sure the soreness was from the trim and not something else, like the ground being hard that week or the horse having a low-grade infection? Sometimes clients notice a coincidence and blame the most recent thing. Not saying you're wrong, but a horse's foot is tough. A slight trim difference seems like a small thing to cause constant soreness.

keith2641mo agoMost Upvoted

Flush with the shoe is a huge problem if the sole is already thin. You're basically leaving zero protection between the shoe and the sensitive structures. A tough foot can still get bruised from a bad strike on a rock. Saw a horse go lame for weeks from a trim that looked fine but was just a bit too much sole. It's not always a coincidence.

fiona_lane1mo ago

Laughing at drewc62 saying "a slight trim difference seems like a small thing" because my farrier once took off like 2mm too much sole on one foot and that horse walked like he was tiptoeing through a minefield for a week. You can't just shrug and say "oh it's the ground" when a hoof that was fine yesterday is suddenly landing like it's made of glass. It's like saying a paper cut is just a small mark on your finger, sure it's tiny but try using that finger for anything heavy and see how fast you regret it. A thin sole flush with the shoe is just asking for trouble, especially if you hit a pebble wrong.