Trim #2

Yesterday was Cherry's second trim by me. Total time of execution was 2 hours, including breaks and the eating of mushy hay pellets. I'm still not entirely happy with her front feet, but we'll take care of that tomorrow. And the verdict is....

SOUND!

Yes, 100% sound after I was done hacking away at her feet. I also busied myself with cutting up my arm and rasping my knuckles. I'm sure Cherry appreciated that.

As always, I learned something. Firstly, that I waited too long to trim her and really should do it sooner next time. Secondly, her arthritis is worse in the left hind than in the right hind. Good to know.

In all honesty, I haven't had any follow up on the initial arthritis diagnosis. Where it is, how bad it is, etc. Why? Mostly because it's one of those things that's just there and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. It is what it is, and she's either sound to ride or she's not. There is no treatment to reverse the process, and I don't need to pay a vet to tell me that. She's getting a joint supplement now, and when she gets too stiff to ride, she'll be retired. I'm hesitant to rot her gut with bute, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Alright, back to my farriering.

On our first trim, I took off barely any sole. Like, hardly a scraping anywhere. This time, giant chunks were falling out on their own! It was quite a sight, but I'm glad. What comes off easily is what the horse is trying to shed. Healthy sole does not simply flake off for easy removal.

I like this method of trimming. You don't worry about angles or anything complicated like that. You watch the sole and base your trim around it. Easy! Well, in theory.

Trimming was anything but easy. Cherry's feet were HARDER than they were last time. Like rock fucking hard. I could barely nipper the hoof wall on the fronts, and the back feet were close to impossible. I tackled the hind feet by nippering off thin slivers until I got down to the level I wanted. It took forever, but I honestly was not strong enough to take off the whole chunk with one nip.

I know it's a good thing, but I was sweating and grunting like a pig just trying to take off a tiny bit of hoof wall. If I'm smart, I'll trim her earlier next time and be able to use the rasp on the wall with minimal nippering.

I also think her heels need to come down in the front, but her hoof doesn't agree with me. I'm not going to fight it, but it does make me twitch a little. As my book says, "Listen to the hoof. Accept that you may be wrong about what the hoof needs." It also goes on to say that eventually the heels will come down on their own, sometimes it takes several trims. This is only trim #2, so I'm not going to fret about it. Too much. Yet.

The end result was a sound pony who moved out better than before. Today I'm going to ride, probably just at a walk, but we'll see how Cherry feels. Last time, she was really stiff and wasn't interested in more than a nice stroll. Listen to the horse, listen to the hoof. You don't really need to know what you're doing as long as you can understand and follow directions. :)