A couple of days ago I spotted these picture on FB, these are hoof pics of an Australian Brumby (feral horse). Sadly they were taken right after this mare just died, that's why you can see blood on the hooves. From an educational stand point these hooves give us an amazing opportunity to get close look at some wild hooves. With HGM trimming we don't try to make our horses hooves look like a wild hoof, we simply mimic the action of the ground, by following the simple HGM trim rules. If you try to mimic the look of wild hoof for example "take the heels down" you will start a cycle of hoof problems.....hoof imbalances, which are the cause of all hoof pathology's. . Fronts We can see this hoof is not perfect! imbalanced heels, frog, collateral grooves and sole, there is also a clear sole ridge. The frog looks contracted compared to my domestic horses hooves. Remember....the ground has no knife and no agenda. . Wall is at sole level with not such a steep bevel angle, a little height at the seat of the corn and nice sole with good concavity. We can see the white line and excess laminae at the wall quarters and no peripheral loading lines on the wall. . Hinds We see the same thing in this hind, not perfectly balanced. But still a beautiful hoof. . Now lets compare some of my domestic horses hooves to these Brumby hooves. Well pretty close....the exception being the back of hooves, frogs and angle of the wall, the larger bars are part of the the angle of heel. My horses are turned out 24/7 but their footing is grass and their amount of daily movement doesn't come close to that of a wild horse. Things to note I never trim their bars and only balance the heels at the seat of the corn if necessary. My horses hooves don't look exactly like wild horse hooves because my horses are not wild! But they are sound on all surfaces. Functional domestic feet. . Here is a comparison to a domestic horse that lives on a gravel surface. . Hind comparisons. These 3 hinds are post trim...you can see how little I did....wall to sole level to the whiteline-20 degree bevel on the wall. No hoof is perfect or perfectly pretty.
I follow the HGM trim rules and then just observe and trust in nature.... The results of this trim method are incredible.... This is why I share. And looking at hooves is addicting.
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The thing about HGM is, we see the hoof and what it tells us but it doesn’t change the trim.... Because our trim is mimicking the ground and the ground is just the ground! Not terribly scientific.... This is why Maureen taught us.... ”It’s not rocket science” “Are you as smarty as the ground” “The ground doesn’t think” “ The ground has no agenda” THERE ARE NO MEASURING OF ANGLES, NO ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL THE HOOF Basically what happens when you start trimming with the HGM method is you will stop trimming the heels ( or only rarely need to ) and address toe...only from the sole. What we see on the outside does not affect our trimming....Our trimming guide is the sole! If you are questioning or are not yet totally trusting the trim you may be shocked by what you see, when you look at the changes to the heels. FIRST LETS LOOK AT THISWILD HORSE HOOF WALL |
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Shona Watt
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https://www.youtube.com/user/shonabeth1
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[email protected]
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