We obviously don't use these!
We don't cut the hoof sole.
We don't cut or trim the heels down to sole level, or even worse deeper than the sole.
We don't remove the bars to sole level.
We don't treat the hoof like its a block of wood.
Horses soles are there for a reason, landing on and touching the ground.
Cutting into the sole will signal damage.
The sole, the frog and the heels
are what horses land on,
we don't remove what the hoof so obviously needs to land on!
We don't cut the frog away.
We don't try to make the hoof look pretty, to a human ideal or standard.
When heels are trimmed to sole level, the hoof will want to correct this loss/damage, causing over growth. It will be impossible to get the toe back to where it wants to be.
Cutting the frog also will signal there is a problem, it will have to correct.
Now this damaged hoof is going to use a lot of energy to try fix the damage done it.
This horse has long toes.
When you stop trimming the heels away, and get the toe back to place it wants to be, the heels will rarely need trimming, possibly never.
We don't rasp the outer wall, to give it a nice pretty shape or to remove flares.
Rasping the outer wall thins the hoof wall, this is a signal to the hoof that it has been damaged and needs to fix this, rasping away flares will not fix flares.
The ground never does anything to a hoof's outer wall.
No words for this stupid human idea........
What we do is mimic what the ground would do to a hoof.
The ground has no knife, no agenda, no ideal. The ground doesn't cut anything, it doesn't rasp the outer wall.
The ground doesn't think.
The heels land the hoof rotates forward and the toe abraises, that's it.
A horse living in the wild moves enough to keep his hooves nicely trimmed, wall at sole level. Our horses in human care don't move nearly enough, so we help out. We think like the ground.
To quote Maureen Tierney.........
The ground has no knife, no agenda, no ideal. The ground doesn't cut anything, it doesn't rasp the outer wall.
The ground doesn't think.
The heels land the hoof rotates forward and the toe abraises, that's it.
A horse living in the wild moves enough to keep his hooves nicely trimmed, wall at sole level. Our horses in human care don't move nearly enough, so we help out. We think like the ground.
To quote Maureen Tierney.........
Are you as smart as the groud
Her point being, we need to think less, stop micro managing the hoof, stop trying to fix or even think we can fix hoof problems, stop trying to make a pretty looking hoof.....We copy the action of the ground and trust in nature.
Its nice and simple, but most of all it works.