Thursday, January 28th, 2010

Day Seventeen


These are pictures of when the farrier came. He didn't shoe anybody when he came, just trimmed hooves and checked to make sure none of the horses feet had gotten thrush from the mud.

This is his little cart of tools he uses. All of them have a different purpose and all of them be uses on each hoof pretty much. That's a lot of things to switch between constantly! Haha. But he did it very quickly and with efficiency.



First step, make sure tools are all there, and in a reachable area.




This would be Cowboy. It was his third time having his hooves clipped, so he was a little shifty while being worked on.

Second step, get the horse you're going to be working on, and make sure they are tied well.








This would be the farrier cleaning Cowboys hooves of all the mud and little rocks. Very important. Usually you start with the front on one side, then the back on that side, then move to the front on the other side, then the back again.

Third step, clean each hoof separately then clip and measure.






This would be him clipping the outer parts of Cowboys hooves. It's kind of like trimming a long fingernail.

Fourth Step, trimming the hoof and making sure nothing is overgrown within it or has any thrush.








This is the last part where he takes this big kind of file and just files down the outer hoof area. That's just to make sure each hoof is relatively the same size so the horse has an easier time walking on it. If they get to long, then the horse will have a harder time picking them up fast, so they would trip quite often.

Step Five, File the outer hoof and make sure they all match up so that one isn't smaller or larger then the others and therefore off balance.