Horses!

[MROO]

Mine are both super fuzzy! In the cutest of ways.

My farrier did an interesting job on my mare 3 weeks ago - she's had a slight hoof crack for several months, that normally should have grown out, especially since she is always shod so there's no stress on her hoof to make the crack bigger. But her crack instead of growing out, kept traveling up the hoof wall - just a slight crack, not enough to make her unsound, but frustrating because we couldn't get it to grow out.

The farrier thought, and I agree, the crack keeps persisting up her hoof wall because bacteria is getting in there and preventing healthy hoof growth. It's not white-line disease, but if we did nothing, it would progress into white-line disease.

So our farrier took his rasp and filed a line into the hoof wall above the crack, pretty deeply in to where the crack started, but carefully not into the lamina. It looked pretty shocking! But amazingly it is not at all uncomfortable for her at all, and she is still 100% sound. Every day I clean her hoof really well, then squirt a bacteria-killer (Dura-sole) into the exposed hole, until it runs out of the bottom.

So far, the crack has stayed below the shocking line, and 3 weeks later looks like it's starting to finally grow out. Can't wait to see what it looks like in 6 more weeks!

Years ago, we did the same thing for my Appaloosa gelding. It looked weird and scary at first, but it didn't affect him at all. We did a few more frequent trims as the hash-line neared the tip of his toe, mainly just to keep it from flaking (Appy hooves ... zheesh!) but it worked like a charm!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Years ago, we did the same thing for my Appaloosa gelding. It looked weird and scary at first, but it didn't affect him at all. We did a few more frequent trims as the hash-line neared the tip of his toe, mainly just to keep it from flaking (Appy hooves ... zheesh!) but it worked like a charm!

Awesome!

 

[Skye'sDucks]

Mine are both super fuzzy! In the cutest of ways.

My farrier did an interesting job on my mare 3 weeks ago - she's had a slight hoof crack for several months, that normally should have grown out, especially since she is always shod so there's no stress on her hoof to make the crack bigger. But her crack instead of growing out, kept traveling up the hoof wall - just a slight crack, not enough to make her unsound, but frustrating because we couldn't get it to grow out.

The farrier thought, and I agree, the crack keeps persisting up her hoof wall because bacteria is getting in there and preventing healthy hoof growth. It's not white-line disease, but if we did nothing, it would progress into white-line disease.

So our farrier took his rasp and filed a line into the hoof wall above the crack, pretty deeply in to where the crack started, but carefully not into the lamina. It looked pretty shocking! But amazingly it is not at all uncomfortable for her at all, and she is still 100% sound. Every day I clean her hoof really well, then squirt a bacteria-killer (Dura-sole) into the exposed hole, until it runs out of the bottom.

So far, the crack has stayed below the shocking line, and 3 weeks later looks like it's starting to finally grow out. Can't wait to see what it looks like in 6 more weeks!

Oh how cool! Our farrier actually did something very similar as well to my boss's filly. She kept getting this crack in her toe, so he dug it out a bit like that so we could put stuff in it and kill the bacteria. I don't personally work with her at this moment so I can't say the results, but as far as I know it's been working. I really love watching the farrier and talking with them -- you can learn so much!

 

[calicocows]

i started at a new stable yesterday, and i love it!!!

 

[ShrekDawg]

i started at a new stable yesterday, and i love it!!!

Cool!

 

[Farmgirl283420]

i started at a new stable yesterday, and i love it!!!

That’s great!

 

[littledog]

Years ago, we did the same thing for my Appaloosa gelding. It looked weird and scary at first, but it didn't affect him at all. We did a few more frequent trims as the hash-line neared the tip of his toe, mainly just to keep it from flaking (Appy hooves ... zheesh!) but it worked like a charm!

That's a relief to hear your experience! Since I was kind of putting aside my fear of how scary it looked, because I have a lot of trust in my farrier, who's taken care of my horses hooves of various breeds, for close to 20 years.
So far, her crack has not persisted above the weird horizontal line, which is growing down and the growth above looks 100% healthy. I'm sure as it grows down, she'll need more frequent trims like your boy did, because every day when I clean it and squirt the dura-sole into the hole, it runs out the bottom quicker.

Appy hooves, do they really have a reputation as weak or flaky? Back in the day when I had an Appy, she had the best and strongest hooves ever. Not perfect, but less flaky than my OTTB and a more appropriate size and less upright than most QH.

 

[calicocows]

i had a lesson yesterday on a big old boy and it took me like 10 minutes to get on because i got anxious D: (he was soooo good though, just very big movements)
I usually never have an issue, I don't know why I was so scared? I've ridden horses that big before and been totally fine. I know I was partially worried about not being able to get off, but I usually don't worry about that until it's time. (For context: I have some mobility issues that have worsened in my hips and it's affecting my leg rotation, I can't swing my leg over a horse to dismount very easily anymore)

 

[TJAnonymous]

When someone says I will NOT be ignored....

 

[ShrekDawg]

When someone says I will NOT be ignored....

LOL