I am writing this in order to share my experiences regarding "DIY hoof care". As an important aside, an issue to be considered here is, what is considered "DIY", and what is considered simply "applied learning"? At what point is a person considered to have enough knowledge (with any skill, not just hoof care) to be responsibly applying one's studies, as opposed to simply "making do" as well as possible with little or no skills and substandard equipment (often the DIY stereotype)? Certainly there are people, professional and non-professional, who have studied well and  developed skills in order to accomplish certain tasks to a competent and even expert degree of skill level. As well, there are "trusted professionals" who lack an even moderate degree of skill.

That said, I would like to make clear that I do not consider myself an expert trimmer in any way. I do, however, consider myself a decent horseman. In order to become a better horseman, I keep my ears and eyes open to new information, and am always considering and learning new skills. By "new" I mean "new to me". There is always more to learn in this world, and it isn't restricted to horsemanship. As for my skills at hoof care, I study every day, and seem to be doing a better job on my mare than the farriers who worked on my horse in the recent past. In fact, after seeing my success, friends are beginning to call on me for trimming services,  and with no trimmer around to "do the job right" (their opinion),  I feel obligated to trim for them.

A brief history of the mare, Journey:
I bought her for $100 at age 3 months, in 1979. Her pastern and shoulder angles were a bit too upright, she was slightly over in the knees, but the rest of the herd was at starvation level, and I really liked her otherwise, so I bought her.

By the time she was a yearling, she had developed a mildly club foot (left fore). In a yearling photo of her I notice the hairline angle is near horizontal on that foot (high heel), while the other feet have steeper angles.

At first when I was riding her, she had decent gaits, not *too* jarring from her upright angles, but as the years went on, she became very difficult to sit. Not only were her gaits more jarring as the years passed, but she became reluctant to move at all. This continued until this summer after I started trimming her myself (in March 2001).

Her first bout with laminitis was when she was about 9. She was only lightly ridden, obese, and on pasture 24/7 in the lush fields of Kentucky, and I carry the full responsibility. She had 3 more bouts with it while leased to various people who allowed her to become obese. Because the leasing wasn't getting her good care, and I was a college student with no money to keep her properly, I sold her to a vet (who worked on dogs, cats, and horses) for his young daughter to ride in Pony Clubbing activities. Unfortunately, Journey was obese and chronically laminitic while in their care for 6 years, between ages 12 - 18. Apparently, whenever she showed any lameness, they "slapped shoes on her and she was fine". They also treated a chronic skin irritation running along her abdominal midline with injections of steroids, which is a trigger for laminitis.

I bought her back against the advisement of my own vet, who said at best she would be a pasture ornament. She had rotation in the teens in her front feet. The hinds also showed some seedy toe, but we did not x-ray the hinds. The pain was clear in her movement and in her face. She was depressed and hostile.

Treatment:
I did some research online, and interviewed several farriers. I picked a farrier who was working for Ric Redden at the time. He used Ric's "wedged bar shoes", and packed her feet with rubbery "sole support" material. He did not at the time change her hoof angles "mechanically", but DID begin reshaping her foot, which included cutting off lots of heel (made a whole lot more sense to me than leaving high heels with the horse walking on its tipped coffin bone) and dubbing the toe. As he explained to me, the toes were dubbed to bring the breakover point back to slightly in front of P3, as the new hoof wall growth naturally seeks the breakover point. This would allow the hoof wall to reattach tightly along P3, where it belongs, eliminating the separation caused by the damaged laminae. The heels were cut down in anticipation of losing the wedges and returning better angles to the whole hoof, bringing the toe angle to about 50 degrees, I think he said, and the bottom edge of P3 to a more ground parallel position. Each reset cost $150,  which I considered to be a bargain (how much is a life worth?). While spending money is a mere inconvenience for *me*, this sort of pain and suffering is beyond an inconvenience for anyone, including an animal, who in this case was heading for an unpleasant and premature death.

She became usably sound, and the seedy white lines were tightening up noticeably with monthly resets, but I had to change farriers after that, who both came with references from acquaintances.  Neither farrier gained any ground with the seedy toe, although Journey  seemed perfectly rideable, albeit her gaits more jarring than ever and her attitude about riding only *fair*.

In March of 2001 I moved to a rural area and I couldn't get a good farrier to come out. Journey was becoming extremely uncomfortable. I got on the internet, and began reading, as it was obvious the time had come to do my own trimming. Let me tell you -- I RESEARCHED A LOT! What made the most sense to me was what Dr. Strasser and Jaime Jackson were saying. It made sense, AND it was right in line with what had been working on Journey all along. I bought some good trimming tools, pulled her shoes, and got to work.

My trimming is currently heavily based on Strasser protocol because I have so many pathologies to deal with --  a club left front; founder damage in both fronts; underslung heels, white line separation to varying degrees, and contraction in all four hooves -- and Strasser's techniques seem to be the best to address all of these problems, as well as the information being more available/accessible than Jackson's. The basic standards as I have come to understand them are: acheive a 30 degree hairline angle, with *approximately* a 45 degree toe in front and 55 degree in hind, thereby putting P3 ground parallel; dub toe to encourage hoof wall to grow tightly along P3, and to encourage the underslung heels to grow more *down* and less *forward*; scoop quarters and cut away 'hook' of hoof wall at the heels, encouraging decontraction; and exercise, exercise,  exercise!

The current situation (January 2002):
Journey is very comfortable and agile as age 24. Her gaits are generally becoming less jarring, depending on how will I've done my trimming (I'm still learning, you know. It takes a lot of practice!) Her feet are rounding out (decontracting), her underslung heels are beginning to come back under her, and all white line separation is gone. The seedy toe from founder damage is completely gone on the non-clubby foot, while the club foot is taking longer to come around, but is showing improvement. The club foot, by the way, which I have been told was incurable by many people over the years, is beginning to lose its clubbyness. This is all good.

Copyright by Gretchen Fathauer, 2013  All rights reserved.