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Submitted by Terry Barrall--old mare, over at the knee, 21 weeks since last trim

URL for photo album: http://community.webshots.com/album/24780641yByYViKBFp

Last week I became aware of a friend's horse with badly neglected hooves and
couldn't help but offer to trim this poor horse to relieve some of her pain.
She's an older mare -- in her 20s -- with probable DSLD in her front legs,
badly over at the knees and arthritis everywhere. In addition her feet were
grossly overgrown. Because the old mare was unable to stand on three legs
comfortably for too long, I did the trim over a period of three days.
Because I'm pretty green, it took AGES as I moved forward cautiously. We
took off about 2 + inches of wall, an probably an inch + of sole. Greenie
that I am, (and owner of a flat-footed horse...) I didn't know a horse could
grow that much sole!

I have known this horse for many years, and knew she had a good, sound foot
under there or I might not have taken this on, however, with the exception
of severe white line separation, they are healthy and sound under all the
overgrowth. This horse is a paso-gaited horse who has been retired for 2 or
3 years due to her legs.

If you look at the photos, you will notice that the final shots are not what
I'd consider "perfect." The hairline is good on all, as is the hoof angle,
but in most cases I never did quite get down to the dirt line and didn't get
the sole surface as smooth as I would have liked. By the time I had gotten
that far, the mare had just about had it, and I figured we'd made a pretty
significant improvement for a first trim of this sort, so I let that go for now.
So, while not as good as I hoped, here's the good news. Each time she put
down a foot while I was working she licked and chewed. The owner was
thrilled. Each time I took off the walls and bars the horse refused to give
me the foot again, as she didn't want to bear weight on the untrimmed foot.
I rotated around to spread out the relief, which was SO obvious! Even before
I cut away more than an inch of sole, I cut the bars off at the level of the
sole and had a hunk of bar in my hand an inch deep.... It was quite a
learning experience for me and for the owner who has been shocked and
shamed into starting to study the Strasser method.

I am interested in comments and critiques, based on this information...
PLEASE, do NOT make any comments about the owner and how this mare
came to be in this condition. I would prefer that not be a public discussion and
can assure everyone that has been handled.

I would appreciate any and all comments to facilitate my learning; about the
trim job, what to do next and how best to manage the pretty severe white line
separation, or other things about the feet and trim I might not have thought of.

The shots show all four feet "before," " midway" (after wall was off and the
worst of the dead sole sloughed off, as well as the first cut on the frog, a
couple of intermediary shots of "carving" or "progress" and a "final" shot
showing just the sole... I forgot to take a front and side shot of the final hoof,
but if I do I'll post them.

The very best news?? The mare has a big, smooth, open walk now, with an
increase in stride of about 50%. Her knees and pasterns appear to have already
returned to a better angle, and she threw up her head and pasoed across the
pasture -- for the first time in ages --in a lovely natural gait when we
released her . Wow! Terry B./Salem

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