Hoof Trimming with a Grinder

Billy Hibbler moved on, leaving me with no one to do my horses hooves. What is a girl to do, but learn to do it herself!

I started reading the Barefoot literature and it made a lot of sense to me. With the $180 I was not paying a farrier, I bought some books by Peter Ramey and Jaime Jackson. I already owned Gene Ovnicek's DVD. Then I found the key to making it work... Abrasive Hoof Trimming. Phil Morarre gives clinics and has put out a DVD. I sent away for it as fast as I could, then I impatiently waited at the mailbox...

Phil also has a Yahoo group called Abrasive Horse Hoof Trimming. He is very helpful. Buy his DVD if you get inspired to try this yourself, it's very worth while.

Meanwhile I started doing triage on the hoof issues out in the corral. Lots of flares to remove, most of the animals had long heels. The donkey hooves had suffered the most under the Hibbler trimming regime. We got through the first round on the worst hooves with nippers and a rasp, stopping further development of quarter cracks. I pulled Paisley's shoes and started her transitioning to Barefoot. I practiced my mustang rolls on all the mustangs.

For the most part my animals are good, but this really stretched the limits of their obedience. I didn't like working with them tied as it didn't seem safe and with no one to hold them, we just had to work at liberty. If your horse will stand at liberty to let you trim its hooves, you have a pretty cooperative animal.

The grinder DVD came finally and I watched it twice and headed out to the corral. I had been ignoring Lightening Bug because she is such a pushy animal, but her hooves were starting to be pretty good indications of how much I neglect her. She's not mine, hey! Well, she needed it desperately, so she got to be my first horse to go under the grinder.



One thing I have learned subsequently is that you want to premptively round-pen (or lounge) them in a large enough space that you can make them work. You want them to be just a little tired before you ask them to stand. Keep their adrenaline level down, just put them to work and get them to breath just a little bit faster. Then standing looks easy and the rewards you offer seem tastier. If they are mat trained, it is all the better.