Magic

"I have never seen a hoof like that before ... "

July 8, 2009

My friend Cindy told me about her sister-in-law's horse Magic just briefly before I had trimmed her mare. She was so thrilled with the work I did for her mare that she wanted me to trim Magic also. He has been chronically lame for at least five years. He is twelve. He was a stallion for about five years. His owner Shelley just wants to be able to some day ride him again. I really believe that with some diligent trimming that one day that wish will come true.

Here is Magic. He's a beautiful bay paint. Right off the bat you can notice that his right fore is parked out in front of him and he can't keep his knee straight. Upon further observation I knew right away that his toe had to be brought back in order to make him comfortable. Then once I picked up his hoof I found out that he also had a shoe on. I just shook my head and said that has to come off. I just can't understand the intentions of the previous farrier. If the horse is progressively getting more lame each time you come to shoe him...then its time to change the way you are doing things. This style of shoeing obviously was not helping Magic and he was getting to the point that his owner wondered if she should put him down. I say no... After this trim Magic went out and ran in his pasture for the first time in years...

Here is Magic's right fore. It is extremely tall and very very long in the toe. The heel is literally inches longer than it should be. First of all the shoe has to come off. His owner said that he would hardly let the previous farrier even pick up his feet. He was fine for me to do it and I really think he understood I was there to help him. I got the shoe off with some persistence and then took his toe back as well as took away from the wall height. You can see that I was able to shorten the height to just about the nail holes just in this trim. I also brought his toe back to right in front of the first nail hole. His heel is crushed right now but bringing the toe back will help decontract the back of the hoof.

Before................................................................................After

Here is a clearer picture of the lateral view after the trim. It was dark and just about to storm so some of my pictures did not turn out very well. I hope to get better ones when I go back in a week.

After

Here is a picture of the dorsal view. Notice how his toe hangs over the edge of the shoe.

Before

Before the trim you can see that the shoe being used is entirely too small for his hoof. The heels are barely the width of my thumb apart and the frog is a good half inch behind the back of the shoe. There is so much compacted sole in this foot. The heel is easily an inch taller than it should be. After the trim I backed the toe even further than the white line and went ahead and invaded the sole a slight bit. I tried bringing back the heels some but did not want to go overboard and cause a negative coffin bone from lowering it too much without being able to take toe height away just yet. This hoof will take a very long time to correct and get going on the right path. The main thing I'm trying to work on is bringing back the toe as much as I can. That will help the breakover and get him using his heel in the right way.

Before................................................................................After

The heel view shows a very tall foot with a shoe. The heels are amazingly tall and the frog is thrushy and immobile. After the trim you can see how much I was able to take the entire hoof down. I was conservative about bringing the heel down too much this first trim. It is shorter and the hoof is balanced but still very far from being normal. You can see on the back of his hoof where his skin is caloused from laying his heel on the ground. He put it so far forward all the time that he has worn the back of his hoof. There is some grass on this hoof when I took the picture. Magic wasn't being really cooperative and it was just about to storm outside when we were finishing.

Before................................................................................After

I am going back to try and trim the other three hooves next Friday. He was too sore to even pick up his left hoof and the back hooves would have been impossible. I'm hoping he will be feeling a lot better within a week to the point he'll at least trust me to continue. I guess after I left and he was turned back out to his pasture...he ran around for the first time in a long time. I'm so glad I'm able to work with him and possibly help him to become sound one day.