11/03/2024
Before and After Trim photos on a sweet pony mare😇
Let’s talk about what was done here👇
• The old sole of this pony was ready to pop out! I didn’t have to use my knife even once, a good hoof picking was enough to help the dead sole crumble off. If you look closely, you can even see in the before image, the sole started come out!
• This pony is notorious for growing lots of wall height, but with the layer of false sole removed, there was an extreme amount of height to be taken off. When I remove the wall height from this gal, I’m not worried about postural changes since the wall height grows evenly all around. I think of it as taking her from a platform boot, to a regular soled boot.
• I brought the roll on her toe back to the inner wall/white line junction as we are still battling some long toe/low heel syndrome here, being out of shoes for only a few months. In bringing back the toe, I hope to reduce the leverage on the internal structures and encourage the heel to begin to rise.
• I decided to leave a millimeter or two of wall height at the quarters. When the sole builds to a point she had, it almost acts as a built in pad, offering protection to the underside of the foot. Now that the old sole decided to remove itself, I wanted to leave a tiny bit of height as protection, if needed, to the fresh sole. She does still have a super cute quarter arch!
• Something very important to note here is that I did NOT lower the heels at all. Being that we are already lacking in the heel-height department, there is no reason to bring her already “low” to “lower”. I did, however, take the “point” off of her heels, giving her a flat landing area.
• She is not a horse that grows strong bars, or much bar at all, so I carefully made the bars even and blended into the heel at the seat of corn. You can also see that the sole at the seat of corn is still “old” sole. I decided to leave it in its place as it wasn’t quite ready to exfoliate with just my hoof pick.
• Very conservatively tidied up her frog, removing dead flaps that would be a pocket for nasty bacteria to develop.
Just a little insight into my thought process as a trimmer!😊
