04/08/2024
Love this write up, YES it depends!
“It depends.”
The unhelpful but ultimately most honest answer you’re going to get from an experienced professional, regardless of the area of expertise.
Someone asked me how I determine wall height when trimming…
It depends.
The amount of concavity, the amount of sole depth, the amount of ‘callous,’ the thickness of the hoof wall, the capsular distortion, even the moisture content and ‘distortion-ability’ of the capsule.
It also depends on the health in the back of the foot. I’m going to leave more to protect a compromised frog, for instance.
Then also, what type of terrain are we going to be on, mainly? How did the horse respond to the previous trim?
Sometimes we have to do more, sometimes less.
Is the horse freshly out of shoes? Transitioning from wet to dry or vice versa?
Has the previous cycle been a little too long?
The horses I trim, I also have to ride, so they need to walk off the same or better than before the trim.
I have the benefit of being able to trim more in a few days with horses on-site, so I can be conservative if needed.
If it’s a horse I won’t see for a while, I have to weigh my options carefully.
Most horses want some peripheral load on the unpigmented wall around the tip of P3 especially.
I generally reduce peripheral load on the pigmented wall if I can, but sometimes we don’t have the vertical depth of sole or thickness of unpigmented wall to do that.
There’s a reason why most professionals can’t give you a concise answer.
Because they have learned the hard way, ‘it depends.’
That takes years and years of being open to whatever the horse needs.
