Horse Shoeing

Thankfully, Chief is not lame this spring like he was last fall. That was worrisome. To prevent it from happening again, I think we better start running shoes on him. At least on his fronts, anyway. But to do so, I called in a professional.

Devlin has been shoeing horses for several years now. Only being in Buffalo for about a year, this is his first summer of getting much work lined up. We've been hanging out since the first of the year. And over Easter, he was Baptized, Confirmed, and received Holy Communion in the Catholic Church. Congratulations, pal. Let the Good times roll!

The angle of Chief's hooves have been too high in the back, causing him to put too much pressure on his toe. The correct angle for a hoof is to be parallel with the pastern bone above it.

Another way of getting it right is to use a hoof gage. Anything below 50 degrees is concerningly low. And anything above 60 is too high.

One way of gaging the level of a hoof side-to-side, is with this T-bar. With good square hooves like Chief's you can generally just eyeball down the frog to make sure it's perpendicular to the rest of the foot.

Beings I've been complaining about him being lame, Devlin took this hoof tester to look for any sensitivity around the hoof. None to be found.

Once a game plan was established, he let the trimming begin. Just what I was hoping he would do, left the toe alone and took the heal down quite a bit.  

Best to do all the rasping you can before any iron is put on. 

Hooves change over time. I've ran 00 in the past, but we went with 0 this time.

Good to put a custom fit on them.

And even put a good edge on them so they keep pressure off of the sole. 

Then let 'er buck! Guy's have different nail combinations they like to use. Devlin puts in the three up front, but leaves the nail out of the wide part of the hoof so it can flex. 

Then crimp them over.

And call it good.

Nice job, boys.

I'm pleased with the job Devlin done. He likes to take his time and do things right. Grace builds on nature. It's been fun to see Devlin do the things he naturally enjoys and watch how God's grace enlivens him by doing so. Christianity is not complicated. Just be fully yourself and let God change the world. Keep up the Good work, pard.