No hoof...

We all know the saying- No hoof, no horse. I have been a bit lax on what has been going on with my ponyman and his feet. I have been turning him out while I clean his stall and fill his water tub, mix up his feed and bring him in to eat. I have also had hell finding a good farrier. Kat is not a tough pony to trim. Never has been and likely never will be. He has good feet and stands like a champ. 

I had started working him to bring him back into shape with the intent to start driving him again. Problem is- he has been off in one leg or another. At first I thought it might be age creeping up on him and something he might work out of.  Didn't happen. 

Checking his feet for a rock or something maybe wedged in his hoof- he was a bit sensitive in one of his hind hooves. Sensitive enough that cleaning out his hoof he was trying to pull it away. The other one wasn't much different except he was sensitive in the heel rather than the point of the frog.  He had some crud down in the groove so I grabbed my bottle of vinegar, a bucket and we headed for the washrack. 

After rinsing his hoof from the bottom with the spray nozzle to get everything out without causing him pain, I soaked his hind feet in the bucket and poured a healthy dose of vinegar in it. Vinegar is an acid and if he had anything going on- this would "kill it dead-er 'en hell" as a guy I used to work with would say. I'm still not sure how anything could be any more dead than dead, but he would always throw that phrase around and it cracked me up. 

The vinegar killed it all right. Kat walked off sound. Problem is- the barn aisle is sand and loose dirt, which sticks to a wet hoof and gets all packed in again before he could get to his stall. No this doesn't help. 

Another issue going on is that he is due for a trim. Checking his feet- the angles were way off in his front feet. The left front heel was as long as my thumb. The right front was about half that and although we have left a little more heel to stand him up- increase the breakover to prevent overreaching- he doesn't grow hoof that fast. There's no reason his heels should've been that long. Yes I was lax on that and I admit it. 

His hind hooves were also long all over. I started on them because his frogs had issues. 

In the picture above, despite the dirt you can still see how long his heel was on the left hind as well as the hole that went way down into the frog.  Yeah I would be a bit off too. The right hind looked even worse. Deeper cracks, several small holes and a place right at the hairline that looked like he blew out an abscess or something and lost a couple layers of skin. Yeah seriously not paying attention but I am now! 

Same hoof after I took a hoofknife and my nippers to it. Opened up the area around the frog and the hole is still there, just not as deep now. Black spots are mud from the turnout that wouldn't come off.

Right hind- with all of its deep grooves and while the heel still looks too long, its really not. 

Left front- this one shows some deep cracks and grooves as well. Again the heels appear long but they're really not. They have been taken back down to where they should've been all along. He's got about an inch of heel vs the 3" he had. He's not a damn saddlebred or even a Shetland and I have no intentions of putting shoes on him let alone stacks like some of them sport. Yuck! 

Right front- 

Right front heels- fortunately Kat's right front seems the least affected by all of this. His heels were also long and there was plenty to trim off, but the frog and surrounding skin didn't have super deep crevices. 

The new farrier agreed with the vinegar soaking and the occasional wrapping to keep everything clean as well as the hoof supplement to help speed up the growth process and hopefully get rid of all this a little sooner. Kat is ready to be done with all of this too even though he is enjoying the added attention.