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FRONTS: Its hard for me to make a call here cause the photo is not straight on. It looks, though, as if the outsides on both hooves are longer than the insides. Also, take a look at the angle of the periople (just below the coronary band) … the hoof wall should follow the same angle as the periople but, again, it may be the angle of the photo more than the actual hooves? |
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FLH - HEELS: Your outside is longer as shown here so what I saw on the photo above is correct. You need to just shave off maybe 1/32nd of an inch or maybe a tad more. The yellow line that I marked is the horizontal plane. You can easily see the difference in heel height by looking at that. But the overall plane/hoof looks great!! I'd just address that outside a bit more. |
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Your hooves look clean and
from this angle, the walls look great! The horse will, given time, start to form its own
quarter scoops as the hooves gain more mechanics and self-adjusting. I'd like to see more
rolling (Mustang roll) around the edges of the hoof walls. It looks as though you've given
a pretty good rocker at the toe. Good job! OK … Angles ... The hoof has several different angles here. What I am seeing is a toe wall that probably could be brought back shorter and the outside of the front wall could be rasped a bit to better match the angle of the periople/coronary. The angle of the coronary hairline should be as close to 30 degrees as possible to bring the P3 (Coffin bone) ground parallel. I think the heels could be taken down a tad more to help this hairline angle. ULTIMATELY what you'd like to be able to trim and see are the angles of the pastern, heel and hoof wall all the same and a heel that is just 1/8" or so above live sole at the heel buttress. (Go HERE to view the labeled parts of the hoof.) I would also roll the entire wall a bit more to get a nice, rounded hoof. |
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Because this is a front hoof,
I've drawn an opaque, yellow circle to show where the toe could be trimmed back even
further. This corresponds with the first critique photo above. Otherwise the hoof looks
nice and symmetrical. The heel is contracted but given the good trimming that he's now getting and some time with proper mechanics, that heel should open up nicely. The overgrown bar material on the sole will also begin to remove itself with more correct movement on the part of the horse and hoof. Nice shaping! |
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RRS -- Rear Hooves. These look great! I put a star on his RR only to mark the one where I can see the toe is a bit long. Other than that I see the quarter scooping is going to come right along and the angles all look great! Good job! |
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RRH - Again, and this is a difficult assessment to learn, the outside wall looks longer than the inside. Because this appeared on the front left, as well, I'd say that its probably due to the way you're holding your rasp. Purely a matter of practice in using the rasp with a full arm from the shoulder movement without bending the wrists at all. It's very common but now that you're aware of it you can work, next time, to correct it. :) |
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RLB - Hoof is nice and symmetrical. Wall looks good. Heels are long and should be taken down (by 1/2+) to allow the frog to be in passive ground contact. I might assume you are doing this gradually so as not to cause soreness? Excess bar material to be removed and allow the hoof to wear down the laid over bar as the hoof grows. Or, trim off the portions that trim easily and leave the rest to come off on its own. Once the hoof has frog contact with the ground that heel will de-contract. Otherwise, this is a healthy looking hoof! |