Expanding My Comfort Zone to Include Feet

I have finally accepted the idea that I need to trim my own horses' feet.  I have resisted this for years.  But the reality dawns on me that it's much cheaper to keep two barefoot horses and since I want sound barefoot horses, I need to have some idea of how to maintain balance in their feet.  So with quiet resignation, I've begun the journey into hoof care.

As a dedicated learn-aholic I can't just do something and hope it turns out right.  I need to know.

My first couple swipes across horse feet was more about getting this new endeavour somewhere in the vicinity of my comfort zone.  Once that was achieved, I knew I needed more information so I could be effective.

I called on my good friend Leitha.  She trims professionally and she also teaches folks how to trim their own horses.  She has a ton of good information on her website - HOOF-smart.com.

Sunday she spent time with me, helping me understand Bleu's feet and walking me through rasping the toe back and taking down the flares.  We took pictures of different things so I could review what Leitha taught me and practice stabilizing a hoof on the hoofjack and holding the rasp and knife.

I think I did a pretty decent job and later that night I applied a little of what she taught me and did some maintenance on Cricket's feet.  Cricket's feet hold their basic shape better than Bleu's so she was pretty easy to manage.

So now I can start adding another skill to my repertoire and another dimension to my horse care.  And that's translated as "one more thing to do instead of ride!".