Post by carshon on May 18, 2015 18:21:35 GMT
Took a beginning hoof trimming class on Saturday with Ida Hammer - she is a "sound" horse farrier from IL - one of her students currently trims our horses and she suggested I take the class. All I can say is WOW! I cannot wait to go back and take another class. She goes a series and gives certificates at the end for those that want to be farriers. I do not want to be certified but her course is wonderful. I would love to take the footfall course and she has others. She is a firm believer in feeding the whole horse to get a healthy hoof. So much of what she said rang so true. As an example - we have a mare that was diagnosed as early Navicular (xrays confirmed shadowing) we have kept her pretty sound until an issue with severe thrush last fall. Our farrier at the time blamed the lameness on Navicular and advised to drug her sound and dump her at a sale or euthanize. I did neither and researched and researched. We have treated thrush for 6 months and switched to Ida's Student. Mare is thrush free but still very slightly lame in the field at the trot (slight head bob) and her hoof is more worn on the outside making it look like it cups under.
We brought her to the clinic to see if hoof casting or glue on shoes would help. Ida looked this over with a fine toothed comb and found a very small scar on the coronet that has made the hoof tubules grow out crooked - causing internal hoof issues as well as what we can see on the outside. She asked about ridges she saw on all 4 hooves and asked if we had done vaccines or worming in the last 1-2 months as these are metabolic occurences in the body that get mirrored in the hooves. In fact, we had given 2 shots of Excede (a very powerful antibiotic) to help get rid of the thrush. She could see that in the hoof.
We learned so much in this class - I cannot wait to go back for more.
Our mare did not get glue on's or a hoof cast - Ida felt that they would not help for the long term. She is sound with her boots on so we will just use her boots on all trails.
The hoof has so much to tell and I am so excited to learn more.
We brought her to the clinic to see if hoof casting or glue on shoes would help. Ida looked this over with a fine toothed comb and found a very small scar on the coronet that has made the hoof tubules grow out crooked - causing internal hoof issues as well as what we can see on the outside. She asked about ridges she saw on all 4 hooves and asked if we had done vaccines or worming in the last 1-2 months as these are metabolic occurences in the body that get mirrored in the hooves. In fact, we had given 2 shots of Excede (a very powerful antibiotic) to help get rid of the thrush. She could see that in the hoof.
We learned so much in this class - I cannot wait to go back for more.
Our mare did not get glue on's or a hoof cast - Ida felt that they would not help for the long term. She is sound with her boots on so we will just use her boots on all trails.
The hoof has so much to tell and I am so excited to learn more.
