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To: HairOfTheDog
Cyn's heels still look like they should have been trimmed further back. The ends of the heels should be even with the widest part of the frog, so judging by that picture, they could've been rasped back another quarter to half an inch. Another indication that the heels are still a bit long is the way her bars are hooking in towards the back of the heels. She's still got black areas in front of them, which generally means that you should dig down deeper right there with the hoof knife in search of the live sole. When you find live sole, then you can rasp down to that level. It looks like he got down to the live sole in the center part of her foot and even got down a little too much at the toe, as evidenced by the flat spot there, but that's what most farrier's do when they're getting ready to set a shoe.

In the picture I marked up below, the green dots are where I think the heels should end. The yellow dots are where they actually do end. The red line at the quarters is where I think she's got some separation issues, and the red line at the bars is where they could have been pared down to get to the live sole. The blue line is how her bars should be shaped if her feet were in perfect condition. I would also have beveled her hoof wall to a 45* angle from the widest part of her foot forward to the toe. Doing that and maintaining that bevel will stop that separation in the quarters and allow it to grow out. The bevel actually makes the ground press IN on the hoof wall rather than pushing it OUT.

So there's my arm-chair quarterback assessment

I'll go over to the other forum to look at Bay's after pictures and see what the REAL farriers had to say about them.

2,186 posted on 02/09/2007 7:34:05 AM PST by FrogInABlender (Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.)
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To: FrogInABlender

Interesting Frog :~) Good lines!

He actually did a lot more rasping with her than he usually does, during the riding season he has to sortof look for something he can get to. Now, with it so soft out, she had a lot more growth.

I don't know what to tell him about doing anything different with either one of them. I think he sortof just does what he does, but it's interesting to see the analysis so I can better judge good from bad.


2,187 posted on 02/09/2007 7:43:53 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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