KBR Horse Net
Training Case Study:

"Shiloh"
Part Three

Trim Day:

Shiloh had experienced a number of activities and learned that she could be handled and be asked to do things without being hurt. It was now time to get those long feet trimmed.

We led Shiloh into the round corral for the first time and gave her about a half hour to get comfy in there. Actually, she sniffed around a couple of minutes, found a nice soft spot in the sand and lay down and took a nap. She seemed OK about the round corral. It was time to play "Touch it!" with various items and then touch her with them.

Sharon stood at the head with the clicker and carrots. I got out a long dressage bat and started rubbing her all over, including down the outsides and insides of her legs. When she fidgeted Sharon corrected her. When she relaxed under contact and stood quietly, Sharon clicked her. After that I brushed her forelegs, then rubbed her legs with my hands, playing in the dimples above her heel bulbs and tapping her feet with my fingers.

Next I took the nippers and stroked her legs. She had no problem with them so we learned "Pick up!" After about a half dozen tries she was steady enough that I could rest her hoof over my knee and start trimming.

Her feet were so long that I had to take a couple of passes with the nippers to get off the extreme overgrowth. Fortunately she had pretty good heel growth so I was able to take nearly as much heel as toe, removing a great deal of material without correcting her angles too much at one time. One time she flinched when I accidentally poked her in the belly with the nipper handles, but other than that she was quiet. I nipped both fronts, gave her a short rest, then dressed them off with the rasp.

Usually I'll only trim two feet a day on a badly overgrown horse's first trim, but Shiloh did so well that we decided to take her back to the round corral after lunch and try the hinds. We repeated the desensitizing exercises and she flew right through them. Her hind feet were even longer than her fronts, requiring three passes with the nippers to get them back to the sole. She was a lady through the whole process and in about a half hour, the hinds were trimmed and dressed off.

What I usually do with overgrown feet is to take them back to the sole material, but I don't pare out the sole and trim the hoof wall tight. By being less aggressive, the changes to the horse's angles are less sudden, causing less stress and inflammation to tendons and ligaments. By allowing the hoof to rest on old sole, the foot will start to wear more naturally over the next couple of weeks so when I go in for a follow-up trim, I'll have a good indication how the horse is touching down and what adjustments I now need to make to get the horse to land correctly.

Shilo's angles were now not too dissimilar to what they were before, but the poor mare goose stepped when she walked, having been so conditioned to have to lift her feet to excess in order to make breakover with those long toes, plus the ground didn't show up when she expected to find it since her vertical hoof length was at least 1 inch less! (As the afternoon wore on, she learned to walk on her shorter feet!)

Week 3:

Shiloh gets turned out to graze most afternoons with Patience and Mello. After a couple of hours they'll start racing around, bucking and playing. They'll race all around the horse course, then they'll stampede through the gate to the pasture and run all around it, then they'll stampede into the paddock. There's not enough room to run in the paddock so they'll occasionally just bounce up and down like they have springs on their feet, then tear out the gate and run around the pasture some more.

When I go out to get Shiloh at feeding time, they're usually dozing in the paddock in the shade of the barn. When I click for Shiloh, I get two mustang noses up in my face, both Patience and Shiloh. Back in her paddock, Shiloh will whinny to her buds in the pasture.

On Sunday Shane took Shiloh out to the horse course and worked the various obstacles. He figured out how to "help" her navigate the stairs by first working over cavaletti of various heights. Later we used Shiloh as a "draw" to make it easier to move Sheba back to her pen.

From this point Shiloh was able to be treated pretty much like any other horse in the stable, living in the pasture with Patience and Mello and being brought out for grooming and handling whenever we wished.

Here are what the front feet
looked like before trimming

This gives you some idea
how much had to come off. (The
heels have already been taken off
on both sides and I've started
the first of two passes across
the toe.)

Here is the same foot
after the trim

All 4 feet reasonably level
and a reasonable length

Level feet! Time for
horsey games!

What say I poke
you in the butt?

Who's that???

Hanging with her buds
in the Horse Course

Shiloh and CJ
"Yep, we're buds."