# Sore feet?



## PaintLover17 (Jan 3, 2011)

My mare is now barefoot for 3 trims and doing great. Her feet are so much stronger and healthier and I'm very pleased! 7 weeks ago was her first trim after getting her shoes pulled and she was slightly sore for a few days after. She had been barefoot and healthy for 6 weeks at this point. Thursday morning she had her feet trimmed again and she is now very sore! She barely even wants to walk, but is better in the sandy round pen. I know very little about what exactly a proper trim should look like and unfortunately have no pictures at this time, but I was wondering if anyone had some ideas without pictures. Sorry, I know that is difficult and I should have picures soon. I have her on bute and called the farrier but he has not returned my call.
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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

The most common problem that I've seen over the years is not the trim itself, but that some farriers like to really clean up the sole with the hoof knife, especially around the toe, leaving the sole too thin. Are you present when your farrier comes (I know many people who board are not)?


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

Agreed. If a horse is OK and then gets sore after a trim, yo need a big heart to heart with the farrier or you need a different one. 

A barefoot horse should have excess wall trimmed off that it is not wearing off, especially at the toe. Then, the remaining wall should be rasped back from the top while the hoof is on a stand. It should be rasped back until the width of the wall at the toe is the same as it is at the side of the hoof (the quarters).

Then, finally, the wall should be 'rounded up' from the bottom so that the edge of the wall is rounded like natural wear all the way around and especially at the toe. This facilitates 'break-over' and takes much stress off of the tendons and ligaments.

The sole should not be touched in most horses. Stalled horses may get a bit of a build-up in sole (referred to as false sole), but most horses do not need their soles touched.

If a horse is sore after a trim, it was either trimmed much too short or too much of the sole was removed.


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## PaintLover17 (Jan 3, 2011)

Thanks, that's what I was thinking too. How can I tell if he is trimming the sole? I'm usually there when she is trimmed but I don't know enough to really tell what he is trimming. Unfortunately I won't be able to be there for her next trim, but my trainer is going to hold her for me so hopefully she will notice something I'm not. I definitely need to have a long talk with my farrier.
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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

2/3 of my horses were sore after a trim once, they had gone 2 weeks past due(10 weeks) and i think my farrier took a little too much off to compensate, i gave them both a little bute and they were fine after a few days, i've been using the same farrier for 8+ years and never had a problem, and this was only the second and third barefoot trim for each of the 2 new horses, my other horse who he had been trimming for years was not sore at all. none of my horses have been sore at all since that trim so i just think he needed to take a little too much off to get them where they should have been, i would mention it to him and see if it happens again, if so maybe it's time to switch farriers


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## jdw (Mar 17, 2011)

Cherie said:


> Agreed. If a horse is OK and then gets sore after a trim, yo need a big heart to heart with the farrier or you need a different one.
> 
> A barefoot horse should have excess wall trimmed off that it is not wearing off, especially at the toe. Then, the remaining wall should be rasped back from the top while the hoof is on a stand. It should be rasped back until the width of the wall at the toe is the same as it is at the side of the hoof (the quarters).
> 
> ...


My farrier could not have said it better!! EXACTLY right!


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

If a horse's sole is all white and shiny after a trim, the farrier is knifing out the sole. 

Look at it this way ---- Would you like to walk on gravel barefoot after someone filed off all of the skin and callouses off your feet with a file? Don't think so. That is what a horse has to do after some moron has taken half or more of the sole off when that is the only thing between his sensitive inner feet and the ground and rocks that he walks on.

I keep 15 or more horses shod and another 10 to 15 more riding horses barefoot. We ride in rocks and canyons that are REALLY tough on feet. We wear shoes out every shoeing on the horses we use the most.

We DO NOT let a farrier touch them with a knife. They take a wire brush and clean up their feet. Occasionally they have to cut off a frog that is shedding. They are instructed to set shoes back so that no horse has more than 1/8 inch of wall at their toe. If they have low heels, the shoes' toes are set back to the white line in front.

We have not had a horse diagnosed with navicular syndrome or any other hoof problems after we learned how to have horses shod and trimmed in this manner.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

Cherie said:


> If a horse's sole is all white and shiny after a trim, the farrier is knifing out the sole.


Even worse, I've seen one horse's sole trimmed so much you could start to see the pink live sole.....ouch!


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

I have watched farriers take a sole down until you could push the sole down with your thumb. They had removed more than half of the existing sole. I would not let a farrier that has been trained this way even touch a horse of mine.


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## AlexS (Aug 9, 2010)

Did I read this right, you have had 3 trims in 7 weeks? If so, why?


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## PaintLover17 (Jan 3, 2011)

AlexS said:


> Did I read this right, you have had 3 trims in 7 weeks? If so, why?


No, I have had her trimmed 3 times while being barefoot, each 7 weeks apart. Sorry, my wording was kinda weird!
She is doing much better now and I was able to ride her yesterday. The farrier has still not called me back so I will be calling him again today.
I'm pretty sure he didn't trim the sole. What I did notice is that in her back feet the back part of the frog is longer than the hoof, meaning it hits the ground before the rest of the hoof. Could this be a major problem?

EDIT: I just went back and read my original post and I did type that really wrong! Sorry, I was exhausted when I posted that.


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## PaintLover17 (Jan 3, 2011)

Oops! Double post!


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