A horse’s hooves need to be properly maintained because it supports the horse’s body weight.
They need to stand on a flat surface to be able to maintain and carry their weight.
That’s why if a horse’s hooves are in poor condition, it will be unable to move freely and carry its weight.
Plus the imbalance will add strain to the tendons, ligaments, and bones.
Hooves need to be cared for.
This Arabian stud arrived at the Idaho Horseshoeing School with very long hooves.
It’s a wonder this horse is still able to walk, but most likely, he does it with great difficulty.
Riley Mickelsen, the owner of the school, said that it can take two to three years for the hooves to grow as long as this Arabian stud’s hooves.
A horse needs to have its hooves trimmed every four to six weeks.
The horse had been neglected.
The Idaho Horseshoeing School trains farriers.
“A farrier … (is) somebody that specializes in horse hoof health,” Riley Mickelsen explained. “And they do so by trimming hooves and correctly placing different types of horseshoes.”
Unfortunately, overgrown hooves are something Riley sees very often, judging by the number of overgrown hooves videos on their school’s YouTube channel.
Hooves as long as this horse has is definitely going to cause a lot of problems for the horse.
“You’ve got to imagine (it’s) like if you were wearing a softball on the bottom of your shoe all day and you couldn’t just stand flat and you’re rocking all around, how incredibly painful that would be,” Mickelsen described.
Thankfully, they’re about to be restored.
How did Riley restore the hooves?
With a lot of patience and a lot of care.
First, he measures where the coffin bone may be sitting so he can estimate where to saw off the hoof.
Once it’s been cleanly sawed off, he turns over the hoof and begins the flattening process.
He removes the dirt that has accumulated underneath to determine how flat it should be.
He used a metal trimmer strong enough to cut through the hoof.
This process doesn’t hurt the horse.
Thankfully, there are no nerves in this area.
Riley continues to trim off the bottom part until it becomes flat enough for the horse to safely walk on.
He moves to the front part of the hoof, where he trims the front to an acceptable and safe length.
Riley also uses a grater-like tool to clean the front part and file down the hoof.
Riley repeats the process for the three other hooves to complete the restoration.
Now, this Arabian stud can walk.
It’s amazing to see the horse move freely once again.
While they recommend hoof trimming every four to six weeks, sometimes, Riley will only see a horse once and never again.
Maybe they moved to another farrier or maybe they stopped having the trim.
They hope to see the horses again at their next trim but it doesn’t always happen.
See this Arabian stud horse sporting his new “shoes” in the video below!
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