Natural Hoof care and Barefoot trimming

Natural Hoof care and Barefoot trimming

Hoof care is the term used to trim and to balance the hooves of the horses and a site on their hooves where the shoes are placed. It’s true that the hooves of a horse are the most important part of its body and taking care of them should be the top priority of its owner. It’s necessary to take care of them, to clean them and most importantly to trim them. It’s also very important to use ointments or different oils such as gels and some sort of topical sprays on the hooves and clean them from dirt, germs or avoid them from getting hurt by using proper shoes specially made for them. They are just as important as the nails of a horse, should be equally treated and proper care should be shown for them. There may be many reasons behind the poor performance of a horse but most of the time it happens because of their hooves, so it is very important and care must be shown towards them.
Taking care of the Hooves of a horse is a very vast topic and there is so much that can be done to them to keep our horses healthy and fit. Everyone including the owner, farrier and the veterinarian, pays attention to the hooves of a horse and has their opinion about them according their knowledge. So, we can say that everyone of these people will have their understanding on the best possible way to do something for the hooves, like their routine care and most importantly when it comes to fix some sort of issue or problem that they can encounter while taking care of the horses’ hooves.

But still we can say that taking basic care of the hooves is not that much of a job and one must not fear of doing so. Many of the techniques that are being used nowadays to handle the hoof, nothing different from a common practice that was being used for hundreds of years and back then we didn’t have any sort of devices to take care of the hooves such as horseshoes. Farriers (people who shoes the horses) still spend money on anvils that are the (heavy iron blocks with flat top and concave sides), to hammer and shape the metals rather than using the forges that is a (very cheap method to shoe the horses), although nowadays there are a lot of methods to attach things to the hooves to cover them. You can easily take care of your horses by just having the basic knowledge of the basic principles that will ensure that you’re going in the right direction.

 

Natural Hoof care and Barefoot trimming:

Natural hoof care is the term used to keep the horses in order to wear down their hooves naturally so that they do not overgrow, split or face other disordering issues. A horseshoe is a product that protects the hooves of a horse from wearing down so they are not used. But the horses that are used domestically which do not run or move much can grow their hooves, so in order to keep them fit and healthy and keep their degree of wear and natural shape, it is a common practice to trim their hooves.

Barefoot is a term used for horses on which we do not use any issues and keep them barefoot all the time. As we do not use any sort of horseshoes on them, so their hooves grow naturally and special attention is given to them to trim their hooves and keep them in a barefoot style so they may stay healthy and look clean. Horses are being used barefooted for hundreds of years and doing so has a positive effect on the health of the horses and their hooves. Keeping your horse barefoot will not only help you save a lot of money by not using the horseshoes but will also make your horse happy. Barefoot horses are being used everywhere nowadays and in many sports like trail riding, flat racing, show jumping, dressage, etc.

Barefoot trimming is very different from the services that a farrier provides. Farriers use field trim or pasture trim in order to keep the hooves healthy as they’re trained to provide these trimmings. But the barefoot trim takes into consideration not only the angles of hooves that are bony and but also the health of the hoof. Another major difference between the barefoot trimming and farrier trimming that makes the barefoot trimming even a better approach for the hoof care is that it does not require any sort of shoes to maintain the high performance of hooves, or even we can say that it’s a natural approach to take care of hooves depending upon the trimming methods used by different individuals. However, barefoot trimming is something very unique that is designed by nature itself in order to maintain healthy hooves without using any sort of shoes.

Barefoot trimming actually aims to treat or to trim the hooves the way they are treated in wild horse herds. Wild horses have hooves that come in contact with the ground at four different points and the walls of the hooves do not come in contact with the ground at all. A farrier, Jaime Jackson studied the behavior of hooves of wild horses and concluded that hoof wall, present on the ground is the most distal structure when the horse is on uneven terrain. While in the case of pasture trim, the hoof wall is left long and in contact with the ground, that is another major difference between it and the barefoot trimming. Just like the wild horses, barefoot horses that are used domestically, develop callouses on their hooves’ soles that allow them to trail over all types of terrain without any sort of discomfort.

It is very important for the success of barefoot trimming to consider the environment of domestic horses and its use and effects on horse comfort and hoof balance and its shape.