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Had a chat with an old horse owner who changed how I look at hoof angles
She pointed out that my last three trims were half a degree off compared to her 20-year-old photos, and now I'm wondering if I've been messing up other horses too - has anyone else had a client call you out on something so small?
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lee.cole4mo ago
See, I gotta push back a little here. That one degree difference might not have been a mistake if the horse was landing better and staying sound. Those old photos can show what worked for that horse at that peak moment in its career, but a horse's body changes over time and what looked perfect then might not be right now. Jason's story actually proves my point - the horse moved better on his trims, so the "correct" angle from the 90s was just a snapshot of what worked back then. Half a degree off over twenty years is nothing compared to how a horse adapts its entire way of moving as it ages... I'd rather see a horse comfortable on a slightly off angle than stiff on a textbook perfect one.
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butler.shane4mo ago
Holy cow, that is such a good point about the horse adapting! It makes you wonder how many of those "perfect" old photos are actually just documenting a different set of problems that worked for that particular horse at that time. I mean, people get so hung up on matching a historical number like it's the gospel truth, but horses change as they age and their bodies find new ways to compensate. Jason's story really shows that what looks like a mistake on paper might actually be the horse telling you what it needs right now. It's a solid reminder that the best trim is the one that makes the horse move better in the present, not the one that matches a photo from twenty years ago.
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spencerw724mo ago
My buddy Jason had a similar thing happen last year. He trimmed a client's barrel horse for like five years before the guy pulled out a stack of photos from the 90s and showed him that his toe angle was consistently one degree too steep compared to the old farrier's work. Jason was gutted because he prides himself on being textbook perfect. Turns out the old farrier had actually been setting that horse's hooves slightly wrong for years because the horse had weird arthritis that compensated for it. The client just assumed the photos were the gold standard, but the horse actually moved better after Jason's trims.
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