@todaywithgus: I know people like this mean well and are trying to help but photos don’t always tell the whole story and advice like this can end up harming the horse it’s recommended for. with the deformity Gus has in this limb & his pigeon toed stance, taking that lateral heel down is something many have done & done to his detriment. I get it. everyone is taught what a good hoof is supposed to look like and how to trim a hoof to fit that ideal. an “ideal” cookie cutter trim can be the exact opposite of ideal on a hoof with distortion above it. Gus would walk away from those trims, immediately buckle in his knee and struggle to be able to lock it. it would take me years to understand why. Gus has some beautiful symmetrical feet and then he has this one. for years he had been trimmed symmetrically and we believe that is what caused not only the twisting/distortion of the hoof capsule but exacerbated the arthritic changes in his knee. “just trying to do the right thing and make a healthy looking foot” was not the right thing for this specific foot. always lead with asking questions if you’re looking to give advice. “have you tried this? are his heels as imbalanced as they appear to be?” maybe there is more to the story and you do have some really helpful advice to offer with more information but if I didn’t know any better, I probably would have seen this markup and thought “holy crap, maybe that *is* super imbalanced and I need to bring that heel down quite a bit” and wound up causing further issues. I think we are on the right track with this hoof/limb currently but time will tell. #hoofcare #opticalillusion #learnontiktok #horsetok #horsecare
