An old rancher taught me something about hoof angles in Nevada

I was trimming a mustang for this old guy outside Elko about 3 months ago. He walked over and just pointed at the hoof and said "that angle is gonna make him sore in 2 weeks." I thought I had it right but I checked his notes and he was dead on. Has anyone else had a customer just know more than you about their own horse's feet?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_fiona29d ago

Old timers like that have a way of reading the whole horse not just the foot. The thing nobody talks about is how much the ground they live on changes what "right" looks like. That mustang was probably raised on hard rocky Nevada ground where the hoof wears different than a horse in soft pasture. What looks perfect by the book might be totally off for the terrain that horse walks on every day. That old guy wasn't just looking at the angle he was seeing how it matched the dirt underfoot.

willowroberts29d ago

Guess I'll just take my textbook out to the Nevada desert then.