Faith's 1st Farrier Visit!

Faith had her first visit today with her farrier, Brad Erickson! She was very well behaved and did absolutely nothing wrong. (Not even grouchy mare ears - I was shocked!) The only accomodation Brad had to make was to work with her hind legs low to the ground due to her weak hind end. She didn't fight him when he began, but he could feel that she wasn't comfortable at his regular height. Other than that minor adjustment, the process went smoothly!

Faith's hooves, although strong and in fairly good condition, (despite the rest of her,) are worn unevenly and one is severely clubbed. She has a very awkward gait with her clubbed foot. With each step, she lands on the lateral quarter (outside) and then slaps her medial quarter (inside) down onto the ground flat. We are attributing this more towards her conformation than the shape of her hoof, although the club isn't helping any! Brad couldn't make any drastic modifications; any big changes in her hoof structure could potentially cause a lameness, and Faith has enough to worry about for now...

I took before and after shots of her hooves so you can see the difficult task Brad was faced with. Notice the exceptionally steep angle to her left front hoof in the "before" picture, as well as the mismatched angles of her pasterns. In the "after" picture, you can see how he cut a portion of her heel off of her clubbed foot which fixed her angle. Now her pastern and hoof angle are more closely matched. He also set her breakover further back in order to help her out.

Here is a view of the same hooves from behind, showing the extreme amount of heel she had on her clubbed hoof.

I am exceptionally impressed with the quality of Brad's work as well as his work ethic. He came to me very highly recommended, and now I know why! He took his time with Faith and clearly answered all of my questions. Not only that, he has graciously offered to trim Faith free of charge! I was so thankful when he offered that I nearly cried!

Thank you so very much Brad! Please visit his web page at http://www.braderickson.com/

Faith's next appointment is schedule for Wednesday, April 1st.

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