Friday, July 1, 2011

Why I Love My Haflingers - Reason #23

It's their feet. Yeah, I love their clunky, chunky size 2's. Feet that can easily bend the hinges of all gates so our gates are never ever level any more!

Who me? Step on the gate to get your attention?
Never!
Not no way... not no how!

We had a visit from our farrier yesterday. We haven't seen him since November!!! (That's one benefit of sandy soil!) He commented that the boys' feet are looking pretty good. In fact, he couldn't find much to take off! 

Pippin, will you move your nose so I can get a picture of your feet?

No, Pippin. The camera is not something good to eat!


Ah, finally. A picture - without a nose in it!

Pippin had serious foot issues when I got him two years ago. He had foundered and his feet were in terrible shape. This is his hoof today. (Oh, how I wish I had taken a 'before' shot!) When I got him he had a hole in the front of his hoof where the wall had blown out. Now, he has a crack up the center caused by the rotation of the coffin bone. Wayne carved a groove perpendicular to the crack on both front hooves to suggest that the crack not move further up the hoof. Since the foundered hoof tends to curve out like elf shoes, he did take a bit the toe off and flattened the front. That was the sum total of the work on Pippin.



Doc has wonderfully strong feet. He had a little bit of a bump on the inside of his front toes that made his foot less round. The farrier used his rasp for a few minutes to round out the front hoof.

We were done. $15.00 please. See you in a few months!

Now, that is nice!!



14 comments:

  1. Well, there's those cute velvety noses and those lovely blonde manes and tails, too. :)


    There are a couple of great benefits to owning horses in the dry, sandy southwest: 1)Strong, rock, hard hooves 2)no moisture means rare or non-existent thrush, and 3)natural exfoliation which means more time in between trims.

    The drought, winds and fire risk almost seem worth it. Almost.

    Apache's last farrier appt. was also in November. I've got her set up for the farrier next week and he'll probably tell me the same thing,"She hardly has anything to trim". He also reminds me to soak her hooves before he arrives because her iron hard hooves are difficult to trim. I really should learn how to use a rasp properly because if I kept up with just smoothing out the knicks she gets from the rocks and boulders in her paddocks, I'd probably have to schedule farrier appts even less.

    ~Lisa

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  2. Oh and forgot to ask was the $15.00 per horse or for both? That's a great deal! My farrier charges $30.00 for a trim.

    ~Lisa

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  3. Are you kidding me? $15.00 for both horses? Holy smokes! It's a lot more than that around here, and we don't have the benefit of such nice soil, so they have to be done every six weeks or so.

    I like Haflingers anyways, and you just gave me one more reason to.

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  4. Farrier time~ I think mine comes next week. Cha-Ching. It won't be $15.00, more like over $115.00, but we don't have sandy soil, and we have shoes, so there it is. Love your big guys. They are handsome boys. Debi

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  5. Great hooves.

    Imagine my shock when I went from miniature horses to a Haflinger...my, my, her feet were big. I hardly notice now.

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  6. I bet your horse loves you for taking care of their feet.

    My husband and I bought some haflinger clogs one year up in Michigan at the sweetest shoe store, but we can't find the shoes anymore. We loved those shoes.

    Cindy Bee

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  7. Reason #24 - they're just plain adorable!

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  8. Yep those big feet are wonderful, Camryn's are 2WW LOL. I look at my friends horses feet and think of Geisha girls, their so tiny and appear almost fragile to me

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  9. I like Haffies too, although I'm too tall (I'd look like an idiot, and I can do that lots of other ways already *grin*). Our farrier is coming week after next; he's been slammed this month.
    All of our guys are barefoot, and we are usually able to go beyond the 6-8 week time frame as well (which is sometimes a big help when you have nine to trim ;o)

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  10. It's great when their feet take care of themselves, as nature intended. Also great that your farrier only charged $15!

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  11. Pippin and Bernard obviously view cameras the same way... as objects worthy of eating. :)

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  12. More horses should have such feet!

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  13. wow, those are some big feet! Your boys are really lovely too.

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  14. I need your farrier! I do not shod my horse, but for a trim, it is much more than that!

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