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Just realized I've been wasting time on hoof prep for years
I spent almost 45 minutes on one foot yesterday because I was still using that old method of trying to level the hoof wall first before checking the coffin bone angle. A buddy at the shop today showed me how he uses a simple hoof gauge in under 10 minutes to find the true angle and it cut my time in half. Has anyone else had that moment where you felt dumb for not switching something up sooner?
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clairen856mo ago
Different horses need different approaches though. I've had plenty where rushing the hoof prep with a gauge cost me later because I missed how the hoof capsule was actually compensating. 45 minutes is a lot but sometimes you're dealing with flares, cracks, or a horse that's been shod badly before and needs more careful work. That gauge method works great on straightforward feet but it's not one size fits all.
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river_allen6mo ago
Wait, are you saying she's using the gauge while still doing the same trimming method? I thought the whole point was using the gauge to guide the cut, not to replace looking at the foot as a whole.
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amy9746mo ago
Yeah the "different horses need different approaches" part really hit home for me. I tried the gauge method once on a horse with a shitty flare on the inside wall and it just didn't work at all because I wasn't looking at the whole foot, you know? I ended up going back to my old way of just feeling the hoof with my hands and looking at it from all angles. Now I use the gauge as a rough guide but I don't follow it blindly, especially on horses that have been shod badly before. That saved me a ton of time and headaches, honestly.
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