That time a client showed me their farrier's rasp marks

Had a woman in Lexington, Kentucky bring in her gelding last month with nasty rasp marks all down the hoof wall. Said her previous farrier told her it was normal to file into the white line. Took me maybe 10 minutes to explain how that weakens the whole hoof. Has anyone else run into damage from other guys being too aggressive with the rasp?

3 comments

3 Comments

murphy.abby25d ago

Yikes, I heard a vet say that can actually lead to white line disease down the road.

hart.sage28d ago

My friend down in Ocala had a mare that came to her with grooves so deep in the hoof wall you could fit a fingernail in them. The previous guy had went at it with a coarse rasp every single shoeing for over a year, thinking he was "cleaning up" the foot. That horse ended up with thin soles and cracks that took almost eight months to grow out.

the_william28d ago

That's the thing about aggressive rasping that bothers me. People don't realize the hoof wall is a protective structure, not something to be filed down like a fingernail. Once you take off too much, you're exposing the sensitive layers underneath and it takes forever to recover. Eight months sounds about right for that kind of damage. I've seen farriers do more harm than good when they get too carried away with "cleaning up.