August's trimming clinic went well. The September clinic is full and will be the last one held this year. Well, unless I hear from at least 3 people who really want to learn to trim their own horses and wouldn't mind working during the cooler weather.
We had 3 awesomes students this month. Don and Debby from San Diego and one of my local customers, Kirsten.
We had a few horses hauled in for trims over the weekend and took a field trip down to the end of our road to trim 4 beautiful horses that belong to our neighbors, Scott and Karen.
Snacks and lunch is provided. And on the last day we all go out do dinner to unwind and recap our 3 days together.
A good deal of prep work is involved in gearing up for the clinics, which includes...
...setting the garage/classroom back up since the last clinic.
Snacks are set out for the students to munch on during the day.
The dogs are kicked out!
And the horses are advised to be on their best behavior!
When everything is ready to go, it's time to hit the garage door opener and...
...class is now in session!
After we go over our tools and get our aprons fitted, we spend the early part of our days discussing hoof anatomy, diet, and other aspects that are critical to producing healthy hooves, before we move outside to work on the horses.
We had 3 awesomes students this month. Don and Debby from San Diego and one of my local customers, Kirsten.
We had a few horses hauled in for trims over the weekend and took a field trip down to the end of our road to trim 4 beautiful horses that belong to our neighbors, Scott and Karen.
Snacks and lunch is provided. And on the last day we all go out do dinner to unwind and recap our 3 days together.
A good deal of prep work is involved in gearing up for the clinics, which includes...
...setting the garage/classroom back up since the last clinic.
Snacks are set out for the students to munch on during the day.
The dogs are kicked out!
And the horses are advised to be on their best behavior!
When everything is ready to go, it's time to hit the garage door opener and...
...class is now in session!
After we go over our tools and get our aprons fitted, we spend the early part of our days discussing hoof anatomy, diet, and other aspects that are critical to producing healthy hooves, before we move outside to work on the horses.
Important natural hoof care literature is available for review.
success with. 
We break into the Chest of Death, (filled with frozen cadaver hooves.)
Samples of different types of gravel...not to be confused with the food.
Then it's time to go out to the horses!
After I demonstrate the trim, horse and hoof handling, Kirsten starts her first trim on Danny's hinds.
Our driver escorts us back and forth between the barn and the classroom...well, she would if she could reach the peddles.
Tool handling! Learning to handle the tools while being mindful of the hoof is not an easy skill at first.
Debbie is working on one of Peaches hinds.
We break into the Chest of Death, (filled with frozen cadaver hooves.)
Samples of different types of gravel...not to be confused with the food.Then it's time to go out to the horses!
After I demonstrate the trim, horse and hoof handling, Kirsten starts her first trim on Danny's hinds.
Our driver escorts us back and forth between the barn and the classroom...well, she would if she could reach the peddles.
Tool handling! Learning to handle the tools while being mindful of the hoof is not an easy skill at first.
Debbie is working on one of Peaches hinds.
Don seems to be having fun working on Little Jake!
(A frequently asked question is why do farriers and NH practitioners always where hats? Well for me, a hat keeps my hair away from the horse's body. Most horses are not the cleanest things to get so close to.)
Kirsten is working on her own long time friend, 28 year old, Gypsy.
Our next victim! I mean volunteer...a visiting pony, Lilo, teaches us about addressing flare.
Before and after!
Sophie sleeps through all our hard work!
It was a great three 3 days together and we topped it off with a nice long Mexican meal in downtown Yelm. I try to keep in touch with my long distance students, as well as help my local students when they need assistance.
Of course, 3 days isn't enough time to learn everything there is to know about trimming hooves, (Heck! three years isn't long enough, we will always have more to learn.) and students are strongly encouraged to begin their journey into learning how to trim by first going to Pete Ramey's website, hoofrehab.com and reading his articles as well as ordering his book and watching his DVD series, Under the Hoof, before coming to class.
Pete and Ivy's research as well as that of other important hoof anatomy experts like Dr. Robert Bowker, will provide a good background.
Then in class, we go to work on the hands-on part of the trim. By the end of our 3 days together, students are fairly skillful at reading different types of hooves, recognizing different hoof issues, and handling the tools well enough to sculpt a properly trimmed hoof.
Good job everyone!
Clinic information is on the right of this screen.
7 comments:
Please keep posting about upcoming classes! I would love to find a way to take one sometime this winter as i have one horse and two weanling fillies on the way.
I can't wait till the September clinic rolls around, Pat. I'll be there!
Hi Liz!
Would love to have you! I might suggest sending in a deposit for next year. In case I'm not able to put one together this winter.
Not sure of next year's dates yet.
And Cora, can't wait for September as well. It will be lots of fun and learning!
I’ll have to wait on that probably. I am ding OK with my trims now, but when the young ’uns arrive I will be over my head probably. I’ll keep watching your schedule!
That's interesting. I don't know much about horses but there are some down the road. I never see the owners.. they are in a pasture by an airport but I did notice that one of horses has a good chunk of his hoof missing and the others all have really messing looking hoofs. I kept thinking that can't be right .. I guess it's not!
You're right! It's not...
Thank you for your comments Tammy.
Pat
Loving catching up here, I'm behind on what you're up to. So my question is, is the Citric Acid working on White Line Disease? If so I'd pick so up, I've got one horse it's just not going away (and yes, it's shod, and no, I can't talk them into barefoot) and Koppertox isn't helping, mostly cause despite my best efforts, it's hard to keep it open to air.
So I just want to know how well that Citric Acid works. Thanks!
As always, love your posts. Love the Parelli pics, and tend to agree w/you on the eggbars, etc. If your horse is shod in that, I personally wouldn't ride him. I watch a girl locally who bought one of those, needs wedges, eggbars, etc. She weighs close to 300 lbs, and took this poor horse and is running some really sloppy barrels and poles. Makes me ILL to watch it. I know the horse hurts. Makes me want to scream. But you can't tell her, cause she's 20 and knows it all...
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