Mini Hooves

[WashingtonCowgirl]

I've always heard that mini hooves are so different from big horse hooves. How? Can you post pictures of healthy mini hooves? From a big horse standpoint, there are some issues I see with Spankys hooves (especially with the minimal if any hoof care he's had the past year) but I'm not sure if they would be considered normal in minis.

 

[chandab]

I've heard that too, but minis are still horses, and require the same hoof care and balance that full-size do. My guess is that many farriers have a problem getting down to the mini's level (or just flat out don't want to get down to their level), so therefore have problems getting the job done right.

When I initially called to hire my current farrier, his wife told me he didn't do minis, so I only had him come out and do the saddle horses, and actually that is all he did for 2-3 appointments, before I finally asked him directly if he would work on minis, as I had a couple with special needs (I can do a decent trim for normal hooves, but these special needs horses were in need of a professional). He said of course he does and that started his "standing on his head" work every 4 weeks; and he does beautiful work.

 

[WashingtonCowgirl]

This is what I picture when I think of a healthy hoof

http://naturalhoofcare.info/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/sole.26104240.jpg

Spanky has oval shaped feet and a very little frog (thin and short) I'm hauling him sometimes soon to a barefoot trimmer who has done worked with all sizes of horses, and she is going to give him an evaluation and trim, a follow up then refer me to someone else as she isn't taking new clients right now. Eventually I'd like to trim him myself, but we will see. When I go out tomorrow I'll get some pictures, granted they will show him with TONS of extra hoof, but you can see what I mean

 

[MindyLee]

Here's some before and after trim pics of some of my clients horses hoofs. Also 2 examples of club foot correction and angles.

The last 2 pics is from a foundered lame mini who lived on cement and had rock hard feet. I cleaned them up a lil, but had her put on wet muddy ground for 2 weeks to finish and properly correct her feet. As you can see, she has very high heels and her sole was thick and hard. A sole should NEVER be longer then the hoof wall. This mare was in a lot of pain and off balanced becauce of uneducated owners leaving her on cement and feeding her 2nd cutting alfalfa and 2 scoops a 12% sweet mix.

 

[Debby - LB]

Very good advice all!! MindyLee / Michelle this is excellent visual information thank you!

 

[wingnut]

MindyLee, those are great examples! Thanks for sharing!

For some reason, I've been truly blessed with the equine professionals I've found to work on my horses. Our farrier and his wife are two really fabulous people. When they met, she was raising, breeding and showing minis locally. I don't know if he was a farrier before or after he met her. He does all the work and then she confirms whether anything additional is needed or not (i.e., "take a little bit more off that inside edge"). They make a great team and my horses hooves look great. They are a vital link to helping me understand what's going on with my horses because they have educated me a great deal along the way. They've helped me to understand that a mini horse hoof should be treated the same as a full size horse.

 

[disneyhorse]

I've gone through a lot of farriers to find good ones... You just can't settle for anything. The most expensive isn't always the best... I used a fancy-schmancy warm blood/jumper farrier once who could custom make shoes and competed and won all the time at farrier events... He charged $5o a trim and did a great job the first time or two but eventually he would say "let's get the minis over with here so I can focus on the Andalusians shoes"... Well minis deserve the same time and care as a big horse.

One of the biggest problems is that minis don't get enough heel taken off each time. Since they don't weigh a lot or do a lot of weight bearing exercise, they don't pancake their feet out naturally. Draft horses of course have the opposite problem due to excessive size! So the farrier needs to be mindful to keep the heel at an appropriate length and keep it wide and open.

 

[WashingtonCowgirl]

Thank you for all this info and pictures!

I found that this woman gives clinics, so I might attend one after I'm a little more knowledgeable. Its just so hard to figure out which way is up, as there iis so much information out there and half the time it seems like it contradicts itself

I've gone through a lot of farriers to find good ones... You just can't settle for anything. The most expensive isn't always the best..

My last barefoot trimmer (who retired, sadly as she was AWESOME) only charge $10 for the big horses. Not sure what she charged for minis, I know she had some clients with them but I didn't have any at the time

 

[Sandee]

My mare has one back foot that turns out. This happened, I think, when she sick as a baby and lost a lot of muscle in that leg. I have had at least 3 farriers tell me that at 7 she is too old to fix it. ( We had her worked on as a baby and it never took). However, my trainer has had her for three weeks and just smiled at me and said that I've had the wrong farrier nd that his farrier CAN fix her. I swear that this trainer can almost work miracles.

 

[Mini Hoof Trimmer]

With regard to hoof care for the miniature horse, the most common problems I see are associated with neglect. Here are just two recent cases that I have documented. Also, I see a lot of minis with problems resulting from founder and laminitis. My husband is a certified farrier and I specialize in trimming miniature horses, here in Marion County Florida. The most important thing about "mini hooves" is having them trimmed correctly on a regular schedule to keep them flat, level, and balanced to their conformation. The diagrams in the above post are very important since the hoof must be trimmed to the horse's conformation (bone structure)

 

[Mini Hoof Trimmer]

Here is another case showing so much neglect. This mini could no longer walk and was "dumped" in the middle of the night in the driveway of a local barn. She was trimmed laying down on the ground, unable to get up. After the trim she was walking again and in a few days RUNNING around. It costs only about 50 cents per day to get this mini's feet trimmed.

 

[Jill]

I don't think they are different.

I think that they are sometimes trimmed too steeply, and that makes them look different. I also think that a lot of farriers do not want to do minis (2 big reasons: hurts their backs but also a lot of mini owners have not properly trained their horses and they are obnoxious). Additionally, a lot of "mini people" are not horse people. They really do not know how to maintain or treat a horse.

When I read the title of this topic, I thought it might be about a member I haven't seen on here in awhile with that same name.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

A hoof is a hoof. The biggest difference could be that miniatures are not heavy enough and if they have a tendency to grow an upright hoof, then it's harder to get a good angle. But if they have a tendency to a flatter hoof, it's easier to get a good angle than a heavy horse.

One of mine has a terrible tendency to grow an upright hoof. I try to keep him on a 5 week schedule or he looks like he's walking on tin cans. Very hard to get a good angle on an upright hoof if it goes too long.

 

[Littlegoesalongway]

Here are pics of my 10yr old gelding's feet (he was 1 week away from a trim in these pics). Vet & farrier say he's got awesome feet for a mini - they're big (too big for Build-A-Bear shoes), with good concavity and a nice high coffin bone. They certainly aren't upright....maybe it's just genetics or the fact he's had routine life-long trims and he gets worked regularly (except in winter). I'm not sure. Only issue we're working on is a more consistant heel-first landing with his front feet which should hopefully help build some more frog mass & an even healthier, rock-crushing foot.

Front Foot



Back Foot

 

[R3]

What you would expect to see in an ideal mini hoof should be exactly the same thing you would expect to see in any other breed of horse. The principals are the same. The hoof wall should be parallel with an
imaginary line drawn through the middle of the long and short pastern bones. (You can see that illustrated in one of the drawings on this topic)

The problem is that each horse, and even each breed, can have conformation issues, hoof growth characteristics, or physical wear that, if left uncorrected, can cause the hoof to grow in ways that upset the
alignment. As was already stated, draft horses tend to have very flat, splayed out, feet because of their heavy weight. Minis tend to have more upright hooves (both when looked at from the side and when looked at from the front) than most ‘big’ horses, because of their light weight.

So, the challenge is to find a farrier or hoof trimmer that looks at the individual animal and trims it the way IT needs to be trimmed. On some horses, you may take off a lot of toe and very little heel, on others; you may only need to trim heel, and no toe. It depends on how the hoof grows, and on how the hoof is being worn off.

In my area, (SW Oklahoma) there is a very popular farrier. He swears by never taking any heel off, as his Grandaddy said you didn’t need to. Most of his business is Quarter Horses, and on most of them, it is true,
and the horses look great. But, the problem is that he does the ‘same’ trim on all horse. So, when he works on ‘other’ horses, ones that tend to grow more heel, he doesn’t take enough off, so their heels keep
getting longer and their feet get too upright. I have seen him do it on some big horses, and on lots of minis.

From my experience, I would say that all the photos currently posted on this topic, (at least the ones that show a side view), have more heel than is ideal. The ones that had been neglected still look like they have quite a way to go before their heels are back at the correct length. It will take a few more trims before they can be brought back to ‘ideal’.

Even Littlegoesalongway’s horse has some heel issues. And ,I don’t mean to ‘pick’ on her gelding, as his feet are pretty good, he is obviously well cared for, and he is getting close to being ready for another trim.
But, from what I can see, from the side view particularly, even his heels seem too long.

Because of that, where his heel touchs the ground is quite a bit forward of the back of his foot. I would say he has ‘under-run heels’, because the back of the heel is too far forward, and the angle at the back of the hoof is more slanted than the angle at the front. But, because he has ‘good’ feet, his heels have not collapsed. (Many horses with under-run heels also have the back quarters of their feet collapse under from the sides, rather than having a healthy, more vertical alignment, as her gelding does).

I think this article does a good job of explaining, and illustrating, what ‘underrun’ heels are:

http://dressagewannabes.blogspot.com/2011/06/hoof-pathology-underrun-heels.html


I have trimmed a lot of minis, but I am not a certified farrier or hoof care specialist, so these are just my observations.