Learned a hard lesson about hoof angles at a clinic in Kentucky

I went to a clinic in Lexington last spring and figured I had the basics down after 8 years of shoeing. The clinician watched me trim a horse and said my angles were off by almost 4 degrees on the front feet. I had been reading the hairline wrong and compensating with the shoe, which made the horse land weird. He spent 20 minutes showing me how to feel for the correct alignment with my hands instead of just my eyes. That one session made me go back and redo a bunch of horses I had shod in the previous months. Has anyone else had a mentor point out a simple mistake that totally changed their approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

caseys301mo ago

I read something similar from a farrier out of Oklahoma who said most compensation issues start in the hoof because people trust their eyes too much. He had a saying about how your hands will never lie to you like your eyes can. That clinic story really shows how small angle changes can mess up the whole way a horse moves.

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thomas2911mo ago

That Oklahoma farrier's saying about hands vs eyes really sticks. I've seen people misjudge angles by just a degree or two and it throws off the whole stride. Your hands pick up what your eyes miss every time.

the_ben13d ago

That's why I've started paying more attention to how the horse tracks up in soft ground versus hard. A degree off in the toe angle shows up way faster when the hoof sinks unevenly into sand.