the Sage By Nature blog

I now have yet another apology that I owe to Sage.

For several months now, her hooves have been looking, well, a little odd. I was having such a time with self-doubt, though, that I kept my questions to myself until very late. Too late for my horse’s comfort.

You see, my farrier had trained with Pete Ramey, and he was now an expert, more than me with my scattered bits and pieces of knowledge about ulcers, boarding, and yes, just a little about hooves. Who was I to question a trained farrier who went to school for it and then went along side by side learning with Pete Ramey? Besides, I liked him as a person, and knew he meant well.

But the way her feet looked kept gnawing at me. They looked too long (it was the toe length) and her heels seemed too low. On top of that, she had a build up of sole at the toe that I had never seen on her before. I went back to Pete Ramey’s site and tried to find a picture – any picture - that looked like her hooves at all. I found nothing. So Pete certainly was not promoting hooves that looked like Sage’s hooves.

Then I looked on other natural trimming sites. No hoof look-alikes. Nothing. Nada.

So I finally asked my farrier about it, and his explanation made sense until I really thought about it. He said that the toe callous would wear off. However, she seemed to have built it up over the summer – the time when she was actually being ridden somewhat and had a lot more movement than this winter.

I was very confused, and not too sure what to do about it. Besides, I did not want to switch farriers again. I must be overreacting, I told myself. I am trying to know too much about all this stuff, and I am questioning everything. Besides, she is still standing and walking, I told myself, no obvious lameness.

Then the deafness turned to a roar.

I say several times on my website “trust your gut” and things like “question the experts”. Yet, I did not heed my own advice.

In early February Sage received a trim which made her so sore that she looked like she was walking on hot coals with every step she took on concrete. I was mortified for her pain. My farrier had no explanation, and he said he would come out and look at her but I still do not know if he ever did. He gave me no feedback.

So I began my search for a natural trimmer and turned to The Horse’s Hoof, scrolling through their Trimmer’s List. There was somebody north of me, so I contacted her and we decided to let Sage settle and give her a chance to be less painful prior to her next trimmer. It took almost a full 6 weeks for her to be able to walk and stand on concrete.

The new trimmer, Lori, noticed immediately that yes, her toes were too long. Among other things, she also lowered Sage’s inside heels in the back and told me about The Hoof Mechanic. Sage was able to walk away from the trim with kind of a surprised look on her face instead of one of pain, a look I can only attribute to her testing out her new way of walking. Her hips swung more freely than I had ever seen them swing. I was cautiously optimistic at this point, but how would she feel and walk tomorrow?

I knew almost instantly upon seeing her the next day that she was fine, more than fine. She did not have that pained expression that she usually wore upon her lovely face, and she was into affectionately nibbling on my sleeves and jacket.

Then I walked her out onto the concrete.

Same surprised expression came back onto her face, but no look of pain. things were looking good. But did she feel good enough to run around?

I turned Sage into the arena, and presto, she turned into a different horse, full of vim and vigor and buck. Out on the grass she was the same, tail in the air, prancing around, energizing all the other horses in their turnouts with her jubilation. Someone said that they had never seen her act like that. Did I increase her grain? No, she doesn’t get any grain.

I just about cried with relief. A big weight had just been lifted off of my shoulders, but more importantly a lot of pain had been lifted off of my horse. I have no idea how many months this horse had been sore from the way her feet had been being trimmed. I do not think she has ever reacted to a trim like this, and the hip action is definitely something different.

So, the moral for me (again) is to trust my gut. Will I ever truly learn this lesson?

Hopefully for Sage, bless her big heart, I have done just that.