How to Trim Your Draft Horse Hooves

Draft horses require some good halter training, before you are going to have much success handling their feet. This is true of all horses but especially draft horses simply because they are like the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Where does he sit? Anywhere they want to unless of course they have had some good halter training. Do yourself a favor and spend a lot of time working with your horse so that you can move his feet any direction forward, reverse, left, right, up and down. Make sure your draft horse will readily give their foot to you when you run your hand down the leg and squeeze the tendon on the back of their cannon bone. If I have trouble getting them to lift their feet, I try squeezing the tendon harder, digging my fingernail in on the side of the cannon bone, squeezing their chestnut, lightly tapping the cannon bone with the wooden handle of my hoof knife. Don't go overboard, you do not want to get them upset you just want them to try, reward even a slight shift of weight.

Once you've got the hoof in your hand you're going need the right tools for working on draft horses. A good sharp set of nippers preferably 15 inches or longer will work, if your nippers are dull, you just are not going to get the job done. Because of the heavy weight of the horse, and some breed genetics, some workhorses have very flat feet, and don't seem to show much hoof growth, often because of a lot of wear, due to heavy weight and abrasive footing like sand and rocks, there usually is some flaring to the hoof, possibly cracking, simply clean up the foot by cutting away the flare to the hoof so it looks trim and tidy, this will prevent chipping and further cracking of the hoof.

When working on a draft horse, a good farrier hoof stand is a must in my opinion especially if you value your back at all. I use a hoof cradle on the top of my hoof stand to hold the foot for easy trimming. A standard farrier hoof rasp will work just fine on a draft horse, although some designed for work horses are available. Because draft horses with their weight put a lot of stress on their hooves, cracking of the hoof can get out a hand, so a good hoof dressing, can reduce moisture loss through the side of the hoof wall and reduce hoof cracking, remember to only apply hoof dressing to the side of the hoof wall never the bottom of the hoof wall or sole area, as the bottom of the foot allows moisture into the foot from the ground, and if you seal that off, no moisture can get into the hoof wall, other than that supplied by the blood stream at the coronary band.

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