A twisted hoof wall had me chasing shadows for 3 hours

I had a client's horse in Modesto last week that was dead lame on the front right. I spent a good 2 hours checking for abscesses, hot nails, even a possible coffin bone fracture. Turns out a tiny piece of gravel got wedged up under a flared quarter that I kept overlooking because it looked like just dry wall. Next time I'm going straight for a thorough hoof knife scrape before pulling out the testers. Anybody else waste time on the wrong suspect before?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley832mo ago

Man that's exactly the kind of thing that'll drive you nuts. I've had it happen more than once where I'm poking and prodding for a quarter crack or something deep and it's just a pebble or a bit of a flared wall catching something. Now I always start with a good clean scrape of the whole foot especially the quarters and bars before I even think about testers. If you get in there with a knife and really work the loose stuff you'll see stuff that blends right in otherwise. Saved me at least a few hours of chasing nothing.

william_taylor2mo ago

Honestly, a buddy of mine spent a whole afternoon pulling shoes on a sound horse once.

black.amy22d ago

Can't stand wasting time on a sound horse like that... had a farrier friend who'd always start with a hoof tester on the same spot every time, even on a clean foot. Drove me crazy watching him poke at nothing for twenty minutes. A good scrape and a look first could've saved him that whole ordeal.