welcome to trimming horse homes for beginners my name is Becky and I'm so happy you're interested in learning how to trim horse hooves this video is for people who are learning to be farriers or do-it-yourselfers like me when I was a beginner I had lots of questions what are all the parts of a hoof what tools do I need how do I know where to trim and more importantly where not to trim how do I know if I did it right this is the video I wish I had when I was a hoof trimming beginner I'll be guiding you every step of the way from being a total beginner to being able to trim horse hooves for yourself or others let's get started here here's the bottom of a hoof I'm going to show you the different parts of it right here is the heel it's the back of the heel and this part is soft there's no hoof wall on here it's just flesh and it's usually kind of gray in color and this you know this will hurt the horse if you cut it it's a problem you have to take care of it if it steps on a nail and it punctures this area right here it's soft tissue you know it bleeds and it hurts the hoof just so you know that that's the heel it can bruise and you know whatever you can do to soft flesh that can get the same thing then it goes down to this 20 piece in the middle which looks like you know a triangle that's the Frog and that's kind of rubbery feeling I mean when it's dried out and it hasn't been trimmed and taken well care of you can't really tell but if you were to trim it up it's rubbery kind of spongy rubbery so that part also if you go deep enough it can hurt the horse and he will limp if he steps on a nail or whatever or you cut it too short so and then after that this part here in the middle all this area through here is the sole again it has live tissue once you reach a certain point so the dead tissue on top and you can carve that away with your knife when you're giving your horse a trim you looked at you can tell it's dead because it'll be kind of chalky and flaky and it'll it'll come off pretty easy and then once you get low you know you get deep enough you get all that dead part off it'll start feeling rubbery as well you definitely want to stop there because that will bleed if you take too much of the dead soul off so you have to be careful there's a limit you can take it off but not too much and then this area here is the hoof wall and this is the part that grows out like your fingernail it gets longer and longer and longer and longer this is the part we will be trimming with the nippers and then filing with the file this is the important part that you want to get balanced and even this is the back hoof of my horse when you pick up your horse's hoof it'll probably look similar to this they've already cleaned out some of the sole here you can tell it's the white part so you look at this hoof and you're like wow it looks like a mess what you're hoping to have it end up looking like is this hoof over here so you kind of get a little intimidated because you have to bring this horse over to what this hoof looks like so you might not you know you're a little nervous at first you don't know what to trim and where to trim so I'm gonna point it out to you so you can tell so this is probably similar to what your horse's hoof will look like as you can tell these heels are uneven right here's the heel this is the inside of the hole it's shorter they draw a line straight across there it's shorter than this hoof on the outside the heel on the outside so you want to trim both of those because what you're trying to do is get a balanced symmetrical hoof in the end at least as close as you can get so what you need to do is trim these heels back here to the beginning of the Frog so you don't want to go right to this line right here which is the absolute back I always come forward a bit so you know let's just say quarter inch or so back to here and then when you do that on both sides now here's the line you wouldn't want to go farther than that that is the back of the heel so you don't want to take it that far forward about a quarter inch and then you can trim all this which looks like so much off but once you do that just that is gonna make the hoof more symmetrical because the heels will be even also if you look right here where I've trimmed you can see this line not where I trimmed where I've cleaned out the sole you can see this line that goes all the way around and that's where the hoof wall which is this part which is what you're gonna be trimming off is the excess hoof wall you can see where the hoof wall joins the sole and this is the sole of the foot so this sole of the foot once you dig it out far enough it has feeling in it it can bleed and it can hurt the horse if you go too far this hoof wall right here the part you're gonna trim off has absolutely no feeling in it whatsoever so that's why you can nail a shoe to a horse because you're nailing it through the hoof wall so you don't have to worry about trimming the hoof wall it won't hurt the horse at all the trick and the key is where to stop trimming how far do you you know go how much do you trim off so your guide is gonna be after you clean off the sole and you don't want to go too deep because like I said that'll bleed and it'll also make your horse limp it won't walk very well so you want to trim that out so it's white get all the chalky part off at first it comes off pretty easy it comes off in layers and it's kind of chalky and you can tell it's it's just dead and it comes off easy so go ahead and clean that all out and really once you start seeing the line take your hoof knife Andrew clean out this line right here and you're just doing that so you have a clear guide of where to cut that hoof wall okay so once that's done you're gonna take your nippers and the only part where you're not gonna have your line is back at the heels so that's why I described where to cut the heels so you want to find the very back part and then you want to come forward if you're a little too nervous a quarter-inch isn't enough you can come a little farther forward and also if you're afraid to do it too far with the nipples because you're not sure of yourself just you know nip some of it off and then you can use your file to do the rest that's what I did in the beginning because I just wasn't confident enough to really start chomping away with the nippers because I didn't want to hurt my horse so this is the only part where you're not really gonna have you know your line as your guide so you know nip your heels but make sure they're even on both sides when you go across and I mean if you need to get a ruler and lay it across there to make sure they're even just go ahead and do it just take your time and just try to get it as even as possible so then you're gonna take your nippers and you're gonna nip right along this line and once again if you're nervous don't get great on the line you know you can back off the line just a bit and leave a little bit and then you can do the rest with the file in fact I would suggest that in the first you know few trimmings just go ahead and leave a little extra and you can file it bit by bit to get close to where you need it that way you won't make a huge mistake like you could with the nippers and once you do that it's it's done this hook you can see right here it doesn't need any trimmed off there there's no hoof wall extra right there so what you're gonna do is trim you know this area you're gonna stop you're not gonna trim that at all and then you're gonna trim the heel so in the end it'll all be even and this will just flow right into the trimmed part and right into the trimmed heel if you look at this foot - this hoof wall it does look similar to this picture here if this were all gone and you were just looking at the line it ends up looking similar to this fall that's basically what you're gonna aim for make sure your nippers are sharp and this horse here are you know I left a lot of hoof on it so you could see what a hoof looks like that really needs a trim now this is the front hoof that I have already trimmed and what I'm trying to show you here is how you hold the hoof up and you look down the hoof with the hoof hanging nicely now what you want is this to be nice and even across here because that's what you're trying to get is a nice balanced tuff you don't want this side really long out to here maybe you know and then this side short so it's crooked at an angle because then your horse will be you know standing at an angle and that affects the bones going all the way up through the leg and it also continues on up the leg through the shoulder and affects the back so you don't want your horse to have back problems and also you know you want to try to get the hoof landing on the ground as flat as possible you want the whole hoof to hit the ground at the same time you don't want the hoof to land on this outside part first because that definitely gives strain and stress up through the legs and it affects all that and if you read a pole can you find out how all this hoof and leg is designed it's just magnificent how all the little parts work together here's another shot of the same thing now you know it's not absolutely perfect now if I was to criticize my own work I would say I could probably take a tiny bit more off right here if I were to make this perfectly perfectly balanced this is a side shot of how you would hold that hoof when you were citing it just from you know back a couple feet so you can really say you hold the hoof and you want to hold it this is the pastern you want to hold it be behind that let the hoof just hang in a natural position and you can you know raise this a little bit or lower it a little bit so you can get a shot of straight down the hall from the heel to the hoto a back off is a little pointy err than a front-hall just so you know the difference when you pick them up because you will you will notice the difference the back hoof is a little pointy er a front hoof is more of a kind of a perfect circle so just so you know that and you know you don't try to file that flat or file that off you know they dig in with this little pointy part usually and I just follow this line like I was telling you when I trim and that's basically the natural shape of your horse's foot so whatever that is you know and in the back it will make it a little more pointy now that we've gone over all the parts of the hooves let's talk about the tools we'll be using today I will be showing you the tools you'll need to give your horse a basic hoof trim I have a pair of nippers here I actually have two here I just want to show you these are like heavier they come in different I guess weights the metal they have different color handles but what these are like gigantic toenail clippers it's the part you will snip snip snip around the hoof and trim the hoof way so these are called hoof nips and you'll need to buy a good pair of hoof nips second is the big file and after you trim the hoof with the hoof nippers you use the file you know just like your fingernail file after you clip them you want to just kind of even it off and make it look nice and smooth that's what you use the big file for it has a rough side and then it has a fine side I basically just use the roughest side when I'm doing the horse's feet this is a hoof pick it's a very basic grooming tool most people that have a horse already have a hoof pick but in case you don't know this is what you clean the horse's hoof with before you use your nippers and your file and then this is called a paring knife it is a tool that you need to maybe pair down the horses frog a little bit or maybe the soul but I'll show you how you use all these tools in just a second last but not least is this really nice tool called the hoof Jack and it has magnets on it and what makes it nice is you can hook your tools on the magnets because they stick right on there and then the best part about the tool is and the whole purpose of the tool is the horse can just rest its foot on here and it doesn't have to hold its foot on and it just makes it very comfortable for the horse and it also helps me because I don't have to hold the horse's foot up while I work so it's a really really handy tool and I just love the hoof jack it really makes it easy to trim the beat yourself if you're a homesteader and you want to do this chore on your own without calling a farrier now that we've gone over the parts of the homes we've discussed the tools we'll be using let's go actually trem aha this is Minnie she's a 22 year old standard bride and I will be showing you how to do a hoof trim on her and she's a good girl she's nice and calm I'm cleaning the dirt and the debris out of her hoof with the hoof pick it's along the Frog like I explained earlier the hoof pick is pointy so it digs it out pretty easy although the stuff is packed in there tightly because the horse is heavy and as it's walking it packs it down in there so just go ahead and just dig that out so you can see what you're doing and then the next tool you use is the knight and this helps you get it cleaner because in order to trim the hook you have to be able to see and the hoof of all horses under here is white so you want to get it down to the white part so I just start cleaning like this and you don't want to take too much off but you want to get it down to the white part I'm taking off the dead sole it takes a little work to get her going at first because it is dry but as you can see it's kind of flaky and chalky looking at places so it's a little work once again part of your tools are sharp you just keep at it and it comes off easy okay I'm gonna point out the different parts of the hoof this is the wheel right here and then it's like part of the Frog that goes down like a piece of pie or a piece of pizza this is like a rubbery piece of the hook and that's how it's supposed to be is rubbery so when you use the hoof pick you're cleaning out a long side of the Frog and you're getting all the dirt because there's like little groove on both sides of the Frog and then with the knife I'm cleaning the sole and the dead soul is what actually what you're pairing off there and it's kind of chalky so you get that off so you can see good and usually I like to take this part of the hoof is the horseshoe part that looks like the horseshoe part I you want to try to bring the heel back to the heel so you want to cut it back there to there and I'll show you that now because the next 200 views are the nippers damn'd mini this hump isn't very long let me explain I'm just gonna be trimming to the edge of the clean white part that I just paired off with this knife that's kind of the line you go by that's why you clean it you don't want to go too far you don't want to go past the line you want to go just to the white part so you know you don't want to go too far otherwise it's like clipping your fingernail too short it won't kill you but it definitely hurts you always start right here on the edge all right I'm starting to trim and I'm trimming off just to the white line at first you want to just trim a small amount so you don't go too far you can always take a little more with your nipper or later on with your file so don't just start too deep and go too far because then you know you can't put it back once it's on there so just take your time and do a little each each pass and you do the toe first and then you get that piece off and then you go back and you look at the heels and then you trim the heel back to where it should be as you can see this is like the end of your fingernail when you clip your fingernail it's kind of the same idea it just comes on right there now right now I am taking the heels back to be even with the back of the Frog always take into consideration that every horse is a little different this mirrors heels don't go back as far as my pony's heels do so you just want to look at each hoof individually and then take the hoof heels back to the back of the Frog and the hoof is just about even with the Frog so when it steps on the ground all those parts touch the Frog and the hoof wall you don't want it crooked so a horse is walking crooked you want it flat on the ground so it has to be balanced one way to look at that if you're a beginner is to grab the horse's leg above this fall hold it so the hoof is hanging and then look down and that'll show you how level that is or balanced you might want to call see this is a little jagged and crooked and it's just like filing your fingernails nice after you clip them with the Clippers basically that's what we're doing right now just to make it look nice and as you can see in the end it's a nice round healthy foot you don't want cracks on your horse's feet okay we've just finished the front feet now we're gonna come back here and do the back feet and I'll show you how to do them too it's basically the same although obviously they're a little different because the way they rest on the hoof Jack once again I'm cleaning out this frog and now I'm starting to pair the sole you can trim only two feet at a time just remember it's two front feet or two back feet in the beginning I was slow and the horse got impatient so I would do two front feet one day and the two back feet the next day and that worked out nicely because then the horse would stand there in the beginning when I was slow I'd take too long and the horse wouldn't want to stand any longer and she'd start to be fidgety and whatnot so I would just have to do two front feet one day and two back beat the next till I got a little faster and knew what I was doing better and then I could do all four feet in one day hold up behind the knee and let the foot hang move the stuff out of the way and look down that hoof and see if it's balanced because that's the way you look down the back look round okay you're ready to go out and do it yourself happy homesteading bye-bye