Gilly's Barefoot Trim

Gilly says, What's up??? Is it time for my pedicure again? Well, OK but I will only be good if you give me a couple of dog cookies!!"

Gilly gets his feet trimmed by Mike Stevens a man I went to high school with. He has gone to school and learned the art of the barefoot or Mustang trim. Gilly has never had shoes on and never will as long as I own him. Why? Well, why would he as long as his feet look like this. Since starting this trim almost two years ago; Gilly's foot has gone from a pretty flat foot to one that is concave with thick walls and a thick sole. His feet are tough and hard! They will get harder and so will the frog which has a small piece missing in this picture. (front hoof pictured)

Nice beautiful hind feet too. Gilly had some flare to his from feet but that is almost gone now and his feet are growing the way they would if he was in the wild. Now since his feet aren't flat like they used to be there is no reason why he can't walk on rocks like a horse with shoes on.

Left front foot trimmed, standing on hard top road.

Right front foot. His hoof is much shorter than it was when we first started too and the heels have become much shorter. Also because of this trim his foot has gotten wider; if he were wearing shoes he would probably wear a size 2. Yes, he has a very large foot but it's a beautiful good solid foot.

Here is a shot of both front feet. Lead rope is in the picture because he kept swinging it around and won't be still for me!

Hind feet; should have turned him so they weren't in the shade. Pokey had his feet trimmed too but I didn't get any pictures of him. He doesn't want to stand still like Gilly does and wants to snort and jerk his head to show his displeasure......bugger!

These are actual wild horse feet pictures taken from a book by Jaime Jackson; the wild horse died in captivity. They preserved the feet to better study the hooves of a wild horse. These hooves are worn like this from the horse traveling miles and miles everyday over rough hard stony ground. Look at the roll over on the edges of the feet. Look at the difference in the frog of the wild hoof and Gilly's; he's still got a ways to go, but we are getting there!!