Old horse trainer in Kentucky told me I was wasting time with my hoof angles

I had a talk with a 70 year old horse trainer down in Lexington last month who told me I was overthinking hoof angles. He said I spent too much time trying to get the perfect number on my gauge and not enough watching how the horse actually moved. At first I wanted to argue because I've been doing it my way for 8 years. But he watched me trim a mare and pointed out where I was taking off too much heel based on the toe wear pattern, not the gauge. It hit different because he had decades of experience and zero interest in fancy tools. Now I'm second guessing all the time I spent lining up angles by the book. Any other farriers here had an old timer call them out on something basic?

3 comments

3 Comments

susansingh1mo ago

Old timers love ruining a perfectly good system with common sense. Bet he trimmed his first horse with a pocketknife and a rock too. Did you at least get a free bourbon out of the deal?

kim_ramirez31mo ago

Chasing numbers, not movement" hits hard. I used to obsess over hoof angles with my digital level. Until a mare went lame on perfect measurements. That old timer saw it right. Now I spend more time watching the horse walk in the dirt than I do pulling out tools. Gauge stays in the truck as backup, not the main event.

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the_piper1mo ago

Bourbon would have made the whole lecture go down smoother, honestly. I've got a gauge that cost me 80 bucks and lives in my truck like it's the holy grail, but that old guy just glanced at the hoof wall and said "you're chasing numbers, not movement." Now I'm half tempted to throw the thing in the creek and just let the horse tell me what's wrong.