Barefoot Children Ranch

Back at it today with this wild bunch, and they did SO GREAT getting used to their new dragon saddle pads from The Gritty Spur LLC🩷🤠

We love using it for our kids🤠

Kids who love don't ask, “Why do I need to know this?” when they use Horse Lover's Math. Their passion for horses motivates their learning and they want to know! https://www.horseloversmath.com

If more girls knew how much STEM there is in the real world of horses, there’d be more women in STEM https://www.horseloversmath.com

Take care of those pedicures!

Just 5mm external hoof tissue was removed on the cadaver foot.

When you look at the bottom of a hoof from the outside, it is very easy to underestimate just how close the living structures are.

In this specimen I have removed approximately 5 mm from the entire solar surface of the foot using a bandsaw — the wall, sole, frog and bars. Before doing this, I had already taken the wall down to the level of the sole.

What this slice demonstrates beautifully is that the thickness of horn beneath the horse is not uniform.

At the toe, there is still a reasonable amount of horn material remaining. We have not yet entered sensitive tissue. The dermis is still protected.

But look further back in the foot…

At the seat of corn region we have already entered the dermis, and through the frog region we have cut directly into the digital cushion. The red areas are living vascular tissue.

This is exactly why I become concerned when inexperienced trimmers are taught to aggressively ‘pare back sole’ searching for a supposed universal ‘hard sole plane’ or ‘mother nature’s trim line.’

The problem is that many people do not actually know when they have reached that point — or if such a constant even exists in the simplistic way it is often taught.

A horse’s sole is not just dead material waiting to be removed.

Sole thickness varies enormously between horses, between regions of the same foot, and between pathological and healthy feet. Some areas can tolerate more exfoliation than others. Other areas are incredibly close to sensitive structures.

If you continue removing horn trying to chase a theoretical plane, eventually you will hit living tissue.

That is why some horses end up with redness, blood staining, tenderness, frog sensitivity, bruising and post-trim soreness.

This image is a reminder that beneath only a few millimetres of horn lies a highly specialised living organ filled with blood vessels, nerves, connective tissue and shock-absorbing structures.

❤️ Kids aren’t ‘behind’ when we stop comparing them.

When we focus on their unique path — where they are and where they’re headed — we can celebrate their real progress.

Thank you for this is here

A GIANT THANK YOU to the Colonial Jewelry & Pawn and the American Legion, Inverness, Fl for the kids’ survival skills class donation!

🩷Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there🩷