Redtail Equine Services

10/31/2026

The lovely old lady was due for front shoes yesterday. Her feet have come a long way since the summer when she was scheduled to be euthanized.

Is she 100% sound, no, but she’s got a whole host of physical issues like arthritis (in probably all her joints), and general wear and tear.

However, since getting her feet headed in a better direction, her soundness has steadily improved and her whole demeanor is happier and lighter.

I ended up going with EasyCare Inc. Protective Hoofwear 3D HoofCare Race shoes. Her foot shape has changed significantly and when I tried the Races on her, she seemed to like them a lot.

A video came up the other day where Robbie Miller was demonstrating using his gauge to determine medio-lateral balance. I’ve had the tool for awhile now and I’ll confess I was too dumb to figure it out. So after watching the video, I thought I’d put it to use! Turns out when I hold it the right way it’s super helpful, especially on horses like this mare who’ve got extremely twisty legs and offset hoof capsules and on and on.

With all the mud, everyone’s feet have been much softer than usual and the shod horses are appreciating a little more cushion. With that in mind, I wanted to use Derek Poupard’s air inserts as well as a low wedge.

In the past, I’ve used a higher degree wedge on the right front and a lower degree on the left front. This time around, she seemed way happier with a 1° on both fronts.

Whenever I use an air insert along with a wedge insert, I always attach the wedge to the shoe first. Then I glue the air insert over the wedge. The horses like this setup, as it allows the cushioned air insert to be the surface against their feet. A word of caution when doing this is to make absolutely certain you don’t use too much DIM. Obviously the DIM will spread out a bit, and since the sole won’t be visible to us, we might not see if the excess DIM has spread toward the toe. The issue with that is if you’ve got a horse who doesn’t like a lot of sole pressure around p3, you’ll have inadvertently added sole pressure from the excess DIM.

I always use Strahlfoili in the collateral grooves and central sulcus to help keep any thrush at bay, since mud and shoes are a great thrush breeding ground. It works! Even in the mud, the horses aren’t getting thrushy. I also use it to gap-fill any areas that would cause the shoe to not fit flat against the foot. You basically pack it in like putty and you’ll find that it’s still there at the next shoeing.

I used HoofLox acrylic in natural. No matter what acrylic I use to glue the shoe on, I always seal it with a thin layer of superglue. In the drier seasons I don’t generally coat the whole hoof, but right now I’ve been using it like it’s going out of style.

10/29/2026

Some feet for those of you prone to having foot fe**shes

*please note that when taking foot fe**sh photos the camera is not always held at the appropriate angles

10/26/2026

I’ve been experimenting with the EasyCare Inc. Protective Hoofwear 3D HoofCare Race Light shoes.

I’d already put them on a few horses and they definitely liked them. But I wanted to try them on a horse who’s always had really challenging feet. Over the years I’ve found she really likes the mechanics of the Roller shoe (on all 4 feet actually). Her overall foot health has improved immensely, however I’m wanting to get the caudal part of the feet improved.

I used the Race Light front pattern on her front feet, and ground in some sole relief, as well as a rolled toe. Something exciting with her fronts is that I was able to shoe her without needing a wedge of any kind. So that tells me that the back of the feet are actually improving. Since we’ve been under 6” - 9” of mud and standing water for the last month, I superglued mesh into the shoes and used a pour in pad.

She’s in the Race Light hind pattern on her hind feet with a more strongly rolled toe. Of course I used a liberal coating of Strahlfoili hoof clay and Derek Poupard’s 3° half mesh inserts. This is down a degree from her previous shoeing cycles. So that was also very encouraging.

All four feet were finished with HoofLox acrylic in natural, HoofLox superglue and activator spray.

The horse seemed immediately comfortable in her shoes and has consistently been standing more correctly with a leg at each corner of her body. I’m so excited to see how she works in these shoes, but I suppose that’ll have to wait till it’s a bit less like Waterworld.

10/13/2026

10/08/2026

Check out this blog EasyCare Inc. Protective Hoofwear shared!

10/08/2026

I had the amazing experience of getting to work with and trim some donkeys the other day. Their owner called me asking if I’d be willing to help her out with her donkeys’ hoof care. I said absolutely yes.

These are such cool creatures! I’ve been around donkeys plenty, but never worked with them in this fashion. Every year I have the honor of attending Brent Graef’s young horse handling class. As soon as I got into the pen with the donkeys, I realized I was running through Brent’s class in my head.

It’s human nature to be in a hurry and have our brains scanning a time period anywhere from 20 years ago to 72 hours in the future. We have goals and plans and any and all of our various problems (and successes) can come waltzing in unbidden. I’ve been fortunate to have worked in so many aspects of the horse world, and I’m seeing that hoof care isn’t exempt. I purposely don’t have a ton of clients. I like to take my time with the horses and the process, and frankly my body wouldn’t hold up to doing tens of horses every day. This is definitely a self-afforded luxury and I recognize that and was intentional about it, because I also know that it allows me time.

Time is the key word because there will be equines that come along who simply can’t do something for whatever reason(s). These are the ones you can’t rush. (The caveats here are the horses who will be in a world of trouble - physical, mental, emergency cases, etc - with whom time is of the essence and you’ll do more damage than good if you wait). However, foot care isn’t about just the feet. It’s everything. Horses, all animals, and people are remarkable because of how interconnected our whole systems are; everything affects everything.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized these animals’ self awareness and self preservation instincts are right there on the surface; they have a huge sense of justice. I think this is what’s behind the assumption that donkeys are stubborn, mean, uncooperative, dangerous, etc. It wouldn’t take long at all to get a donkey quite indignant and then the behavior (of both humans and animals) would immediately deteriorate. I try my best to be present for all the animals I’m working with, but it really struck home how donkeys absolutely REQUIRE that from the human.

Two of them, Coco and Puff, had been BLM burros. Coco was rounded up as a weanling but Puff had already experienced a few years of life being feral. The other two, George and Jazzy, were mini donkeys and had lived their entire lives around humans. Each animal had an entirely different personality and way of being.

George has a history of suspected laminitis, so I said we’d get to his feet first. He came in quite footsore in both fronts. He’d had an abscess come out the coronet band on his left front. After his trim, he marched away so happy and comfortable.

Jazzy said no way would I be trimming his feet, but we did some really good work on letting him see that I wasn’t going to take his feet away and that I’d help him think through things and help him feel more balanced in his body. See, it’s about the thought process there; if I’d become upset that he wasn’t keen on my handling his feet, I’d have just been another human along the way who got impatient and egotistical. So instead I told Jazzy and his owner that the work I was doing was setting him up for success for next time.

Coco initially said oh hell no, but after we’d worked together for a bit, she decided it wasn’t such a bad deal after all. She went from thinking that kicking me in the face might be necessary, to letting me handle all four feet and move them around and place them in different spots.

Their owner had said Puff might be the hardest to do since she doesn’t care much for people, having never really warmed up in the couple of years since she’d been brought off the BLM - interestingly, Puff was the only one not adopted out of her group. That jenny was amazing! While she was fully prepared to defend herself, she came around the fastest of the four. It made me see for the millionth time that working slowly will get the fastest results.

I’ve already informed myself that I will not become a crazy donkey lady, but that might be tough 🤣😂

09/29/2026

09/24/2026