So that's a hand rasp huh?

My farrier took a vacation! Good for him. More farrier's need vacations. However, this means that he couldn't get to Rose until 7 weeks from her last trim. My imagination started running wild with how chipped her feet would become and weather or not I should I just have the barn farrier put a trim on her this time? No, I decided. Rick has done amazing work with her feet. Aside from the damage she caused from stall kicking, her feet have come a long way and held up great all through the dry summer and are very healthy right now. I don't want to risk something going awry with someone else throwing a trim on her. Typically, because of her recent kicking episodes her feet would start to chip at week 5 and they would get trimmed every 5-6 weeks. So, 7 weeks isn't that much of a stretch, but what was I going to do if they did start chipping, especially now that she is outside in a gravel paddock?

I bought a hand rasp!

These things work, but they are definitely designed by and for men. Is it very heavy and awkward. However, over the past few weeks I have figured out how to roughly use it, and have also developed some sort of technique. Rose has also gotten to work A LOT on her manners. I always appreciate Rick's patience with her, but know that I've had a taste of it for myself I think the man is probably a saint. Rose's manners are now much improved, and she is very politely picking up and holding her feet.

7 weeks from her last trim and her feet are looking pretty good. I think that she has even started self trimming a bit, due to her new gravel environment. Much to my relief she has not taken one "ouchy" step since moving into her paddock. All of the walking around and over tough surfaces seems to be doing her feet a lot of good. Maybe between my new found friend the rasp and her new environment, her trims can become more spread out? Only time will tell. But for now, I am looking forward to Rick's visit this week so that I can observe more closely how he wield's the rasp and hopefully improve my technique.

Left Hind: Her hind right were you can see the area that's chipped due to her stall kicking. I've just been filing off any chips that start sticking out in order to avoid a big chip coming out of the wall.

Left Front: This is what both front feet look like. They have little chips along the sides where her foot flares out a bit. These flares were horrible when I first got her, and have improved tremendously. Her feet were also very lopsided and 1 year later she's starting to have nicely balanced front feet.

On a side note, does anyone have a good method for cleaning up the coronary band area? She seems to hang onto some sort of cuticle material on the top 1" below the coronary band. I was always taught to leave the coronary band alone at all costs so that is what I tend to do, but is it okay to scrub off that cuticle material?. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.