Happy Feet Farrier service Travis Dutton Master Farrier -VMFA

04/09/2026

last video,.pickle really putting the pressure on trav trying to pull back in a crucial part of the filling and rebuild on the 2nd foot.

04/09/2026

just a little peak into what he is like, but this is still good compared to when he wasn't on hippo health , its quite hard to describe how bad he was , hell on wheels was what I said at the time and it was pretty accurate , imagine him being ultra stroppy and pushing through both of us , and striking out from pulling .
both trying to watch out for eachother and navigate what he was going to do next , and for trav to say he had better first timers than him is really saying something. infact he said he was the worst behaved horse out of everyone.
it's why there are no videos or pics , it was physically impossible to do. so going from that to now is pretty impressive tbh, he's never ever going to be perfect, ive seen horses fall asleep during a hot shoeing, pickle is not one of them 😀

04/09/2026

04/09/2026

this was the first foot being nailed and the first time really trialling spook buster which is recommended for "farrier day" he was pretty good here , not perfect but ok.
he was dosed 1hr before doing this and 5 mins after initial dose as recommended, it is in conjunction with show calm he has days leading up to farrier day

04/09/2026

pickles 5th trim.
The mess is coming through now from his monster abcesses, he would've suffered so much with them.
Today we trialled the spook buster from Hippo Health.
the show calm was already in his water trough so I did that a few days ago leading up to today.
my opinion is that it worked marginally more
The nailing is still his Achilles, he really hates it, and today he got a little stroppy on the 2nd foot , not overly but enough to put me and trav nearly off our balance.
pickle pulls back , but not just that ,he uses his weight big time, he knows he's strong and if he doesn't like something thats, what he does .
in the videos that is only a tiny taste of what he has put us through previously, today's little hiccup wasnt a patch on how he used to be, so even though he's definitely not perfect , it is working.
I did want to try the fireworks angel on him , but if I hadve added that in I wouldnt have known which one was working or not , its all trial and error.
Trav did tell me today ,that there was another client who used the spook buster on her mare and he noticed a massive improvement just doing a trim so that's some comparison to what we went through today with pickle.
The massive abcesses are growing out slowly, its dead tissue but not infected or necrotic which is good news and pickle grows more heel than toe, "typical" , when you really need the whole thing to just grow down all together , but it is what it is.
The kohnkies reboot hoof is helping heaps , without it the growth wasn't great , dispite being on a really good diet , so that's some good feedback comparing the with or without it.
pickles feet have hardened up all over , he's growing much better sole now and the new growth is very healthy.
a lot of boxes ticked this time around.
his feet are anything but pretty , but we just have to trust the process and keep doing what were doing.
Trav was happy about being able to take a little more toe off the front this time, he said he's had to to trim in a way that made the undergrowth more stable and then do what he wants as we progress.
slow and steady wins the race 🐌
I tried to get some good pics in the process and to show you the mess he came to us in , and this is good compared to 6 months ago , his feet were hiding so much trauma and it was hard to show you apart from thin flaky walls and ultra thin bendy soles ,how he endured the trip , his past life etc just shows you how much grit he has to keep going.
today trav got alot off him compared to past trims and cleaned out , filled and rebuilt the hoof walls .
He does show a lot of love , just not on farrier day 🤷‍♀️... oh and to worm ( utterly defiant and cranky) but we don't give up and we get it done , absolute sook afterwards we just did him on the 1st September for spring with ultimum as it doses up to 700kg and is the same as equst plus and the right one to do for this time of year.
videos to follow as I can't add them in with photos

02/09/2026

whats your go to this spring ? 🤔
This is part of our arsenal.
share your spring grass secrets

21/08/2026

this was the last bit of the previous video.
we are getting there and its nearly time to order the spook buster and fireworks angel in the hippo health brand for the next video to see the difference if we can.
when using the show calm , yes it works but pickle has to have some decent dosing before it kicks in and constantly throughout the whole process , so were going to change it up for a more effective and immediate result as thats what the other ones apparently do, and its good to show you how things work on a big stubborn old boy .
He hasn't been ridden yet, not his fault ... mine , I've had some serious pain issues to deal with, coming out of it slowly.( wifey)
but were still going for walkies weekly to keep him from going mad and he loves it.
and I havent got a saddle yet either , kind of need that 😆

21/07/2026

I'm just putting this one up out of about 6 videos because it shows the nailing , pickle was still a bit funny about it but absolutely nothing like we've been going through , this is like a level 2 compared what we've endured.
thrilled with the show calm remedy from hippo health

21/07/2026

" WARNING LONG POST "

Pickles 4th shoeing.
He went so much better today, I'm so proud of him .
we were able to take several videos of the process and his reactions. and that is all thanks to hippo health show calm formula. he's gone from a 2-3
out of 10 we'd say to a good 7 .
he's usually hell on wheels to get him done without him tossing us both about , stomping , striking out and just being impossible to what you see today in the videos.
please keep in mind he was in so much pain on arrival due to paper thin soles , thrush , abcess pain , you name it, he's been through it,we do hope to get him to near as perfect as possible, and I think he's worked out trav isn't there to hurt him .
The striking out wasnt lining anyone up , it was pulling away from what he knows to be related to painful experiences in the past.
The feedback from trav is that his soles are significantly better, thrush has reduced markedly and the walls are thickening up with every trim. but there is more to come out of him, the sheer size of the abcess cavities /scars are something else.
His diet is working really well and I'll list what he's on plus all the things were doing to help the feed work better and get to where it's needed , plus deal with the winter elements from homoeopathics, to balms
we have never used bute or sedation .
the homoeopathics ( hippo health , isn't a supplement, it works on the horses immune response and makes that part of the body that isn't responding , respond and mend... if you like.
we have made him comfortable through the remedies but never to mask the problem. so theres no running about on bad feet just moving about normally.
He has managed to hold a trot and break out into a canter several times .
Pickle is walking out with a more relaxed gait ,he really loves going for lead walks , and being sociable , I think he's melted a few hearts along the way
and he's just be cleared for light riding by trav.
He did injure himself a few weeks ago and again hippo health came to the rescue , we purchased the horse and hounds balm and its incredible, unfortunately I don't have any pics of it , but to say I'm impressed with how fast it works and deals with proud flesh aswell is an understatement .
we dose the trough with about 2 of the remedies , which is mud and rain and thrush as the main ones in there due to winter , and the rest of the remedies are put in ON TOP OF HIS MASH NOT MIXED INTO IT
as the formula must touch the mucous membrane first , e.g lips , tongue to get directly into the bloodstream.
you'll see we have both the small hand held show calm and the 1 litre bottle.
the hand held one is pumped onto a carrot 🥕 or directly in his mouth which i did throughout his shoeing and this was the first time it has been used on him for this session.
so its well worth getting .
we will be trialling pickle on the fireworks one, it deals with horses that don't like bangs or snaps and nailing kind of mimics that. we can only give it a go .
none of the things we use are sponsored on the exception of kohnkies reboot hoof formula , which was sent by John himself after talking about pickles predicament , John was so confident about his supplement he offered it up immediately.
pickle has only been on it for a month and its really made a difference, so if you have a horse with slow growing feet thin soles etc etc , we'd highly recommend getting it and putting it with hippo healthy hooves, it makes supplements go directly to the feet if the horse isn't assimilating the nutrients properly and that is pickle to a tee.
were also using the hoof co products, blue balls, pure wax balls and hoof balm and hoof paste blue.
so were hitting his issues from every angle.
and its working . not cheap but atm it is what it is.
going into winter with pickles very bad feet has been a huge challenge so we've had to pull out all the stops.
so take from it what you need give them a go 🙂

cen ultimate complete grain free
speedibeet
combo chaff
poseidon digestive H.P
kohkes reboot hoof
cen salt
cen oil

hippo health
healthy hooves - daily

foot sore.. (at the start and now only leading up to farrier day)

show calm.. (farrier day and if changing paddock)

mud and rain... daily
thrush plus... daily

hoof co

blue balls
pure wax balls
hoof blue paste
hoof balm
clear liquid hoof cleaner

horse and hound balm for injuries ( coronet and pastern)

I have to do videos separately ..
so frustrating 🤦‍♀️