Toes to Tails

06/13/2026

Yesss! I'll keep repeating it for those who don't listen, and say it louder for those who won't hear.

06/07/2026

I have often brought up salt to my clients, as well as their "orangeish" dark horses, so I was pretty excited to see this article on my friend/mentors page. It's a good read!

What is something that every horse must have?

Salt

When Im trimming horses I've noticed some behaviors. Some of them start licking me, my hoof stand, or after I turn them loose they go and start licking their hay feeding stations....
I look around their area and I notice something missing. They dont have any salt.

Salt is essential for many functions, as pointed out in this informative article (see below).
Some have said to me, they wont lick the block I provide....was it kept clean?

Here's what I do, and yes
I've had some horses that I dont see licking the block but I still give them the choice.
Our horses get around 1 oz of loose white salt in their evening mash. When a new horse comes in for training, and they are not use to salt in their supplements, I start with 1/4-1/2 Oz., (a California trace scoop measure is one ounce) and build up to an ounce.
I provide a white salt block and I will either hose it off on occasion, or throw water on it from the water tank and scrub it clean. Yes, salt blocks are meant for a cows rough tongue, but a horse still benefits.

Why a white salt block and not a red salt block? Because horses often have iron overload and dont get fed a supplement that has no iron. See how black Max is? When I see a orange or brownish tinted horse that should be black, or a black mane that is mostly brownish/orange tipped, thats a sign of iron overload. (It takes a long time to get the iron overload out of a horse.)
Its just another reason why I feed California trace. Max gets 2.5 scoops, daily, as well as loose white salt and he occasionally uses his salt block. Loose white salt is sold as livestock salt at most feed stores.

Read this link and learn how salt effects the whole horse, its really quite interesting.
https://practicalhorseman.com/health/nutrition/assume-your-horse-is-getting-enough-salt-think-again/

More info on why your horse needs essential vitamins and minerals.
https://www.californiatrace.com/about/california-trace/

The dangers of iron overload, it even affects their feet.
https://madbarn.com/high-iron-horses/

12/20/2025

THIS!

This is incredibly well written, shares so much truth, is humorous, and best of all - it made me feel understood and not alone on this roller-coaster ride.

I am so grateful to all of my clients, but want to shout an extra "THANK YOU" to the clients (and colleagues) who have experienced (and helped me with) these changes over the years.

❤️

THE PROFESSIONAL GROWTH ARC OF A HOOF CARE PRACTITIONER

(A survival guide disguised as a career.)

Every hoof care professional starts the same way:

Bright-eyed.
Hydrated.
Fully bendable.
Convinced — with touching optimism — that skill is what makes you good at this job.

It isn’t.
Survival is.

Welcome to your growth arc.
You won’t enjoy it. You won’t recognise yourself by the end.
But you will, eventually, stop panicking in public.

STAGE 1: THE NAÏVE FOAL

You trim your first horses.
They lift their feet.
They stand politely.
Your mentor says you’ve got “a good feel.”

You drive home thinking:

“I’m a natural.”
“My hands just know.”
“Maybe this won’t be as hard as everyone says.”

This is charming.
This is also the point at which the universe quietly sharpens a stick.

You are a freshly risen soufflé.
Gravity has noticed.

STAGE 2: THE FIRST CRUSHING OF THE SOUL

You meet your first Problem Horse™.

Hooves like experimental sculptures.
Angles chosen by committee.
A frog that looks like a baked good abandoned in a lay-by.

You approach with enthusiasm.
The horse offers you the wrong foot.
The owner says, “Oh he never does this.”

By minute four you realise, with absolute clarity:

“I have no idea what I’m doing.”

You go home and lie flat on the nearest soft surface, staring at the ceiling while replaying every decision that led you here.

Congratulations.
You’re officially in.

STAGE 3: THE RELIGIOUS BUYING PHASE

You respond the only way a modern professional knows how:

You buy things.

Books.
Webinars.
Courses taught by people who haven’t touched a hoof since Blackberrys ruled the earth.
Rasps with names like ThunderShred Titanium Fury.
Boots that cost more than domestic appliances.
A stool. Then a better stool. Then a stool with opinions.

You highlight textbooks until the margins are louder than the content.

Then the next horse arrives and behaves as if none of this ever happened.

This is called professional development.
Apparently.

STAGE 4: THE METHOD WARS

(An ongoing conflict with no winners and unlimited comments)

You go online looking for clarity.

You find:

– spiritual trimmers consulting planetary alignment
– classical purists quoting cavalry manuals like scripture
– biomechanical engineers analysing bars with software that could land a plane
– people insisting wild horses on volcanic plains are the blueprint for your native cob standing in February clay

You try to learn.
You try to listen.
You try not to scream into a hedge.

Eventually you begin every sentence with “Well… it depends,”
and end every day wondering how this became your personality.

STAGE 5: THE 3AM DISSOLUTION OF ALL CONFIDENCE

You wake in the night thinking:

“Was that heel meant to be there?”
“Did I take too much?”
“Did I take too little?”
“Is that distortion or just… Tuesday?”
“Could I retrain in something calm, like bomb disposal?”

The horse you were smug about yesterday is now short.
The one you were sure you’d ruined powers off like nothing ever happened.

Your confidence now has the structural integrity of wet cardboard.

This, you’re told, is learning.

STAGE 6: THE SHIFT

(The part nobody puts on Instagram)

One day — quietly, without ceremony — something settles.

You pick up a hoof and your brain doesn’t start yelling.
You adjust without narrating your fear.
You stop arguing with strangers online because you realise none of them are paying your excess.

You start saying deeply unsettling adult things like:
“Let’s take this one step at a time.”

Your ego slips out the back door.
Your judgement improves.
Your work becomes less dramatic and more… effective.

This is progress.
It doesn’t photograph well.

STAGE 7: THE QUIETLY FORMIDABLE PROFESSIONAL

This is where you end up.

Your tools look ancient but work beautifully.
Your joints creak like old floorboards.
You can read a horse’s intentions before it commits to them.

You immediately identify:

– the performer
– the stoic
– the storyteller
– the saboteur
– and the pony who has taken this personally

You no longer fear frogs, thrush, bold opinions, or owners clutching printouts.

You work with the calm of someone who has already survived every possible catastrophe — often twice, sometimes barefoot, usually in the rain.

Clients call you a miracle worker.

You know the truth:

You’re not gifted.
You’re not special.
You’re just someone who stayed long enough to learn what not to do.

THE BIT THEY DON’T PUT IN THE BROCHURE

This is professional growth.

Not a straight line.
Not a calling.
Not a brand.

Just years of showing up, making mistakes, adjusting, and slowly replacing panic with pattern recognition.

It’s muddy.
It’s tiring.
It occasionally feels personal.

But it’s real.

And real — inconveniently, unfashionably real —
is where actual competence lives.

11/22/2025

Agreed! The only time I prefer a wet leg is if it was previously covered in 💩 and we have towels. A few of my clients are dealing with FWS and I completely understand the frustration, but don't like smelling like it all day. 😊

11/12/2025

I ran across this post from a mentor and feel the need to share it as I have had similar thoughts in my head but failed to say anything. I am fortunate to have very few clients who don't provide me with a clean, dry, place to work, however I am bothered more by what a horse is living in, and what it does to their hooves.

09/02/2025

This is a beautiful, eloquently written, piece on a very tough subject. I have a few friends and clients with dates already booked to say goodbye to their beloved pets this Fall. More times than I care to count, I have done the same. I believe that it is a great honor and one of the best gifts we can give, to release our loved ones from their pain. I am also of the belief that it's better to say goodbye a week too early on a calm, planned day full of love and treats, than a day too late in a rushed, traumatic way.

Sending so much peace and love to those of you who have been brave enough to make this decision, and to those who are still struggling to make the call.🙏❤️🙌

Talking to a horse owner about euthanasia is like trying to catch a fish with your bare hands. Nature is against you. They avoid the consideration of suffering, the discussion of quality of life, the logistics of what that decision would look like.

We don't want to even think of the end of life, especially in this culture. We are not well prepared to consider life and death. Some of us have already had to face death in one way or another - and it is devastating to our soul.
For many of us, the death of our animal signifies something like a failure....somehow it means that we stopped trying and we gave up.

And *how* could you ask someone to give up on their beloved companion?

However understandable that perspective is (and as an animal owner I feel this way too!), I would argue this is not the best way to look at it for our horses sake.

Horses do not die naturally. Out of all the horses my clients have lost (usually 10-12/year from my schedule) over the past 10 years, only two passed without being euthanized.

If you were to ask how many of them needlessly suffered for weeks, months, years before finally being put to rest? Well.... that is a hard question to answer depending on who you ask, but more than one.

Horses are fragile in some of their systems. Their digestive system can rebel. They must be weight bearing to survive so something like a broken leg that could be healed in other species can be catastrophic for them. They are prey animals, something that even anxious fearful humans have a hard time comprehending as we are predators at the tippy top of the food chain. They are biologically engineered for survival which means they will do their best to hide their pain. In this sense, they are not fragile at all. They will persist despite great cost.

How can we best serve our horse as they age?
What does aging with dignity look like for them?
How would we like their death to be?
What will their death look and feel like?
How can we miss them and honor them?

These are the questions that we can ask ourselves.

Hold space for death in your life. It will not kill you. We see the ending, the transition of something all our lives. The seasons change, trees fall, relationships wane, our feelings, ideas, and needs ebb and flow.

Do you think your horse is afraid to die?
Or is it us who are afraid to "play God," to have that conversation with a friend or vet, to face the inevitable end that we all will have one day?
Is it you who is not ready?

Choosing to help your horse in the end, because they will be truly dependent on you by then, is an honor. It is an offering of respect, an acknowledgement of your role as their friend and guardian and advocate in both life and death.

✨️
To my clients who have been brave enough to face death, I'm here with you.
✨️

I have 15 and 14 year old kitties and an 11 year old dog who is graying around her muzzle and face. I love them deeply and it feels like a lightning strike to my gut to imagine life without them here next to me.

I am not writing this from an academic perspective. The facts usually don't matter anyway in these times until we can get ahold of our own feelings. Or until we are forced to deal in numbers, dollars, and days.

My hope is that as a collective who loves animals, we can pursue understanding life and death so that we're ready for when we are called upon to make tough decisions for the animals in our lives.

❤️‍🩹 - Corrie

Edited to add: I didn't not anticipate this post having such a big reach! Clearly this is a topic that we all need to talk about. I hope being a part of this conversation has relieved some of your guilt or stress over losing animals in the past or preparing for the future. See the comments for part 2 and 3.

08/25/2025

As some of you know, back at the end of April my phone just up and died. After a lot of panic and jumping through hoops, I got a new (low end & slow) one, and got *most* (not all of my pics) of my data back. Thank you to those that sent me missing hoof pics!😊

Flash forward to yesterday, and I forgot my phone was in my pocket and went swimming with it. It's toast, so I went and got a new one today (a nice one this time so I must be more careful). While it seems I've got *most* of my data back...so far, no pictures, some missing messages and some missing contacts.😭

If you've tried to reach me and not heard back, this is probably why. It's hard to know what appointments and contacts are missing, so please, reach out if you haven't heard from me as you may no longer be in my contacts. Sorry.🙁

08/19/2025

Oh, how I love working with the babies! "Poppy's First Pedicure."💜