I was trimming a quarter crack on a big draft horse and the owner pointed out my angle was off

I was working on a Belgian mare in Springfield last month, using my usual nippers. Her owner, who used to shoe racehorses, watched for a minute and said 'You're going at it like it's a clean wall, but that crack has a twist.' He was right. I switched to a more open angle and the piece came off clean in one go. How do you guys judge the right approach for different types of cracks?

3 comments

3 Comments

sandra3749d ago

Oh, I've been there. I once spent twenty minutes trying to nip out a bar crack, making it worse by the minute, before my old boss walked over and just tilted my hand a little. The difference was night and day. Now I try to look for the direction of the crack itself, not just the hoof shape. If it spirals, I follow that line with the tool. Sometimes you just have to get it wrong first to see the right way.

webb.dakota9d ago

Yeah, that's so true... you really do have to mess it up to learn.

webb.dakota9d ago

Man, my buddy did that same thing, and your tip about the spiral line would've saved him so much time, @sandra374.