When miniature horse Mikey was seized from Frederick County, Maryland, and sent to Days End Farm Horse Rescue (DEFHR) in Woodbine, Maryland, in April 2022, the years-long neglect he had experienced was obvious.
His overgrown feet looked more like a ram’s horns than hooves, and his teeth were extremely sharp with excessive tartar build up. Despite the physical mistreatment, Mikey’s curious and hopeful personality was apparent, and that would give him the resilience to recover.
In the horse show community, there’s a saying, “no hoof, no horse,” which comes from the idea that hoof care is paramount to the health and success of the equine athlete. At the basic level, domestic horses require human intervention to correctly maintain their hooves in order to live comfortably. In Mikey’s case, the length of his feet indicated that he went two to three years without proper farrier care. To continue reading…
