Hoof Trimming

One of the farm chores done every other month is a goat pedicure! You may think this sounds gross, but it is rewarding to clean up their hooves and see a nice healthy goat.

The goats certainly enjoy it!

They are let into the forbidden stall, jump on the familiar stanchions, and gobble grain during the procedure, either kicking or leaning on their benefactor.

We use homemade elevated goat stanchions to do everything goat related. They save a LOT of bending over, and keep those naughty goats relatively still. Regular hoof trimmers can be found at just about any farm store, and are much easier to use than a knife.

Hoof trimming is very important for goats, because their hooves, if left unkempt, can become an infection site, or just be uncomfortable for the goat. Interestingly we only trim the sheep’s hooves once a year, and in big herds only the rams and problem sheep get pedicures!

To trim hooves you must first scrape away the grime, then trim away the excess nail down to the pad. Also, trim the hoof points to avoid pointy “elf boots”, and keep them neat and square. Trim off any over growth of the pad, and you should now have a neat, trim, square hoof!