trimming the young mule

[Donn Hewes]

Yesterday I trimmed the feet of my nine month old mule Lee. I wish I had some pictures, but I don’t. I trimmed her lightly with a rasp at about three months just to shorten the toes a little, but she didn’t fight that too much. I tied her up next to her mother and she was light enough so I could push her around a little. Now she is in the middle of weaning, and in a box stall part of each day. She is easily 14.2 and 700 or 800 pounds. I tied her up (something she is completely used to by now).

She put up a pretty good fight. I needed to do a pretty thorough job; knife, nippers, and rasp. I just worked slowly, not trying to hold any one foot too long, and keep picking up a different foot. Good pauses to let her relax. She is big enough that it is hard to really push her around, but I do use enough force to let her know that although gentle, I also plan to finish what I start. In the end she had a nice looking set of feet, and I think we reached a little understanding.

I used the rasp on a two month old mule the other day; just knocking the toes back to keep him level.

[j.l.holt]

Go through the motions of filing every month and in no time he will think nothing of it.

[dominiquer60]

That very snowy winter a couple years ago, my steers were young calves and while in the barn I picked every foot up every day and rasped once a month just because. They are better steers for it. There must have been something in the air because I trimmed mine last night too 🙂

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