Oddly satisfying videos of cows being cared for
February 16, 2025 6:45 PM Subscribe
Cows getting pedicures Inspired by the chariot pulled by cassowarie post on modern milking machines making cows happier and more productive, I give you a couple guys showing their messy, but satisfying, jobs trimming cow hooves. Thirty years ago, a cow with a foot problem would have to be wrassled around and either tied down, put in stocks, or drugged to have feet cared for. It was dangerous to both the handler and animal, and regular hoof care was nearly nonexistent. With the advent of trap stocks that allow easy handling of cattle, we're now in an era that allows farmers to have their cattle trimmed to prevent problems and to treat problems that occur. Additional bonus is we have videos of good-looking guys with yummy accents to entertain us.
Across the pond, Graeme Parker is the Hoof GP, a Scottish cattle hoof trimmer and YouTuber with over a million watchers.
Aaron LaVoy, the Midwestern Hoof Trimmer, is an American doing the same.
Watching hooves being trimmed is messy, sometimes disgusting, sometimes exciting, and oddly satisfying. Hoof trimming makes thousands of cows comfortable and able to lead better lives. Cows, like horses, are big, and yet oddly delicate, critters. The videos are not your average cow trim, but they do show the extent of how things can go awry. If you're someone who likes cows or looking at KonMari, hoarding videos, rug cleaning, or Dr. Pimple Popper, you might be a candidate for watching hoof trimming.
Across the pond, Graeme Parker is the Hoof GP, a Scottish cattle hoof trimmer and YouTuber with over a million watchers.
Aaron LaVoy, the Midwestern Hoof Trimmer, is an American doing the same.
Watching hooves being trimmed is messy, sometimes disgusting, sometimes exciting, and oddly satisfying. Hoof trimming makes thousands of cows comfortable and able to lead better lives. Cows, like horses, are big, and yet oddly delicate, critters. The videos are not your average cow trim, but they do show the extent of how things can go awry. If you're someone who likes cows or looking at KonMari, hoarding videos, rug cleaning, or Dr. Pimple Popper, you might be a candidate for watching hoof trimming.
I stumbled upon the Hoof GP stuff a while back and it fascinated me and I don't know why.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:50 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]
Weirdly, those videos were exactly what I needed, emotionally, right now. Emotions are weird. Hoofs are (apparently) neat. Thank you!
posted by whatnotever at 8:43 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]
posted by whatnotever at 8:43 PM on February 16 [1 favorite]
The algorithm has been showing me this for a while, I think it’s the same sort of sense of “what will you finished product look like?” That also serves me reels of making stuff on a lathe and restoring antiques.
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:49 PM on February 16
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:49 PM on February 16
A cow-ropodist (US: bull-diartrist?) giving moo-nicures.
posted by Thella at 11:43 PM on February 16 [3 favorites]
posted by Thella at 11:43 PM on February 16 [3 favorites]
Cows are a totally different kettle of fish but I've been at the infrastructural end of radical sheep pedicure . . .
In 2015, ewe "A for Annabel" became obviously lame and eventually we called The Vet for an opinion. He reported a deep-seated infection that might yield to an assault with intravenous antibiotics but he felt that the infected offside 'claw' of the right rear foot would have to come off at some stage; and it was so. The operation required rope, a pallet, a bunch of medical kit, a saw and a patient. As a fainter-at-the-sight-of-blood I was told off to hold the front end while Mike-the-Vet (with S.O. as "scalpel please nurse") did the far end.
The pallet served as both operating table and, with the rope and some handy knots and splices, as a restraining device. And no, a sheepshank is useless in the circumstances. A dash of i.v. ketamine and xylazine put Annabel into a state of zzzz; a torniquet (old bicycle inner tube and a stick as a Spanish windlass) was applied to the affected leg and the hoof end was filled brimful of novocaine. Analgesia in sheep is not an exact science. They aren't valuable enough to have been worth experimenting on to ensure the correct dose, so you hope to give enough that there isn't too much unnecessary pain but not so much that it takes ages to flush out - there was a lamb involved in the system which needs to be taken into account as well.
Analgesic drugs don't last forever and asthere was a stirring of consciousness she started to kick off I was required to hold Annabel's head down with a full body press and do what I could to supplement the knots which were immobilising the front legs not-so-good - where are the sailors or the boy-scouts when you need them? It would probably have been okay if I did faint, as I was really only dead-weight on the head and neck. Did I mention a saw? I was expecting a handy tenon saw such as my grandpa used on the finer details of boat-building in the 1930s, but not so: Mike brought out a wire-saw worthy of Bear Grylls and made short work of the task with that. A bit of antiseptic spray and some industrial veterinary bandages - the outer layer a fetching royal blue - and Annabel was ready for discharge. All that then remained was to wring out my be-slobbered sleeves and so to lunch. Washing the blood-spatter off the pallet could wait.
There are clearly some allowable exceptions to Leviticus Ch18v23. "Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: it is confusion."
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:52 AM on February 17 [3 favorites]
In 2015, ewe "A for Annabel" became obviously lame and eventually we called The Vet for an opinion. He reported a deep-seated infection that might yield to an assault with intravenous antibiotics but he felt that the infected offside 'claw' of the right rear foot would have to come off at some stage; and it was so. The operation required rope, a pallet, a bunch of medical kit, a saw and a patient. As a fainter-at-the-sight-of-blood I was told off to hold the front end while Mike-the-Vet (with S.O. as "scalpel please nurse") did the far end.
The pallet served as both operating table and, with the rope and some handy knots and splices, as a restraining device. And no, a sheepshank is useless in the circumstances. A dash of i.v. ketamine and xylazine put Annabel into a state of zzzz; a torniquet (old bicycle inner tube and a stick as a Spanish windlass) was applied to the affected leg and the hoof end was filled brimful of novocaine. Analgesia in sheep is not an exact science. They aren't valuable enough to have been worth experimenting on to ensure the correct dose, so you hope to give enough that there isn't too much unnecessary pain but not so much that it takes ages to flush out - there was a lamb involved in the system which needs to be taken into account as well.
Analgesic drugs don't last forever and as
There are clearly some allowable exceptions to Leviticus Ch18v23. "Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: it is confusion."
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:52 AM on February 17 [3 favorites]
I'm both horrified and intrigued, and can't stop watching. I just found this horse hoof-trimming video which is amazing. This poor horse was a real-life rocking horse, in the worst possible way.
posted by confluency at 2:48 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
posted by confluency at 2:48 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
Can cows and horses not bite their nails?
I was wondering what happens to cows in nature, and found this long article, which explains that the unnatural environment of a dairy farm impairs the process by which old hooves are shed, which is what causes dairy cows to be severely prone to overgrowth and makes them require regular human maintenance.
posted by confluency at 7:03 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
I was wondering what happens to cows in nature, and found this long article, which explains that the unnatural environment of a dairy farm impairs the process by which old hooves are shed, which is what causes dairy cows to be severely prone to overgrowth and makes them require regular human maintenance.
posted by confluency at 7:03 AM on February 17 [1 favorite]
Oh, confluency, that article was my kinda jam. I was not surprised that there are conflicting theories on cow trimming, because there are vehement opinions on how to care for horses' feet. The biggest clash is between the barefoot contingent and the people who believe that shoeing is necessary, or at least a necessary evil. And when you get into barefoot trimming, oh lordy, the fights! Strasser method vs EP vs pasture trim, and yes/no to the mustang roll....
Any kind of care has to do with which particular artificial environment you put an animal into, whether it be horse, cow, sheep, any critter actually, and there are many variables.
With horse hoof care, it depends on whether it's my Idaho basalt, Arizona sand, Mississippi red dirt, or Florida wet marsh. Contracted heels and alkali scratches vs pancake feet and thrush. There's no use slagging on the guy with a different method unless you know where they're coming from, literally.
I get a tad titchy at the soft hearts that think living wild and free in nature is so wonderful. Both cows and horses here in the Owyhee desert *usually* have wonderful hard healthy hoofs, unless conditions are such that they don't. A long, wet winter with alternating hard freeze and thaws causes pancake feet, bruising, too much growth and rotated coffin bone. A drought summer that dries up water holes and makes animals travel long distances between feed and water can wear the hooves off an animal. I've seen horses too sore to go to water and the carcasses of feral foals and older horses with the foot worn down to the pedal bone. Seeing a wild horse is a heart-lifting thing--unless they're starving, dehydrated, and foot-sore.
Mustangs and mules usually have fantastic feet that don't need shoeing-unless you're working them in enough rock until they do. Come with me and I'll show you places where all horses need shoes, and they'll wear iron out in 3 weeks. "But not MY mustang." I just shake my head at people that refuse to believe that their animal needs shod and will ride them sore so they can prove some point of belief.
We have a duty of care for our domestic animals, and I'm glad animal owners, including dairy farmers, are now working to discharge that. BobTheScientist knows how interesting that can turn out!
posted by BlueHorse at 12:37 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
Any kind of care has to do with which particular artificial environment you put an animal into, whether it be horse, cow, sheep, any critter actually, and there are many variables.
With horse hoof care, it depends on whether it's my Idaho basalt, Arizona sand, Mississippi red dirt, or Florida wet marsh. Contracted heels and alkali scratches vs pancake feet and thrush. There's no use slagging on the guy with a different method unless you know where they're coming from, literally.
I get a tad titchy at the soft hearts that think living wild and free in nature is so wonderful. Both cows and horses here in the Owyhee desert *usually* have wonderful hard healthy hoofs, unless conditions are such that they don't. A long, wet winter with alternating hard freeze and thaws causes pancake feet, bruising, too much growth and rotated coffin bone. A drought summer that dries up water holes and makes animals travel long distances between feed and water can wear the hooves off an animal. I've seen horses too sore to go to water and the carcasses of feral foals and older horses with the foot worn down to the pedal bone. Seeing a wild horse is a heart-lifting thing--unless they're starving, dehydrated, and foot-sore.
Mustangs and mules usually have fantastic feet that don't need shoeing-unless you're working them in enough rock until they do. Come with me and I'll show you places where all horses need shoes, and they'll wear iron out in 3 weeks. "But not MY mustang." I just shake my head at people that refuse to believe that their animal needs shod and will ride them sore so they can prove some point of belief.
We have a duty of care for our domestic animals, and I'm glad animal owners, including dairy farmers, are now working to discharge that. BobTheScientist knows how interesting that can turn out!
posted by BlueHorse at 12:37 PM on February 17 [2 favorites]
I came across the Hoof GP when flug linked to him in the sheep rescue thread. Really, the Archers needs more of this sort of stuff.
posted by paduasoy at 3:24 AM on February 18
posted by paduasoy at 3:24 AM on February 18
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