In this time of high inflation being responsible for taking care of animals is a bit pricey. In our neck of the woods the price of a bale of hay is nearing $30.00  a bale so finding ways to save money in the barn has become a priority. One such way to save money with the miniature horses is performing their hoof trims by myself instead of hiring a farrier. I was spending around $600.00 a year to have my two mares hooves trimmed . I have taken on this challenge myself. One of our mares is Peaches. Peaches has had abuse problems in her life before she came to us. She is not easy to handle and has severe trust issues. I am convinced her hooves are some of the toughest in the world. I have tried every hoof dressing , softners on the market and nothing seems to work for her hooves. I wanted to get one of those fancy new hoof grinders but they are well above my budget so I bought a simple grinder at the local hardware store for $50.00 and a pack of wood sanding disks $10.00 . This works like a charm . Peaches doesn't jump around anymore when her feet are being trimmed and she seems to like the tickle of the sander.  This works great because now that she is a senior lady ( 23 years old) I need to keep her hooves short and also she is pigeon toed . Keeping her hooves trimmed helps her stave off arthritus and she is able to move better.