The Happy Hoofer
Kevin Hinton is a bovine podiatrist skilled at keeping cow's feet healthy. It's not always easy, but he says fixing a cow's ailments is rewarding work.
It was like he was slicing Gruyère cheese. Kevin Hinton leaned near the cowâs elevated hoof, and with an expert snip of his clippers, exposed a section of creamy white sole. It looked soft, even pliable.
âItâs not,â Hinton said, holding up the forearm-length clippers. âMy clippers are just really sharp.â
Clippers arenât terribly common among hoof trimmers these daysââbovine podiatrists,â if you want to use the technical termâbut Hinton doesnât care. Itâs what he learned to use 40 years ago, when he joined his father in Oregon one summer to watch him work. The connection then was electric. Seeing his father snip and clip the overgrown hoof away from the sole made him realize he wanted to do this for the rest of his life.
And he has, more or less. Now 56 years old, Hinton works with a number of barns across the provinceâhe canât remember exactly how manyâto check on the health of his clientsâ feet.
âI consider these guys Olympic athletes,â he said. âThey produce up to 100 pounds of milk a day. If everythingâs not perfectâboom.â
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Most of the time Hinton stays in the Fraser Valley, keeping his local herds on a maintenance schedule so he can check about 25 cows at a time. Twice a year he heads âup countryâ to the Cariboo to help hobby farmers who canât get a local hoof trimmer, following a former client who had moved up there years ago. But most days, he heads to farms like Eagle Acres in Langley to keep their herdsâ feet healthy.

Erin and Brian Andersen, who own the educational Langley farm, have worked with Hinton the whole time theyâve had their farm. They started Eagle Acres 23 years ago, and eventually turned it into a destination for people who wanted to learn how food gets from the farm to their plates. At their Glen Valley location, they have a herd of 55 Holstein, Jersey, Brown Swiss, Ayrshire, and Guernsey cowsâand like most farmers, they do a lot of the heavy lifting themselves. (Brian was busy mucking out the close-up pen for the pregnant cows who were about to give birth while Erin gave The Current a tour of the barn.) But, some things are best left to the professionals.
âSome people do their own hoof trimming and jobs like that⌠but thatâs something we never even attempted to do,â Erin said. âHoof trimming is a very specific thing as well, and heâs very good at it.
âI donât want to mess up the cows,â she added. âIf you mess up the foundation of an animal, you can ruin it completely.â
Thatâs why Hinton was there, clipping the hooves of a handful of young cows who had never gone through the experience before.
They were not enjoying it.
One Holstein cow was ushered through a shoot into Hintonâs hoof trimming contraption. The bar clanged shut behind her, and her eyes widened as she struggled forwards and back. Hinton and his assistant raised a thick strap up to the cowâs chest to help support her weight. They then locked her back foot into place at waist height.
âAny cow will go crazy when youâre doing something different to them,â Hinton said, sitting down on the stool near her foot. âTheyâre definitely creatures of habit; they donât like nothing different.â
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The contraption is actually what brought Hinton to British Columbia in the first place. It wasnât common outside of the United Statesâin fact, Hinton says it was the first of its kind in Canada. He and his dad came to the country for two weeks in the 1980s to show it off. The farmers, Hinton said, were ecstatic. It eventually led Hinton and his father to immigrate to Canada and start their local business in the valley.
The machine is not common in the industryâmost of the hoof trimmers of the past used âtilt tablesâ which, as the name suggests, tilt a cow on its side to expose its hooves to the podiatrist. Young trimmers use equipment called elevators, which raise the cows up to an appropriate level to use a grinder. But, like with the clippers, Hinton is set in his ways.
Hintonâs contraption has a built-in stool on which he can sit while he trims the hind hooves. The machine has a light to illuminate the front hooves in poorly-lit barns. And it has a small cupboard where he keeps his tools: the clippers, a knife, and a bucket of lime green painkillers.
âThey walk in not feeling so great and after a couple hours, when you get all that weight off the problem area and you get the painkiller and the antibacterial in there,â Hinton said, trailing off. âReally thatâs my favourite part of the job.â

Hoof health is directly connected to overall health for cows. A bruised hoof can make a cow lame, reducing her milk production. That is also bad for the farmer.
âIf you donât keep [their hooves] maintained, they can go lame, they go down in production, you canât feed your family, you go out of business,â Hinton explained.
âIf theyâre not happy, [the farmers] canât make a living,â he added. âThese cows have to be happy and healthy. Shiny, beautiful, well-conditioned cows.â
Hinton plans to keep up his part of that job for at least the next decade. But eventually, retirement will be on the horizon.
He has no son to take over the businessâthe succession plan for many in the industryâbut he said he plans to see if one of his clientsâ kids might be interested in learning the trade. Then, he can turn his tools, his contacts, and his years of industry experience over to them.
âThen my clients will have the same work that they love,â he said. âThey donât hire me for my fancy brand-new shoot and equipment and my fancy truck. They hire me for my experience.
âWhen you get a good hoof trimmer that you like, he stays for life.â
The Fraser Valley is brimming with niche jobs in the agricultural industry. Check out Joti’s story about alpaca shearing, and what happens to the fleece once the haircuts are done.
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