Remove Hooves from a Sheep or Deer Leg

Recently I helped some friends harvest their lambs and they gave me the legs to get the hock skins, bones, tendons, and hooves. I already showed you how to get the hock skins, bones and sinew from a deer leg in a previous post so now I'll focus on how to procure the hooves.

Depending on what you want to do, there are several ways to remove hooves. In general I remove the hock skins first, without the hooves, and then I remove the hooves from the toe bones. If the leg is fresh that's not difficult at all. The more dried out it is the more difficult it will be as everything will tend to stick together.

First, heat up some water until it gets to the simmering point. Then, immerse the toes in the water, with the hooves completely covered, for two minutes. You don't want to cook the toes too long or you'll do more harm than good.

Simmering Deer Foot

If you left quite a bit of bone above the water then you should be able to hold onto it barehanded when you pull it out. The hooves, however, will be too hot to handle so I use a glove to protect myself. If you're right-handed, hold the bone in your left hand and one hoof firmly in your protected right hand. Then twist and pull the hoof off the toe bone. It should tear by itself neatly just below the hair line. If the leg is fresh it should be fairly easy to do. After a few days (four in this case), it became a lot more difficult to do and some hooves actually needed a little knife work to be able to pop out (directions for using a knife are below).

Hooves off the Toe Bones

The hoof comes out all in one piece, both with the harder nail-like surface on top and the softer pad underneath.

If you are planning on using the hooves for a project that requires hanging them (like the hooves rattle we'll make in the next post), you should think of drilling holes in them before they harden. I drill my holes at the tip of the hoof, through both sides. If the hoof is still very soft you may be able to use a nail to punch a hole, but I've had some hoof split that way so now I just drill them with the tip of a stout knife.

Drilled Hooves

The hooves will contract slightly when they dry so it's a good idea to put some little sticks (or pine needles in the picture below) in the holes so they don't close up. Then let the hooves dry out of the sun for a few days until they're completely hard.

Drilled Hooves with Sticks to Prevent Closing

When we were harvesting the sheep there was a Mexican guy there and when he saw me remove the hock skins without the hooves he disapproved. He said, "in Mexico if the hooves are detached from the skin then the skin is considered worthless." Though that's obviously not true if you plan on using the hooves by themselves it does make sense from a trading point of view. If you're selling/trading hock skins and hooves to someone else you don't know what their needs are so you might as well leave the hooves attached to the skin so that they have more options.

Sheep Leg

So I decided to give it a try. You can't really use the simmering method then because that would destroy the skin so some good knife work is required instead.


First, work on detaching the hock skin from the bone as described in another post but don't make the cut at the bottom just above the hooves. 

Instead, keep slicing along the leg all the way down in between the hooves.







 

Next, on the bottom of the hooves you need to make cuts to separate them from the bone. If you want to keep the pad underneath you can just make one cut in the middle of them and work sideways to the wall of the hoof, but that's a bit more difficult to do. Here, I make cuts on both sides of the pad, inserting my knife in between the nail-like casing and the bone but without going all the way up to the skin (that would damage it). Make sure to join your cuts at the tip of the hooves.

Cuts at the Bottom of Hooves

 Also make a cut at the back of the pads so that they separate from the skin.

Cut at the Back of the Hooves

To separate things better, also insert your knife from the top, still between the nail-like casing and the toe bone, all the way through. Make sure not to damage the skin as you do so.

Insert Knife Between Toe Bone and Hoof

Membranes in the Front of the Toe

The harder part is dealing with the front of the toes, as there are scores of tendons and ligaments holding everything together pretty tightly. Just pull the skin tight and cut the appearing white membranes meticulously, a little at a time until you reach the hoof itself.

It takes a little practice to do all this well but you'll get the hang of it after working on a couple of legs.

Just make sure not to cut yourself!

Hoof Separating from the Toe Bone

The only thing that remains at this point is probably a little cartilage holding the hooves and the bones together. Again, you need to work your knife in between them carefully. 

The nail-like casing is actually very pliable at this point so you can pull back the edges a little bit and cut the cartilage away with the point of your knife.


The hoof should then come out fairly cleanly. If you did it right, there shouldn't be anything else inside the hoof and you're done. If there are still some residue blood and cartilage you may want to clean that out the best you can with your knife.

Hoof Removed from Toe Bone

And here is the whole product. I haven't checked but I'm hoping it would be Mexican approved! ;-)

Hock Skin with Hooves Attaches

Tacked Hock Skins

To dry the skin flat, tack it to a board as described in the hock-skin post. Up next we'll put those hooves to good use by making rattles and we'll cover the difference between hooves with the underneath pad intact and those without.

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