With his long, curled hooves, the Arabian horse looked like a living rocking horse. But in the span of around an hour, he had the flat hooves of a healthy horse. The transformation occurred thanks to the efforts of Riley Mickelsen, the owner of Idaho Horseshoeing School.

The video showing this hoof transformation was posted online on Aug. 10 and it has received more than 8 million views on the school's YouTube channel. It's also generated thousands of comments from viewers around the world.

Idaho Horseshoeing School in Roberts trains its students in the farrier trade.

"A farrier … (is) somebody that specializes in horse hoof health," Mickelsen said. "And they do so by trimming hooves and correctly placing different types of horseshoes."

The purpose of shoeing a horse is to "protect the horse's hoof from uneven wear," according to Mickelsen.

A horse's hooves can become overgrown if they're not regularly trimmed, Mickelsen said.

It isn't uncommon for Mickelsen to see overgrown hooves. There are a number of videos on the school's YouTube channel showing similar cases.

"A horse can get to that point through a combination of different things," Mickelsen said.

The main reason for this is economic.

"Trimming a horse's hooves isn't cheap, and it needs to happen about every six weeks," Mickelsen said.

It would take two to three years for a horse's hooves to become as overgrown as the Arabian's, Mickelsen said.

Having neglected hooves causes significant problems throughout a horse's body, according to Mickelsen. Horses need a flat surface to stand on to bear the weight of their body.

In the case of the Arabian, he couldn't stand without rocking.

"You've got to imagine (it's) like if you were wearing a softball on the bottom of your shoe all day and you couldn't just stand flat and you're rocking all around, how incredibly painful that would be," Mickelsen said.

One person who commented on the video said they helped breed and take care of Arabians.

"(I) never saw hooves this bad ever," Brad Williams wrote.

Mickelsen was able to trim down the Arabian horse's hooves in about an hour. He trimmed them all at once rather than in several sessions for a few reasons.

"For this particular case, the way that the hooves were growing, it wouldn't have made any sense at all not to take it all the way down," Mickelsen said.

The other reason is that Mickelsen doesn't know when he will see an individual horse again.

At the school, they want to get the horses "as comfortable as we can, as quick as we can and hopefully we see them in six weeks," Mickelsen said.

The Idaho Horseshoeing School's YouTube channel has a variety of videos showing different hoof transformations.

Mickelsen doesn't pre-plan videos. He stays on the lookout for interesting cases for videos. The school shoes 15-20 horses each day, so he has a chance to see a wide variety of cases.

"If something out of the ordinary comes in, like this horse that came in … my wife films it on her iPhone," Mickelsen said.

While the video featuring the Arabian stud has been popular on YouTube, it's not the school's most-viewed video. That honor is held by a similar July 2021 video that racked up 17.7 million views.

Mickelsen suspected that the video featuring the Arabian might be successful.

"Any time we can really help a horse and really have a neat transformation, we can expect a lot of people are going to be viewing the video," Mickelsen said.

The Idaho Horseshoeing School is a relatively new endeavor. Mickelsen and his wife, Ashtyn Mickelsen, started the school in 2019. Before starting the school, Riley Mickelsen spent two years as the head instructor for Oklahoma Horseshoeing school.

The school has been successful so far, according to Mickelsen. The school has a "worldwide reputation," he said.

The school offers several different levels from a two-week fundamental farrier course to an eight-week certified farrier course to a 16-week journeyman farrier course.

While around half the students are from the Western U.S., people from around the world have attended.

"We just sent one (student) home that came all the way from Australia," Mickelsen said.

Graduates from the school have gone on to be successful.

"I always say over 95% of them that graduate are still gainfully employed farriers," Mickelsen said.

A few graduates have also been recognized by American Farriers Association as well.

"Our students go off and they're doing great things," Mickelsen said.

For information about Idaho Horseshoeing School, go to idahohorseshoeingschool.com.

To view its YouTube channel, search for "Idaho Horseshoeing School" on YouTube.