Are your horses slipping more on the road ?

[exracehorse]

Not sure if it’s the non existent rain in Suffolk for the past two months …. So roads are more oily. But all my horses are slipping and sliding on the country roads. Or it’s the heat coming from the surface. We’ve had hot weather for past two months. Plus a mini 40 degree heat wave.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Not sure if it’s the non existent rain in Suffolk for the past two months …. So roads are more oily. But all my horses are slipping and sliding on the country roads. Or it’s the heat coming from the surface. We’ve had hot weather for past two months. Plus a mini 40 degree heat wave.

I think they do go shiny and less grippy with the heat .

 

[Fransurrey]

Yes and he isn't shod! His hooves are like concrete and wearing less. I don't normally use nippers on him, but I think I'll have to, as he simply isn't wearing them down like he usually does!

 

[Bernster]

Interesting i have noticed this and wondered if the heat or dry might be making it worse - there’s just one section coming out of the yard downhill and my two are really careful, and slip a bit in front. Have road nails in the back.

 

[milliepops]

always worse during lengthy dry spells. i have road nails all round on any shod ones anyway.

 

[southerncomfort]

Yes!

I live on a hill and had a particularly hairy hack recently. We slipped and slid all the way down to the bottom where we were meeting our hacking buddies. Bo saw his friend and took a hold and we basically arrived half trotting/half skidding sideways. ?

Weirdly, he is unshod and his buddy who is shod copes better than he does.

 

[Birker2020]

https://www.rsta-uk.org/why-are-our-roads-melting

June’s heatwave has seen temperatures topping 30C in many parts of the country. This has caused some roads to melt. With the Met Office predicting that temperatures for July and August could be hotter than average more roads could find that more road surfaces are getting soft and sticky.

Most roads will not begin to soften until they hit a temperature of around 50C. However, even a sunny day in the 20Cs can be enough to generate 50C on the ground as the dark asphalt road surface absorbs a lot of heat and this builds up during the day with the hottest period between noon and 5pm. With temperatures regularly reaching the high 20Cs, the bitumen in some road surfaces may soften and rise to the top. This makes the road surface sticky and more susceptible to pressure loads from heavy vehicles resulting in surface ridging and rutting.

The response from local highway authorities is to send out the gritters to spread granite dust to absorb the soft bitumen and so stabilise the road surface and make it less sticky.

“Drivers may be bemused to see the gritters out in the summer when they are usually spreading grit and salt during the winter”, said Howard Robinson, chief executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association. “However, this is effective standard practice for keeping a road surface safe during extreme prolonged hot temperatures.”

 

[Trouper]

Always remember being told to be extra careful driving and to extend braking distances when rain fell on roads which had been dry for a long time - something to do with build up of rubber deposits from tyres. Not sure if horses are affected in the same way.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I’ve not noticed mine slipping on the road but I cross them over a concrete farm yard from the field to my little yard and that’s pretty lethal at the moment.

 

[scruffyponies]

Not slipping as unshod, but I am fairly certain the roads are considerably softer than the fields ATM.

 

[cariadbach10]

Scoot boots are really coming into their own as the roads get slippier. I rode a friend’s shod horse the other day and really noticed how much slippier it felt underfoot then when you’ve got grippy rubber between you and the road.

 

[olop]

I was going to post the same thing but thought I was going mad lol.
Mine is slipping on the roads and on grass tracks, not our arena or our surfaced gallop tho. He’s shod in front and barefoot behind.

 

[Debsflo1]

Interesting as thought it was just mine and had road pins in.
Lanes in the village are very slippy atm.

 

[ponynutz]

Another who finds this interesting. Mine also slipping more and is unshod - put it down to lack of fitness initially.

 

[xDundryx]

This! Youngster is shod all round not too bad on the road, concrete yard lethal though. I was telling myself it's due to her being big, gangly and not sure where those 4 legs are sometimes!

 

[PeterNatt]

I always hack mine with knee boots on just in case. Some of the surfacing used becomes slippery in dry conditions.

 

[Keith_Beef]

At Équirando we had to do a fair bit of road work both uphill and downhill, and the horses hooves were slipping a lot. Where I live, though, is very flat, so I don't have a very good idea of what is a "normal"amount of slip.

One young woman who joined us for the last couple of days told us that her horse slipped so badly that it fell while she was riding.

 

[Esmae]

Mine slipped and fell last week. Thankfully no lasting damage. The vet said he was the 2nd that day that she had seen. She confirmed that the heat had caused the roads to become super slippery.

 

[Sagamoon]

My Farrier uses 'Road nails'. When he first mentioned them I thought it would put the whole hoof balance out but it is literally a tiny ball of a harder compound built into to nail head itself. Also they only go in the heels of each shoe not every nail hole. They seem to work a treat and the horses seem much more confident on a newly surfaced road.

 

[Bernster]

Mine have road nails in the back but farrier doesn’t recommend them on the front.

 

[Loveponies]

Yes and mine is unshod. Seems to slip more with hinds than fronts. Lanes are well worn and could do with being resurfaced but I should think that is unlikely anytime soon!

 

[BBP]

I don’t think it’s just the roads I think it’s how dry their feet are as well, BBPs feet are rock hard and almost shiny. He tends to slip a lot anyway just with the way he moves, so dry feet and greasy roads are a bad combo.