Chestnuts and ergots

Nothing gives me more pleasure than twisting them off!! A friends horse was picked 1st in his 1st class at a show and the judges only comment was "get those chestnuts off before the championship please" and friend said she was never able to get near them - i cone along and twist them off before the horse knew what was happening and went on to get reserve supreme of show.
 
Mine wont let the farrier trim his chestnuts (suspicious Welsh D) so gave me the tip to coat them daily in baby oil and they should soften enough to peel off, have done this recently with both his back ones and it worked.

These were his back ones think it wouldn't be so easy with his fronts hed probably be an idiot over me trying to peel them off...
 
we have curly stalky ergots, it is very rare that you can twist them off and it is clearly uncomfortable.
The chestnuts do start to flake and you can work your way round them over a few days so they eventually come off.

Since having hoof nippers I use them :p
 
cobgoblin said:
Our farrier's dogs queue up for the curly mushroom stalks... Yummy!
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My dog decided not to wait and started nibbling the hind ergots on our cob. Luckily cob is a superstar and didn't boot her!

Cob's end up with hair stuck through them, so she has curly, gnarled, hairy ergots :oops:
 
I never knew you could remove them. My horse’s aren’t bad at all but I’ve just had a really satisfying afternoon tidying them up!
 
If you have a sweet itch sufferer make sure you keep the front chestnuts short because some use them to rub their faces on and make themselves sore
 
Soaking in water will soften them so they come off easily, something to be done when washing the tail. Don't try and pull them off dry, they may well object! The more hairy/heavy the horse the larger the ergots.
 
I believe it's in connection with size of the bone?
Surely a thin legged horse will only have room to grow a teeny one, whereas your nine inch of bone has a bigger leg and hence grows it's own carrot tops. :)
 
I wonder if feathery types having bigger chestnuts/ergots is in connection to the increased production of keratin which gives these types their fluffy feet (and often the accompanying mallenders/sallenders aka Hyperkeratosis).
I have one fluffy cob with giant spidery ergots and big chunky chestnuts that always need nipping off as they never go on their own. She also has typical scabby cob legs and has her feathers shaved off year round.
And the other is a haffyXcob and whilst she has cute little ankle poofs, she's otherwise a non-hairy. She has teeny-weeny ergots that are barely there, and her chestnuts crumble away on their own leaving her with nice, flush, flat chestnuts.

Makes you wonder!
 
Gloi said:
If you have a sweet itch sufferer make sure you keep the front chestnuts short because some use them to rub their faces on and make themselves sore
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Thanks for this tip, I am going to check Mr H tonight - he is itchy horse who gets weird rubs on his head though I think he just finds something hard / sharp to rub his head on
 
equi said:
Nothing gives me more pleasure than twisting them off!! A friends horse was picked 1st in his 1st class at a show and the judges only comment was "get those chestnuts off before the championship please" and friend said she was never able to get near them - i cone along and twist them off before the horse knew what was happening and went on to get reserve supreme of show.
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Glad I'm not the only one who likes twisting them off :oops:
 
asmp said:
Not one photo.???
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no ergots I'm afraid! home in a couple of weeks and dreading what they will look like by then
 
is it bad that I want to see pics of the exploded mushroom stalks?

My pooch loves when I do a trim of mine, hovers around hoping to hoover up the scraps and has them gone before I can blink. They are not long or curly in my case as they tend to drop off before they get too bad.
 
Reacher said:
Thanks for this tip, I am going to check Mr H tonight - he is itchy horse who gets weird rubs on his head though I think he just finds something hard / sharp to rub his head on
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It took me a while to realise how he was skinning his cheeks but that was it :0
 
After reading this I checked my hairy cob and his ergots are as long as my ring finger! 🤢 I will admit to not noticing before because he’ has so much feather nothing gets in there. His chestnuts aren’t too bad as they are visible and I get my farrier to trim them (they are too hard to deal with myself). Luckily it’s farrier day tomorrow so as long as I remember to ask, they’ll be gone.
 
Mine can on occasion get itchy so I will be curious to know if this was an irritant in anyway.
The other ergot has split so not removed that yet.
 
My hairy mare grows knarly ergots, and huge chestnuts. I get the trimmer to nip them off when I remember, but left to their own devices they do seem to periodically shed naturally. I can never quite bring myself to twist them off, though I've tried a few times :p
 
I feel like a right donut! I honestly had no idea you could trim ergots! This is an absolute revelation!
I’ve always kept chestnuts tiny (in fact I love picking them off!) and never had a horse with visible big ergots until little coblet. I like to trim his feather/legs but hate that fresh trimmed or clipped ergot look.

Happy days!
 
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