Farrier - hows this for service

Kenzo

Kenzo

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I was having both my neds shod the other week and as per usual it's like a military operation, one's doing one foot while the other is doing something different on another foot on the same horse, as soon as that foot hits the ground another is up straight away, the other horse is being tended to at the same time in exactly the same way, poor Mackenzie was balancing practically on 2 legs all the way though, shifting his weight and lifting each leg in turn wondering which one they wanted up next :D, I swear to god that horse was rolling his eyes at them...least he stands like a rock now.

Anyway all shoes were on all fours, I thought after they'd finished doing the final file around the edges of the shoe they were all done but no no no they were back up on the hoof stand again for a further gentle file all around the hoof wall ...and then

*drum roll*

...a round of Kevin Bacon's Hoof Dressing on all fours!

I mean eh? I don't even own a tin of hoof oil these days but even when I did, I pretty much just dorbed it on, I watched with further interest and anticipation, it was being applied with love and care, very carefully and skilfully painted with on absolute precision, a neat ring just below the coronary band and not a drip went to waste or on the coronary band.

I was might impressed and shocked at the same time! :D
 
Tackytoe said:
My farrier applies Kevin Bacon too!! ;-))))
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Really? that's interesting though.

I wonder if it's a new thing they have started doing also do they use that paricular one because they rate that product...as in it does exactly what it says on the tin?

Do they only recomend to apply it after the horse has been shod, I was always told previously not to bother using hoof oil (unless to make them pretty for the showring etc)

Dam, my farrier is not that special after all :D;)
 
ferrador said:
i hope they charged extra for the hoof oil . it takes time to put on .
chris
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Well it certainly took them longer than when I've applied it put it that way :D, which is what I found quite amusing at the time, (bad mother;)) once I'd figured out what was being applied.

If there charging for it they can ask if I want it first, no their good lads, they don't charge extra for road nails either, so I'm not complaining.
 
Kenzo said:
In that case, I shall buy a tin then and start putting it on, have you noticed a difference when using it?
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Yes. I recently changed farriers and it was the new one who suggested it as he complained my horse's feet were dry, brittle and cracking. Along with changing his diet (suggested adding seaweed, biotin and rosehips... actually had already done that a couple of months before but obviously it takes a while for the better quality new hoof to grow down) to encourage better hoof growth, he suggested putting KB dressing on every other day. He's struggling because he's out 24/7 on very dry paddocks. I sometimes wet his feet and when they've dried a bit so are just damp, paint it on as it acts to seal in the moisture that way. We're 5 weeks in and his feet do look better. He has better hoof growing down anyway - from the top to about half way now the hoof is much tighter, if that makes sense, and this bit looks great since having the KB on most days. The lower half of the foot is crappy but this will grow out - even this part has benefited and looks better, less dry.
 
That's good to know then.

Mine are on Seaweed (been feeding it for years) but yes ours are out 24/7 now and it's been so dry, however lado is hosed down (his legs and hooves) everyday after work so I'm hoping that the moisture gets in that way, they have always been in really good nick but I've noticed this month they are looking dry and getting those fine cracks around the nails.

The supplement I use has is an alrounder and has seasweed in but prior to me using that I used to just feed it a straight seaweed supplement, so I'm wondering if the feet are changing because of this, perhaps I need to add a little extra seaweed into the feed...hmmmm as I've noticed the mares (typical TB feet) have also started to crack and not look as healthy and strong as they used to.

Thanks for your input.
 
I started off with Simple System Total Eclipse and nothing really seemed to change while he was on it. It's expensive so I now feed magox, brewer's yeast, seaweed and linseed straight - I've noticed a big difference in him since I changed over. His grassy/gassy belly has gone down which I assume is because I can change the dosage of BY as required - within 3 days of feeding BY straight, he looked much happier and had less of a belly. His coat is gleaming too, which I assume is the linseed.

I will say though that about half of his hoof growth (top half, ie from coronet band to about half way down) correlates to when I started feeding the SS Total Eclipse and it is much better quality hoof than the bottom half. It obviously was helping him as otherwise the hoof growth wouldn't have changed, but he seems better in himself (as I say, coat, digestion etc) since going on to straight supplements a month ago.

The gateway to our field is just dust ATM and I must admit I'm tempted to tip loads of buckets of water over it to make mud, just so the horses have somewhere softer and damp to stand. I can't cope with this weather!
 
Mine never shoes a horse without applying a hoof dressing!! we have the same conditioner he uses and apply it religiously as our are on the beach everyday so feet can get very dry very quick from the salt!
 
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