Hoof Boots for Hunting?

[Jamana]

I wonder if anyone has successfully used hoof boots out hunting?

We have a horse on the yard that really struggles to keep shoes on. He is a big bulky cob with big feet but has very thin walls and very slow horn growth. He is not helped by how he slightly twists his foot every time his weight lands on it. He is built pigeon-toed and there isn't a lot we can do about his action.

Currently he has light-steel shoes and needs re-shoeing every 3 weeks as leaving him any longer causes the wall to split. Between shoeings he hardly grows any horn so new nails are going into horn with hardly anything below them.

Farrier is scratching his head and Vet recommenced glue-on's, but they don't make glue-on's big enough!

So we thought about hoof boots, but would these cope with hunting and the mud and banks that are involved?

All ideas welcome!

BTW he has been on hoof supplement for 12mths, but no change.

 

[Clava]

Maybe the hooves need to be improved with diet and management before searching for boots if the hoof walls are thin and poor growth. I use Easy Boot Gloves to provide protection over stubble fields of flint (which don't go very big in sizes), but I would want healthy hooves first if possible.

 

[Jamana]

Maybe the hooves need to be improved with diet and management before searching for boots if the hoof walls are thin and poor growth. I use Easy Boot Gloves to provide protection over stubble fields of flint (which don't go very big in sizes), but I would want healthy hooves first if possible.

He has been feed to try and improve his feet but to no avail. The Vet said that supplements/diet etc are fine if the problem is actually a deficiency, but in this cast it is just how he is conformed. He had his shoes off all summer and wore his feed down just in the field so much he only required one trim to the other resting hunter's three. I think he probably has the feet from a finer bred ancestor but with a great big body plonked on them!

How do you find your boots cope with mud?

 

[cptrayes]

Having just got in from a hunt where one horse fell in the mud because it couldn't get its feet free, and all of us had to cross a ditch where the mud on both sides was more than a foot deep, I think anyone who tried to hunt in boots would be a bit mad, sorry

There were five of us out today with no shoes on, four big horses and one big pony.

Was the horse sore on his feet after the summer without shoes, or were they just short?

I would personally test the horse for insulin resistance and Cushings, as both will cause foot problems.

 

[Jamana]

Blood result came back negative for EMS and Cushings (Cushings test was a freebie!) now had a biopsy of the horn taken to see if there is a lingering bacterial infection. Next step is to take a cornet biopsy to see if the horn is being laid down correctly. He seems to have more than one factor causing the issue, poss bacterial infection 'blowing' the horn layers to make them prone to split, conformation that twists his foot on the shoe putting pressure on the nails and clenches, thin walls for a heavy cob and poor amount of growth.

Not quite sure how we are going to combat all of those problems!!

I didn't really think boots would be suitable for hunting, a bit too cumbersome. Personally I would like to try him with no shoes but the owner is adamant he is shod.

 

[maccachic]

Is the horse getting suffient protein? I would be doing a nutritional analysis of what it is currently being fed - "as fed analysis" and comparing to what vits and mins he needs, hoof and hair are the lowest of the horses priortys so if they are deficient they are the first things to show it.

Vets from my experience don't do a lot of nutritional training so I would find an independant nutritionist / use ****** / or nrc's free calculator.

Not all complete feeds / multi vits and mins are actually providing the required vits / mins / protein for your specifics horses situation so it wass to sit down and work it out.

 

[maccachic]

Gah for some reason I can't post the xl feed calculator site but I am sure you can find it if you google it.