Road Nails and Concussion.

[checkmate1]

After been given the go-ahead from vet to hack out, I had road nails put on my horse to help prevent slipping, my physio had a look and said she should have had 2 instead of one in each foot, but anyway...was chatting to a friend yesterday and shes been told that road nails cause concussion so dosent use them anymore? Is it a high risk does anybody know?
Thanks....

 

[AmyMay]

I always have nails put in - and have never had a problem. Any risk is far outweighed by helping my horse stop slipping.

 

[stencilface]

I know that some people don't use anything out hacking ie just have shoes, We use removable tungsten tip studs on ours. They are quite large, but need to be removable so that we can put big studs in for jumping etc.

I know people say this is bad for your horse, and I can imagine its not ideal. But after seeing my sisters horse fall flat on his side at the walk, on a flat bit of road due to him having lost one of his studs (forget to check that day

) I will not be taking mine out anytime soon. Sister broke her collarbone, and its only pure luck that the horse wasn't more than bruised.

I would rather minimal concussion, than falling like that anyday. Plus as we do mostly roadwork (no school to work in) I want to feel as safe as possible, and motorists make hacking risky enough as it is, without wanting my horse to slip and fall in front of a car, which my sisters horse did. Luckily the lady is very nice and horsey and was going very slowly and cautiously past.

So yes, its a risk, but less risky than going splat imo

 

[piebaldsparkle]

I was told by my farrier that road nails increase concussion as foot lands and then can't slip the inch or so it would naturally do. That said if I'm take my horse somewhere and don't know what the roads are like I have road nail fitted (don't seem to need them on the roads round me, except occasionally in the summer). As others have said I'm sure the damage from increased concussion are outweighed by the risk of slipping on slippy roads.

 

[pottamus]

Well I always have road nails and do not worry as I would rather my horse was not slipping all over the place! We have very steep hills and slippy tarmac here...could not hack out without them.

 

[Oldred]

Def use road nails - but two in each shoe is preferable. I just had some put in as new farrier wanted not to use them. I went along with it but found my poor horse losing his back legs and slipping badly yesterday nearly going down. Out today with road nails - no problem at all on same bit of road.

 

[Donkeymad]

Road nails do casue concussion, but you need to weigh the risk up against that of your horse slipping over. Ours pulls heavy carriages and needs the exra grip on hills, otherwise he could be seriously injured, should he be pushed down a hill.

 

[YorksG]

With our hills and the state of the roads, if our horses wear shoes then road nails are essential. Concussion is more of a risk if the horse is allowed to 'hammer' on, rather than being trotted in a more collected pace. IMHO