Using socks to prevent snow balling.

patchwork puzzle

patchwork puzzle

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Hi all, I have read in a few different places that putting a pair of your socks (or OH socks ;) on your horse when it is snowy, will help to prevent the snow from balling up in their hooves.
I am wondering if this is true and whether people do use this method. My little pony gets the snow truly packed hard in his hooves as they are so tiny and also have a very nicely concave sole with shoes (he is driven hence need for shoes, otherwise i would just get farrier to whip them off)
I am thinking of trying this to see if it helps as the usual methods of vaseline, udder grease etc dont help.
Thanks in advance if anyone can give me any info :)
 
Go for a walk with your socks over your shoes and then see how it doesn't work! Snow will stick to them and freeze, so he'll be on even bigger stilts than usual.
Grease is the only way forward. Stockholm tar works best IMO.
 
My little pony gets the snow truly packed hard in his hooves as they are so tiny and also have a very nicely concave sole with shoes (he is driven hence need for shoes, otherwise i would just get farrier to whip them off)
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Hmm....my pony is driven - often quite long distances - and he does not have shoes - been bare for 4 years.

Oh, and he also is a recovered laminitic - and has been many times better since the peripheral loading devices were removed.

It's very simple to stop the snow balling up - get rid of the shoes! Let the hoof do what it was designed to do! :)
 
brucea said:
Hmm....my pony is driven - often quite long distances - and he does not have shoes - been bare for 4 years.

Oh, and he also is a recovered laminitic - and has been many times better since the peripheral loading devices were removed.

It's very simple to stop the snow balling up - get rid of the shoes! Let the hoof do what it was designed to do! :)
Click to expand...

He didnt have shoes when he came to me ( I rescued him, he is a laminitic pony that was about to be PTS as the past owner left him shut up and didnt see to him at all) He was barefoot for over a year and never could manage to cope whenever his work load started to increase. He really feels the hard ground.
I have had a barefoot TB in the past and my mare is barefoot now. I am a great advocate of going as natural as possible. Unfortunately not all horses take to it as im sure you are aware.

Thankyou Duggan, I shall try stockholm Tar.
 
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Yep, grease is best - virtually any will do but you do have to slap it on with a will to make it work and even then it will wear off after a while - don't expect you'll be doing that much endurance at the moment though!
 
brucea said:
It's very simple to stop the snow balling up - get rid of the shoes! Let the hoof do what it was designed to do! :)
Click to expand...

One of mine is unshod at the moment, and the last snow we had was packing so hard that she was on stilts as well as the shod ones. I painted her soles with baby oil in the mornings but the stilts were starting within an hour or two.
So, barefoot is not necessarily the solution, it depends on the type of snow, and the temperature, whether it freezes hard enough.
might try WD40 though, good idea, might not be great for the hooves though?
 
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