Would you do the same

L

LittleD

Member
Joined
5 March 2009
Messages
13
Location
WALES
Visit site
Hi there, last year my mare had a check ligament injury that, after lots of box rest, healed and since then the farrier has, on the vets recommendation, put pads in her front shoes to raise here heels, now, at about this time of the year, every year, her hooves are terrible, shes on Farriers formula, healthy hooves, keving bacon and sees the farrier every 5 weeks, but when we have dry then wet weather her hooves really break up - in winter they are great - really strong and solid, yesterday both fronts were off - I have been trying to get farrier but he was on hols for a week and is now catching up but really busy, so while waiting for him to come and fix her feet I have kept her in, the reason is that if her hooves break up any more farrier wont get a fixing and as she now has no pads or shoes on the front but still a good set on the backs, I don't want her doing herself an injury, on one hand, I feel I am doing the right thing for her in the long term by keeping her in the stable, but on the other I feel guilty keeping her in when shes not actually injured - she has everything she needs, feed water clean bed and the company of another 2 mares who are bought in about midday, but, would you do the same?
 
We have a very similar situation with an old TB (Kevin Bacon, Biotin, etc. etc.). It's not possible to keep him in, so if he loses (or is about to lose) a shoe we put a boot on that foot, and he wears overreach boots anyway, when he IS managing to keep all four shoes on, to stop himk treading off his front shoes. He's out 24/7 at this time of year and we've had no problems with him losing boots etc. (It also helps the Kevin Bacon dressing as the added warmth seems to make it work better). Hope this is some help.
 
I was chit chatting to our farrier today, he was saying he really loves our 2's feet as they're always very good condition (only trims them, no shoes, but I guess a quick customer is always good profit). We were talking about what makes hooves crumble and he said it wasn't the wet but the dry, and I asked what was the best thing to put on them and he said not an oil but a moisturiser but actually it's best to just stand the horse with feet in a little water for half an hour a day to soak up the water, it's cheap but very effective in rehydrating the hoof. It then occured to me that our two spend much of the day grazing in our woods -alder woods in a (usually) very damp field that runs down to a stream and hence the only place we've any grass (rest is very well drained on a gravel base!). Might be worth trying if you have anywhere you can create a puddle for your horse or find a stream for her to stand in for a while? I guess in the wild a horse would spend a fair bit of time by a stream anyway.
 
Could you try some hoof boots of equicast?

This way her feet will be protected but she wont have to be stuck in.
Could could fence off a small area off field so she cans run around too much but gets to eat the grass
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top