Fellow Horse Hoof Trimmers Unite! Or shoers!

[Chickerdoodle13]

Man, these pictures make me cringe! That foot looks so painful!

My dad does the trimming on our horses (just the old man who is now barefoot) and we have a farrier come in to shoe the fronts of the trail horses. He is amazing and very skilled as a farrier. The first farrier we had was a cold-shoer and the horses were constantly lame for a day after shoeing. Didn't have much of a choice in farriers at the time. Then we found this guy and switched immediately. Even the 30+ horse with a crack in his hoof was no longer lame after shoeing. It's amazing the difference a good farrier can make! (And it's surprisingly difficult to find good farriers out here! I believe we pay $130 for a shoeing. It's ridiculous but that's considered reasonable)

 

[casportpony]

Kathy, have you tried anything for riding?

I'm kind of funny that way... Even if a horse is slightly lame, I won't ride ride it, but I have had thin soled TB's shod with pads and silicone, but that was many years ago, back in my eventing days.

Source: http://www.aaep.org/health_articles_view.php?id=280
0: Lameness not perceptible under any circumstances.
1: Lameness is difficult to observe and is not consistently apparent, regardless of circumstances (e.g. under saddle, circling, inclines, hard surface, etc.).
2: Lameness is difficult to observe at a walk or when trotting in a straight line but consistently apparent under certain circumstances (e.g. weight-carrying, circling, inclines, hard surface, etc.).
3: Lameness is consistently observable at a trot under all circumstances.
4: Lameness is obvious at a walk.
5: Lameness produces minimal weight bearing in motion and/or at rest or a complete inability to move.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Has anyone checked this horse's digital pulse?
http://www.ironfreehoof.com/equine-digital-pulses.html

-Kathy

 

[seminolewind]

Kathy, I wouldn't ride a lame horse either. Digital pulses? Why. It wasn't going to make anything different.

This horse colicked a few months ago in her small intestine. Was bad. The vet told her they get impactions from that coastal/lousy Tifton hay. It's too fine. He told her not to feed it. T/A is what he prescribed. The barn charged her $200.00 a month for the T/A. After a month the horse was weaned back onto the Tifton. I don't think that's right. Another lady, a week later, same thing. 4 years ago, the horses got a 1/2 flake of Alfalfa every day with their hay. They were all shiny. This past year I put her on a supplement.

I was asking about the glue shoes on horses used instead of metal shoes.

 

[bestponymilo]

Instead of glue on shoes or boots, what about casting? It's an easy (and cheap) way to provide some relief from general foot soreness and allows the hoof to grow out enough to properly shoe (if that's your end goal)

 

[casportpony]

As for riding lame horses, I know most people don't, but if this horse were mine and my only horse that i wanted to keep and ride, I would want a lameness exam with nerve blocks, radiographs and whatever else they do these days. If nothing else, it would provide a good set of baseline data for future issues.

Checking the digital pulse is just a tool I use, that's why I mentioned it.

Glue-on shoes were something we looked into for my retired TB event horse, but decided against them since I did not have the skills to apply them properly, so I just kept him trimmed to the best of my ability. He had *huge* flat feet that grew very fast, so fast, that when in shoes, had to be shod every four weeks, so cost was another issue.

You say the horse had colic... Did it have surgery, fluid therapy or did it resolve with just the tube, water, oil, banamine? I know it's not relevant to this thread, but I had a horse that used to colic several times a year until I did the 5 day double dose of Fenbendazole (Panacur Power Pac). Started doing that about 15 years ago and she hasn't had an issue since then... We now do the Power Pac on all new horses and once a year on all others.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

Instead of glue on shoes or boots, what about casting? It's an easy (and cheap) way to provide some relief from general foot soreness and allows the hoof to grow out enough to properly shoe (if that's your end goal)

I know nothing about casting, but if it were my horse, I'd certainly look into it.

-kathy

 

[onehorse_2000]

Instead of glue on shoes or boots, what about casting? It's an easy (and cheap) way to provide some relief from general foot soreness and allows the hoof to grow out enough to properly shoe (if that's your end goal)

The problem with casting is that it isn't helping the crumbling wall. Sure, it will allow the hoof wall to grow out and grow out to the point of getting a shoe on, but as soon as said shoe is on and any weight is applied (ie foot is put on the ground), the hoof wall will give out, kind of like perforations in paper and said shoe will be deposited out in a field or stall somewhere. The trim on this horse needs to be addressed first, if that is address, a lot of the other issues (crumbling wall) may go away.

 

[onehorse_2000]

As for riding lame horses, I know most people don't, but if this horse were mine and my only horse that i wanted to keep and ride, I would want a lameness exam with nerve blocks, radiographs and whatever else they do these days. If nothing else, it would provide a good set of baseline data for future issues.

Checking the digital pulse is just a tool I use, that's why I mentioned it.

Glue-on shoes were something we looked into for my retired TB event horse, but decided against them since I did not have the skills to apply them properly, so I just kept him trimmed to the best of my ability. He had *huge* flat feet that grew very fast, so fast, that when in shoes, had to be shod every four weeks, so cost was another issue.

You say the horse had colic... Did it have surgery, fluid therapy or did it resolve with just the tube, water, oil, banamine? I know it's not relevant to this thread, but I had a horse that used to colic several times a year until I did the 5 day double dose of Fenbendazole (Panacur Power Pac). Started doing that about 15 years ago and she hasn't had an issue since then... We now do the Power Pac on all new horses and once a year on all others.

-Kathy

Personally, I am to the point that sound is sound, unsound is unsound, each horse is different in what they are able and willing to tolerate. I have seen xrays and nerve block information on horses that should be dead lame, yet they give lessons every day of the week and twice on Saturday and I have seen vets find absolutely nothing wrong with a horse, from foot to shoulder, yet the horse is dead lame. I have spent thousands on xrays, blocks, shoes, ect over the years and it still came down to the same thing, horse was lame today, sound tomorrow and nothing was different between today and tomorrow that I could change.

 

[seminolewind]

As for riding lame horses, I know most people don't, but if this horse were mine and my only horse that i wanted to keep and ride, I would want a lameness exam with nerve blocks, radiographs and whatever else they do these days. If nothing else, it would provide a good set of baseline data for future issues.

Checking the digital pulse is just a tool I use, that's why I mentioned it.

Glue-on shoes were something we looked into for my retired TB event horse, but decided against them since I did not have the skills to apply them properly, so I just kept him trimmed to the best of my ability. He had *huge* flat feet that grew very fast, so fast, that when in shoes, had to be shod every four weeks, so cost was another issue.

You say the horse had colic... Did it have surgery, fluid therapy or did it resolve with just the tube, water, oil, banamine? I know it's not relevant to this thread, but I had a horse that used to colic several times a year until I did the 5 day double dose of Fenbendazole (Panacur Power Pac). Started doing that about 15 years ago and she hasn't had an issue since then... We now do the Power Pac on all new horses and once a year on all others.

-Kathy

Interesting. This barn did the every day wormer. I did mine separately every few months. The barn I'm at now does the 5 day panacur, then a dose of ivermectrin.

The horse did not have surgery. Oddly enough, a week later, her other friend's horse colicked and ended up going to the hospital as well. Just fluids and pain killers and oil.

The vet blames the hay, says it's too fine and clumps up. The barn owner says his Tifton is good. I guess not. There are differences in quality of the hay. They used to add 1/2 flake a day of alfalfa to keep things moving, but they stopped that a few years ago.

The barn was a great place. You can look it up under Gloverenterprises . It's unfortunate that certain things happen and caused me to move on. In their ads they boast miles of trails, but fail to mention you need a trailer to get there.

Casting was my first suggestion, but it's temporary. You can't use it long term.

I've been reading about Eponas, and they look like something I could put on. They look a whole lot easier than Sigafoos with the cuff. (my personal education, LOL)

I would have definitely gotten xrays on that horse. But the "experts" at the barn said she didn't need to. I think the farrier there ended up putting shoes on her with the glue on cuff, no nails. I'm sure he didn't give the horse a trim first. So the horse is still walking on rolled under heels. I've never seen that where the heel is actually 3/4 of an inch long, but folded over so it looks like the horse has no heel at all.

Funny how I was the one that didn't know what I was talking about, but they sure did jump up and give her horse a nice dry paddock, bute, and glue on shoes with cuffs. Was that so hard?