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A Few Tips On Dealing With Damp Hooves
Spring is arriving across North American and in many areas, that means dealing with a lot of rain and — of course — a lot of wet hooves.
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Matt Calahan, a farrier from Huntsville, Ala., offered his view on dealing with wet hooves:
- Don’t assume moisture isn’t a problem, just because it isn’t raining. “In Alabama, our wet hooves issues are due to the heavy amounts of dew on the grass that starts about 5:30 p.m. and stays until noon the next day.
- A wet hoof is a bigger hoof. “When the foot is completely expanded (soaked) you get a nice, tight fit with the shoe and secure nails. The foot looks perfect. As soon as it dries out, and contracts all the way down to normal size, you get a little less pressure with your nails and the shoe will have a tendency to move around and come loose.”
- Trim wet hooves with care. “Most of the horses that have waterlogged, unhealthy hooves have less foot than I would take off in a normal trim. It becomes more of a challenge to relive sole pressure than any worries about trimming … The goal becomes to skim the sol out so that you can relive sole pressure and still leave enough for the sole to grow out.
- Shift your nail patterns between shoeings. “I’ll use, for example, the first and third hole during one cycle and then the next time, the second and fourth hole.”
- Get help from your owners. “Explain to customers than putting the horses up at night (when it’s wet) will result in stronger feet and fewer lost shoes.”
COMMENTS: 2
wet hooves
Posted from: Dave Peterson, 11/12/10 at 3:38 PM CST
in the pacific nw we deal with one extreme (wet hooves) to the other (dry hooves) for 6 months of the year our horses have wet soft feet and from july 4 on they get really dry feet. I have found that with proper maintenance and a trick or two helps alot. In the winter I shoe most horses hot and close and use Edward Martins hoof dressing this seems to help alot. In the summer I shoe and use The same dressing.I have found that when the feet are really dry thesoles dry and contract making some horses gimpy. For these horses I have found that soaking their feet in a solution of Lysol concintrate and water helps control the shrinkage and kills any fungus that may be lurking around. I also use Edward Martins hoof coating in the dry summer as well.
congratulations old farriers
Posted from: charly atkinson, 6/25/10 at 2:14 PM CDT
i am praisin all the farriers that wtote the tips on related pages and will do good for young farriers and the horses they shoe when it dawns on them what they have read. it took me 20 yrs to realise that books on horseshoeing are for guidence and back referenceing and exsperience andtips from old farriers are what makes a good farrier. thanks for publishing them.i have shod horses since 1975 and only been a deescent shoer for the last 20.
yours sincerly charly atkinson.
yours sincerly charly atkinson.
