Dealing with Summer Hooves

This article is from the January 2021 Horse Deals magazine.

In southern parts of Australia, summer has well and truly elbowed spring out of the way and equine hooves are developing that rasp blunting hardness. Good for horses; not so good for farriers.

Actually, good at least for wild horses that have evolved in a semi-arid environment, but not so much for domestic horses because they don’t have hooves with the internal fortitude of their wild cousins, and they need to endure the weight of a rider and saddle, which greatly increases the pressure on hooves that are colliding with hard ground.

To prevent, or indeed overcome problems arising with hooves in the dry, we need to: maintain moisture levels to optimise hoof flexibility, soften the blow of hooves on hard ground and restore hooves already damaged by the rigors of summer.

Maintaining hoof moisture

The level of moisture within a hoof needs to be maintained, because hooves actually lose moisture by sweating. And they sweat a lot, especially through the frog and to a lesser extent the sole.

If you haven’t already noticed, take a look at the (dry) ground where your horse has been standing for a while and when it moves a hoof you should see quite a hoof print of moisture.

Out of the three components that make up the hoof capsule, the frog (35% water) has the highest moisture content, followed by the sole (31%) and the wall (23%) (Curtis, 2018). It’s worth noting that the hoof wall also has a distinct gradient of moisture, highest at the innermost wall and lowest towards the outer edge.

The wall does not ‘sweat’ much moisture. To avoid dry weather hoof problems, excessive moisture loss needs to be either replenished or prevented.

Replenish the horse
The good health of horses is dependent on a whole series of dynamic equilibria; in this case the amount of water lost to the hoof through sweating is replenished by the water a horse drinks.

In dry weather, horses need to drink a lot of water.

The best way to facilitate an adequate intake is to ensure a supply of clean water that a horse actually likes to drink. Nothing beats fresh rainwater (if you have that luxury).

Be aware that dirty or contaminated dam water, heavy bore water and even highly treated town water may not be palatable, so consumption may be limited.

If you think that a horse may not be drinking enough, change to a better water source. If that is not practical, try adding extra salt to its feed and keep a salt lick available at all times.

Soak the hoof
There is some merit in soaking hooves to replenish lost moisture, but for successful absorption all the way through the epidermal structures of hooves, they need to be soaked regularly and for long periods.

An effective hoof soak can be created by placing posts or sleepers around the perimeter of a tie-up stall, and then laying an oversized strong plastic tarp so that it forms a pool. A few layers of old carpet can be added on top of the plastic to protect it from hooves.

You can leave a horse tied up there, nonchalantly soaking its hooves whilst wrestling with a slow feeder net; ideally twice a day.

Another effective way to soak hooves is to ‘wet boot’ them, which involves putting on hoof boots with a thick spongey pad, filling them with water and turning the horse out into a paddock for half an hour or so (preferably a paddock that is smallish so you can find boots if they come off at the speed of freedom).

As a horse moves around its paddock with wet boots on, it is just like them constantly walking through water; a great way to restore moisture to overly dry hooves.

Seal the hoof
It may be beneficial to seal hooves in order to limit moisture loss, although it needs to be done correctly to be effective.

When sealing a hoof, be sure to apply a liberal amount of the sealing agent to the frog and sole which is where most moisture is lost. It is literally a waste of time to paint something on just the hoof wall alone, because it is already sealed by the waxy periople that is constantly secreted by the coronet band.

A good seal can be achieved by using either oil or polyurethane.

Softening the blow

When dry and hard hooves strike hard ground, beneath the weight of saddle and rider, concussion is a big problem.

Concussion enters hooves in the form of high frequency vibration, which resonates up into the joints and connective tissue of the legs, causing cumulative damage that eventually manifests as chronic lameness (e.g. sidebone, ringbone, degenerative coffin joints or arthritis, etc.).

Nowadays there are hoof protection alternatives to soften the blow of riding a horse on hard ground.

Padded shoes
If your horse wears metal shoes, consider using shock absorbing pads between shoe and hoof. These can be rim pads that are bonded to the hoof surface of the shoe, or they can be full pads that cover the entire ground surface of the hoof and are secured by the nails.

An advantage of using a full pad is that soft packing material can also be added between pad and hoof to further deaden the vibration.

Plastic shoes
Soft and flexible plastic shoes (made from various plastics but mostly polyurethane) are an increasingly popular option for dealing with hard ground. They are viscoelastic, which means they deform under pressure, thus absorbing some of the vibration and reducing the frequency of any vibration that passes into the hoof. There are quite a few brands of plastic shoes on the market these days, but be sure to use soft ones. Not all plastic shoes are soft.

Hoof boots
If wearing hoof boots is a practical option for your dry weather riding, it gives you the best of both worlds: flexible and yielding hoof protection under saddle and a barefoot life in the paddock.

Hoof boots with added soft padding are a great option for those horses with chronic lameness issues.

Restoring damaged hooves

Shod hooves
When shod hooves are very dry, their walls can become brittle and split apart around the nails, increasing the risk of prematurely cast shoes. A well trained farrier can prevent or fix this problem by choosing suitably slim but long nails and driving them through the flexible inner wall and bringing them out high enough to avoid mechanical splitting.

Bare hooves
If your horse is barefoot and its hooves are chipping or splitting, the problem might be fixed quite simply by changing the trim style from flat (the traditional style of trimming with a hoof set up flat as if it was to be shod) to a contoured trim that dips with the sole through the quarters and has a ‘mustang roll’ around the outer perimeter.

It is the outer wall that is the driest and most brittle part of the hoof wall, so it is logical to concentrate the weight bearing on the inner part of the wall which has a higher moisture content and is therefore more resilient in dry conditions.

Roll on summer.

Reference: Curtis, S. (2018), The hoof of the horse, Newmarket Farrier Consultancy, Suffolk.

The Barefoot Blacksmith® is quite a contradictory tag, but it represents the new and the old with equine hoof care. Andrew Bowe is a career master farrier who specialises in the barefoot rehabilitation. Andrew has seen, studied and experienced ‘both sides of the anvil.’ Today, Andrew is happy to share his knowledge and training.

Visit the Barefoot Blacksmith®, www.barehoofcare.com.au

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