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Products to Help Your Horse’s Hooves
with Dr Luke Wells-Smith
Like human health care, horse health care products have exploded in the last 20 years. Most of what we can buy these days wasn’t around when we had our first pony (if you’re an adult reading this…). This article aims to look at horse hoof care products that can help improve hoof health.
Water Bell Boots
There are lots of different types of bell boots on the market, from the classic rubber pull-ons that require ‘He-Man’ strength to stretch over the hoof to the white and fluffy, which turn brown on first use. However, at Motion Equine Centre, we recommend the use of the water bell boots from Waldausen. These bell boots can hold water, which is particularly important in summer when we want to replace moisture in the hoof capsule. Dunking these bell boots in water twice a day when the hoof capsule is dry helps to restore moisture and reduce the chance of sand cracks. Outside of that feature, these bell boots are in great shape and come in a large number of sizes, from small to extra large. Importantly, when choosing the correct size, the bell boot forms around the heels and touches the ground, reducing the chances of overreaching. These bell boots are a great all-rounder and can be used for 24-hour paddock turnout, or even when riding.
Hoof Pads
Hoof pads are nothing new. Many farriers worldwide have been using some form of a hoof pad for centuries. The difference these days is the design and the materials used. For many years, farriers have been using leather. Although leather is inexpensive and easily modified, it does change with different environmental conditions — it shrinks and becomes hard when dry, and the opposite in the wet. Nowadays, we have different forms of plastic-polyurethanes to create different hoof pad designs. Although a soft pad may be helpful short-term on a horse with acute hoof pain or a thin sole, long-term, soft hoof pads cause the digital cushion to prolapse. At Motion Equine Centre, we have created a carbon fibre hoof pad to support the digital cushion for long-term support.
A word on hoof pad design. Wedged hoof pads can increase the pressure on the heel tubules, reducing heel growth and causing the horse to grow into a negative palmar or plantar angle. Heel elevation is important for horses with broken back hoof pastern alignment. However, there is a difference between using a wedged pad and a flat shoe and a shoe with a graduated heel. In the shoe that has a graduated wedged heel, the hoof surface of the shoe is flat, and the wedge is built into the ground surface. When we use a wedged pad, the shoe is flat, and the pad is jammed between the hoof and the shoe. Because most of these pads are polyurethane-plastic, they have some flex. This allows the digital cushion to push through the pad, increasing pressure on the heels and reducing their growth. But, whenever you’re using a graduated wedged shoe, it is important to use rigid frog support with either a heartbar or a carbon fibre pad. If you don’t support the frog in a graduated wedged-heel shoe, you’ll have the same problem as the wedged pad-flat shoe package.
Sole Pack
Sole pack is also not a new technology, with many hoof care professionals using natural products such as pine tar to help draw out inflammation within the hoof capsule. Today, we use synthetic sole packs to encourage sole growth and retention while improving concussion and stopping debris from becoming trapped in the underside of the shoe. There are two types of synthetic sole pack — dental impression material and liquid urethane. The dental impression material is a two-part product which is mixed by hand. There are different shore hardnesses available depending on what you’re hoping to achieve. The dental impression material can be used under a pad or boot or pushed in and around a heartbar. The advantage of dental impression material is it is non-adhesive and is easily applied, allowing the user to push it into areas where it is needed and keep it away from areas that may be painful. The second type, the liquid urethane, is also a two part product, however, it is mixed using a special gun and mixing tip. The liquid urethane is an adhesive and a practical way to apply sole packing for a horse in full work. At Motion Equine Centre, we use Equipak Clear from Vettec on all horses that are working in any form of bar shoe (heartbar, eggbar, straight bar).
Glue on Shoes
The market for different types of shoes with an alternative to applying traditional horseshoe nails has exploded in the last twenty years. Advances in both adhesives (glues) and the materials that horseshoes can be made out of, have paved the way for new products. When talking about glue on shoes, there are two techniques - direct and indirect.
Direct glue on shoes is where you take an adhesive and directly glue a regular shoe to the hoof. We see this more commonly on the race track, when farriers will glue an aluminium race plate to the hoof. The shoe needs to be made of aluminium because steel shoes oxidise more readily, which can affect the adhesion between the shoe and the glue. The type of glue is important, and one of the first glue glues is still the best - Equilox. Equilox is a two part resin adhesive capable of gluing a shoe to a hoof.
The second type of glue on shoe technique is the indirect glue on. This is where the shoe comes with some form of cuff or multiple tabs to stick to the wall of the hoof. With the development of many different types of shoes, the indirect method has become very popular. In-direct is also more reliable because we’re not relying solely on a bond between the shoe and the hoof along the ground surface. At Motion Equine Centre, we have used the Sigafoos glue on shoe as it is the most reliable on the market and has the ability to be shaped.
’The Sigafoos shoe uses a fibre cuff that can be embedded with glue. The cuff is stuck to the aluminium shoe with a thick polyurethane which helps with concussion. The aluminium shoe can be shaped, which is an advantage over many of the other in-direct glue on shoes on the market. In our experience, the Sigafoos glue on shoes will last reliably over a 4-6 week shoeing cycle and can be left on longer for horse with slow hoof growth.
Conclusion
The horse world is constantly evolving, with new products coming out on the market all the time. The hoof care industry has exploded with new products recently which is great for horses and their owners.
Dr Luke Wells-Smith is a veterinary podiatrist specialising in foot care and the management of foot related lameness in the equine athlete. Luke is the founder of Motion Equine, a business focussed on the overall management of high level equine athletes.
