9. Try not to turn out in deep, muddy footing. Hours of standing in mud may encourage thrush or scratches (a skin infection in the fetlock area that can cause lameness). Mud is hard on shoes, too: The suction of deep mud can drag off a shoe already loosened by alternating wet and dry conditions. Mud also makes picking up his feet a harder job; if your horse is slow about getting his front feet out of the way, he may end up pulling off the heels of his front shoes because he's stepping on them with his back toes.
10. Protect your horse's hooves during hauling. Without covering for his heels, he can easily step on the edge of a shoe and pull it partially loose--then spend the remainder of the journey standing on the nails of the sprung or shifted shoe. Another vulnerable area is the coronet band: the rim of tissue at the top of each hoof that generates new hoof-wall growth. Injury to this area (for instance, if he steps on himself while struggling to keep his balance in a moving trailer) can interrupt hoof growth in the area below the affected spot. The solution: Either old-fashioned shipping bandages and bell boots (large enough to cover the bulbs of your horse's heels and the backs of his shoes) or good quality full-coverage Velcro-fastened shipping boots reduce the likelihood of these problems.
For additional information, see the following articles in Practical Horseman: "Just a Bruise?" (March 1998); "Send Thrush Packing!" (May 1998); "Laminitis (AKA Founder)" (May 1999). Call 301-977-3900 to order the back issues.
AFA Certified Journeyman Farrier Chris Volk cares for performance horses--hunters, jumpers, dressage horses and eventers--from Olympic to local levels out of his Homeville Forge & Farrier Service, based in Washington, Va. He is a team farrier for the Canadian Equestrian Team and traveled with the team to the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, and the 2007 Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This article first appeared in the August 2000 issue of Practical Horseman magazine.
