hoof works

A little over a year ago, I spent some time writing about the products used to help manage Charlie's tootsies.

He's a typical thoroughbred I guess in that his feet are kinda soft, and we went through a not-insignificant phase at the end of last spring through the middle of summer where Charlie was basically on a 2-week shoeing cycle. That sucked just about as much as you would expect.

tell me he's not the most lovable thing

Obviously his feet had to undergo a fairly extreme transition in coming off the track: shortening his toes wayyyy back (for the record, while his original splint injury was self inflicted from weaving, I'm about 89% sure the subsequent flareups were all due in part to too-long toes....), and growing more heel.

These goals on their own were enough to motivate a short cycle - typically about 4 weeks.

RH: fairly prominent crack growing out from when Charlie stepped on a nail and then abscessed last winter; and chipping around nail holes

But then just as we were thinking Charlie could graduate to a 5wk cycle, summer kicked into high gear with bone dry, rock hard ground and lots and lots of stomping at flies, and Charlie basically started walking out of his shoes in no time flat.

LH: surprisingly his one white hoof is the least problematic of the bunch!

Looking down the barrel of Spring earlier this year, I was absolutely determined to not fall into the same cycle again.

LF: you can sorta see how the outer wall chips away around old nail holes and clips

Charlie continues to get the supplements recommended to me by my vets, farriers, and trainers: Platinum Performance and Farrier's Formula. Both have all sorts of fun little extra goodies in them, and Charlie eats them well.

He's on a maintenance dose of the Platinum Performance now, but ramped back up to the full dose of Farrier's Formula once the faintest haze of sprouting green grass appeared this spring.

RF: fairly significant chipping around the edges. nails still tight tho!

Additionally he's back on a religious 5wk cycle, after going through a period of ~6wk cycles (sometimes longer, I admit, esp around his surgery) since moving to this farm last year. Including a couple times when I had him on the list to be done, but the farrier decided not to bc "his shoes were on tight," even tho his toes were getting too long.

Knowing what I do now about Charlie's hoof history and general soundness, that logic doesn't really work for me. So after some trial and error I've switched farriers and am satisfied that Charlie's current guy will basically do what I ask while also feeling free to make suggestions and tell me what he thinks is best for the horse.

front shoes have leather pads + clips

Case in point: Charlie's schmancy full leather pad boat shoes. The farrier at our last barn had Charlie in leather rim pads, which I really liked - but the new farrier says he doesn't like them bc they have a tendency to not stay put.

Personally I would prefer rim pads I think - esp bc of the freedom it allows for things like packing the feet with poultice or magic cushion as needed. But Charlie's been in these pads now for a few cycles and seems to be doing well with them, so I'm just trusting my farrier on this one.

hind shoes just have clips

Especially considering, knocking on all things wooden, Charlie hasn't lost a shoe since last winter. And even that was kinda a fluke - he was super lame from stepping on a nail and abscessing, and his other leg had to compensate and carry a heavier burden. Add in the extremely muddy conditions and maybe that shoe didn't stand a chance.

But so far, through the heat and hard dry ground of June and July, Charlie's shoes have stayed on tight. All the pictures above were taken at about exactly the 4wk mark, and you can see that the edges, especially around the old nail holes, are just starting to crumble a bit.

Luckily, in addition to all his feed through supplements, religious application of Keratex (usually just the fronts, with the hinds maybe 50%-33% of the time) around the nail holes has kept his hoof wall flexible enough to not grow brittle and completely break apart. All the nails except one are still on pretty tight.

So I'm optimistic that the approach I'm taking to Charlie's hooves is working for him. Fingers crossed lol. I never really knew much about the inner workings of farriery before. Obvi I didn't have to as a non-owner. And even tho I was responsible for Isabel's farrier appointments she had such excellent sturdy little arab feet that everything was always really straight forward.

Charlie, as a Size Large OTTB, has been a little bit more of a trial by fire for me haha. But it's interesting stuff! So we figure it out. Have your horses ever required special footwear? Or any extra care in keeping those toes happy? Any products you love and swear by? Or maybe you're one of the lucky ones whose horse's barefoot feet crunch gravel for breakfast?