Mounted search and rescue

[Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>]

Irv mentioned "nail plates";  those are hand-sized sheets of steel
cut and bent on the edges to form nails.  They are used a lot in
prefab roof trusses.  When a roof gets ripped off a house, these
plates fly all over the neighborhood and land flat, often with the
nails pointing up.  They will puncture a vehicle tire like a fork
in butter.  I don't know if they would would puncture a horse's
rubber boot if stepped on, but I am sure a horse not wearing hard
pads or boots would puncture its sole.  Whether the rubber would
be enough protection might depend on how fast the horse was moving.

There is another common building material hazard:  a roofing (or
stucco?) nail that has a sheet metal plate for a head.  This kind
of nail often lays head down, point up, and twice I have had my
tires punctured by them.  (What are these nails called?)

In my experience, horses can step on broken glass, even step on
intact bottles and break them, with little or no risk of injury.
The exception is old bottles that are embedded in the soil, and
stand upright.  If the horse clips one with a hoof, breaking it,
the razor sharp brand new edges of the bottle can puncture the
fetlock as the horse puts its foot down.  A similar risk is present
on highway margins that have been allowed to get overgrown, then
mowed just before being traveled by horses, because the stubble 
is rigid and has jagged tips.  Both embedded bottles and stubble
worried riders in the Santa Fe Trail endurance ride a couple of
years ago.  I don't like to use fetlock boots ("splint boots")
because the horse's legs sweat inside them and dirt gets inside,
and together these create a lump that presses on and rubs the
fetlock exactly where you do not want pressure or rubbing.  But,
for riding on the side of a trashy highway I may make an exception.

Similar to fetlock boots are "skid boots", which might be better
protection.  And there is a combination splint and skid boot.  I
have no personal experience with them.

        Una Smith
        New Mexico