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Our 2 older horses are only shod in front, but the farrier
told me he has not heard that the screw-in studs caused more injury than
borium rough spots on the shoes. These studs last longer, but I can't
help thinking that the quick catch if they were to stop suddenly or turn
could not be damaging. They appear to be used to them and this is the
second winter I have used them without any falls or apparent injury.
Your thoughts?
Thanks. Dana
--- On Tue, 12/15/09, Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>
wrote:
From: Karen Nesbitt <spanishequines@yahoo.com>
Subject: [MSAR] Borium caulks and fitness
To: "MSAR" <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 3:15 PM
Message: 5
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:43:11 -0600
From: Joe Volz <volz.joe@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MSAR] Horses hooves
To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID:
<b6928e0a0912141443j1238dab6v4a602d4cb96371d3@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
My guess is how the borium is put on. My farrier cuts 3 pieces-- one
for
toe and one for each heel. He then puts it in his furnace to heat it
up and
then he slightly presses down on the borium so it leaves it with a rough
surface. It lasts me one season because the shoes/borium do wear
down. I
find them very beneficial when I go trail riding because some of the rock
ledges on the trail in Shawnee National Forest get a little wet and
slippery.
On Fri, Dec 4, 2009 at 2:39 PM, <emboote@aol.com> wrote:
> Joe,
>
> Thanks for sharing your experience, and I should have been clearer. I
don't
> use the screw in removable studs, but have spots welded to the bottom
of the
> shoes. It sounds like you have the same thing and had better success
them.
>
> Emily
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Volz <volz.joe@gmail.com>
> To: Mounted search and rescue <msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Sent: Fri, Dec 4, 2009 12:53 pm
> Subject: Re: [MSAR] Horses hooves
>
> Emily,
>
> How have the borium studs worked for you? I found that they were
more of a
> severe grip on the asphalt than the regular borium spots.
>
> In my mounted police work, there were times I needed to do some
spinning
> and i became worried about straining the tendons.
>
> Joe
>
> On Sat, Nov 28, 2009 at 8:36 AM, <emboote@aol.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> When you talk to your vet or ferrier, tell them the kind of work
your
>> horse needs to do and that makes a difference in what they
recommend is best
>> for you and your horse.
>>
>> I need to be ready for urban security and rural field searches,
plus any
>> weather conditions...ice and snow season is approaching, so I use
snow pads
>> in the winter to keep snowballs from forming, plus shoes with
borium studs.
>> In the summer, I put shoes on them because we're frequently in the
mountains
>> with sharp rocks and stones and I've learned from past experience,
to
>> protect them so they don't get bruised. I've tried shoeless but
with the
>> amount of daily riding we do, the hoofs were wearing down too fast
on the
>> city patrols because of the asphalt and cement we work on. With a
herd of
>> six, there are differences in what works best for each. I've just
learned
>> over the years that while the hoofs vary from horse to horse, the
factor
>> that makes the difference is what kind of work they're expected to
do. I
>> don't want a barefoot horse stepping on something downtown that
can cause an
>> injury. They're pretty good at letting me know if they don't want
to step
>> somewhere. My mustang would go up the trails in the Black Hills
and not step
>> on a single rock when he was barefoot. He tends to be flat. With
shoes, he's
>> not as concerned.
>>
>> How's the new MSAR group doing down there in Georgia, Steve?
>>
>> Emily
>>
_____________________________>>>>
Joe, Emily
etc...for those of you having gaiters...
I personally
do not advise the use of borium on especially Paso gaited horses.
Based on experience with them on my own.
When I was
new to the Paso breeds I thought it would be best to put a set of
boruims on my Paso Fino to ride in the winter. Thought it would give
her better traction. Afterall, it did for my quarter horse,
so figured it would work onher. Even my shoer thought that was
correct. What I learned is that it stuttered her gait and the borium could
have caused major lameness issues.
She wore the
set of boruim welded caulked shoes for 5 weeks. In that time I
encountered misirable snow balling while she was at pasture making it
horrible for her to walk. While riding, she did not snowball as badly
only because her quick gait would knock them out, however the caulk
gripping the pavement would interfere with her natural gait. It was
hardly noticible, but I could feel the difference and what was occuring was
excess concussion to her legs and knees and shoulder and the
action if allowed to be continued could be detrimental. As it
gripped the pavement it also jammed her knees thus jamming the shoulder.
Upon 5 weeks, that horse wore the borium caulks right off the
shoes and I had to get the shoes removed. The mare was so quick
gaited she wore the nailheads to paperthinness in that time..howewever the
first couple weeks were the weeks that could have caused the most harm, but
fortuneately for me for her it did not.
My shoer at
the time could not beleive any horse could wear off the boruim caulks
he welded on any shoe he made and how he had done them and he never
had any horse do that to any shoe he set before. He did mainly
trooters and had no problem and insisted they would last 8-12 weeks or
better and could be reset on them. He did not encounter many pasos at
that time.
During week
4 of her wearing the shoes I noticed her gait improving, however she would
slip on the pavement. The borion was nearly wore off by that
time. I did extensive trail riding at that time even in the
winter. The work was hard fast hours a day daily. My
shoer also told me, most people did not ride there horses as much as I did
and no less in the winter. Most riders are weekend warriors, which is
even harder on a horse since they lack perpetual condition. They
actually are not rode enough to stay in a good peak condition and most are
stall bound.
Upon
disucssion with my shoer we decided it was not good for the breed of horse
so we let her go barefoot and she has been barefoot ever since and
now at age 30 the mare has the best feet and has never suffered
any lameness in her life and remains sound today.
I do not
recommend these kinds of shoes for any Paso simply because prolonged
use and the prolonged struttering in the Paso gait these shoes can
cause will only lead to permanant knee damage in time and cause
shoulder lameness as well due to the gripping concussion..
Paso gaited
horses are quite sure footed pretty much no matter what the terrain when
barefoot. About the only time I recommend shoeing them is if you have
a horse that cannot handle rocky terrain and even then I recommend staying
with a flat plate minimal shoe or if it has a bad foot and requires a
corrective shoe to start.. The majority of SOUND horses if
allowed to go on a natural hoof will develop a foot that can handle even
rocky kinds of terrain. There is a lot to be said for the natural
foot. It is importand for the hoof no matter what to be able to pump
the blood and circulate.
I want to
add something about weekend warriors here in that most of your horses do
not get adequate exersize for their specie even if
pastured. Because they are primarily idle, when worked hard only
periodically, their bodies do not get the chance to develop a lean hard
muscled body that a fully conditioned FIT horse will have.
Weekend warrior horses or idle horses are also largely kept way too fat and
often fed improperly. They have the most problems. They will
lack stamina and endurance. They will have fat flabby muscles and be
soft and have what I call "toaster bums" (A fat rump
with the dip on top!) Many score a 9 on the body condtion
chart. A nine is not the best score and neither is a 1.
These animals and their hearts will not be as tweaked as a horse
that is lean and fit and properly in condition.
In most
stables today unless someone has a race horse or endurance animal, it
is almost pretty uncommon to see a peak fit condition horse unless you work
the individual horse several hours a day every day and they
are properly fed. Most are way too fat. Fine tuned fit
horses have little body fat and are lean flat muscled and score
around a 5 in body condition. Many people do not know what
a fit conditioned horse is supposed to look like, no less what the fit of
most breeds are supposed look like. Scoring high on
the horse body condition chart for fitness is the wrong way to go.
Properly fed
and properly conditioned horses will also have good sound feet.
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