Whether it’s repairing a hoof stand with a urethane adhesive or using charcoal to prevent tool rust, farriers are particularly adept at finding outside-the-box uses for a number of products.

The same can be said for hook packing. There are a multitude of practical uses including toughening up a horse’s sole, reducing soreness, drawing out or creating moisture, as well as attacking microbes and fungus. While most farriers use hoof packing to cool their pritchels and punches, there’s another alternative use that Travis Koons employs.

After nailing on a shoe, the Hemet, Calif., farrier applies hoof packing along the rim on the sole surface.

“It keeps dirt and debris from collecting under there and springing a shoe or creating white line separations,” he says. “I’ve also noticed that it keeps the white line soft enough to cut with a knife, even though the rest of the foot is hard and you can’t do that.”

Do you have an alternative use for a product in your hoof-care practice? Share it in the comment section below or email it to Jeff Cota at jcota@lessitermedia.com.

Read more tips from Travis Koons by reading, “The Reluctant Remedial Shoer,” in the March issue of American Farriers Journal.