As a horse owner, you are the person most responsible for the health and welfare of your horse and its daily care. Even though your farrier may come every 5 to 8 weeks, the horse depends on you to monitor and care for its feet between visits.
Many horses have good "ground manners" for leading or tying, but frustrate a farrier at shoeing time because this aspect of their education has been neglected.
We generally don’t think about horses when someone mentions rabies. The first images that come to mind are “mad” dogs frothing at the mouth, or wild animals such as skunks, foxes, raccoons and coyotes becoming aggressive and attacking people.
Whenever farriers talk about feet, there's a lot of discussion about hoof balance. For sound, healthy feet, balance is crucial, but the concept of balance is not always understood.
Hoof poultices and soaks are used for hoof injuries, abscesses, puncture wounds, thrush, white line disease and other foot problems. Not a recent discovery, poultices of various types of clay and mud have been used for human afflictions for thousands of years, and eventually for their animals as well.
Often, horse owners call farriers first whenever there’s a problem with a horse’s foot. Farriers may find themselves being asked to do the first aid or wound assessment when a horse suffers a puncture, cut or some other injury to the hoof, coronary band or lower leg.
Therapeutic shoeing has made great advances in the past few decades, partly because there’s more interest in this specialty, and also because of the development of better methods for dealing with therapeutic situations.
Therapeutic shoeing refers to the various ways and methods that can be utilized to help a hoof recover from a medical problem, injury or some kind of functional impairment.
Years ago, horsemen used grease or wool fat to try to keep feet from getting too dry and as a moisture-repelling barrier to keep them from getting soft.
Greg Martin, CJF, of Boerne, Texas, takes the unique approach of marketing his hoof-care practice with a Christmas parade float in Boerne and Comfort, Texas. The award-winning float boasts a variety of surprising features.
Life Data Labs Inc. is a dedicated product manufacturer committed to producing premium quality animal nutrition and health products through continuous product improvement and new product development. First-class ingredients, fresh products, consistent high quality and scientifically proven effectiveness are the principal features of Life Data Labs animal health products. And that's why they've produced the #1 recommended hoof supplement by farriers for 12 consecutive years.
Kawell develops and produces copper alloy horseshoes and inserts, giving horses the care that they need to fight issues associated with white line disease, seedy toe and thrush.
From the feed room to the tack room, SmartPak offers innovative solutions to help riders take great care of their horses. SmartPak was founded in 1999 with the introduction of the patented SmartPak™ supplement feeding system. The revolutionary, daily dose SmartPaks are custom-made for your horse, individually labeled and sealed for freshness.