How do I make my horeses hooves less sore?

Question

We had to pull my horses shoes off, how do i make his hooves less sore.

Answer 1

When transitioning between shod hooves to barefoot it is common for it to take some time for the hooves to adjust and develop the natural caluses on the sole. There are many good products on the market to offer some additional protection during this period.

2 really good products are

Hoof Armor

http://www.hoofarmor.com

Vettek Sole Gaurd

http://www.vettec.com/65/products/solegu...

Also Dura Sole http://www.durasole.com is suppossed to work pretty good for the transitioning period.

The Vettek Sole Gaurd is the latest I think and is recomended by many of the NH trainers like Clinton Anderson for use dureing the transion to barefoot.

Answer 2

I have heard hooflex on the bottom once or twice a day for a month will toughen them up. The bottle says it will make them softer but I talked to a farrier who said he uses it all the time to harden up feet. Good Luck with him though, sore hooves are way not fun

Answer 3

Why did you pull the shoes.  Sore How, need some more details please.

Answer 4

He needs time to heal from the damage caused by the shoes and this will take a bit of time.  Also, it matters how his feet are trimmed now.  He should have a good barefoot trim that would be natural for each one of his feet.  His sole and frog was probably poor condition because of the shoes but it sounds like his feet/soles in particular were trimmed too short.  No matter why your horse is being trimmed, he should never be sore and lame after a trim.  If he is, it was too severe and caused him injury.  Turn him out to move freely and wait for his feet to heal.  There is not much else to be done at this point.  I would suggest using a pair (or two) of Easyboot Epics with the gator especially if you are going to ride him.  You may need these for 2-3 months depending upon how well he heals.  Be patient.  Help him all you can.  Don't put any junk on his hooves.  they need to be hard and strong.  But I would watch him closely.  Good Luck.

Answer 5

it'll take some time, if ever, to get his hooves used to the ground. my instructor recommended tuff stuff for my horse, so i'm hoping it works. i just put it on my horse tonight

Answer 6

don't ride him for a few days.. keep him on soft grown

Answer 7

They're "sore" because when you remove shoes, the edges are sharp b/c they've been rasped to be flush with the edge of the shoe. Get the farrier (or do it yourself) to just rasp around the edges of the hooves to create a rounded edge to reduce chipping as the nail holes etc grow out. You'll have to do this several times as it will be a month or two at least until the highest nail holes grow out and the feet stop chipping.

Also, paint/spray an iodine tincture on the sole. This will temporarily harden/toughen the sole.

Why did the shoes "have" to come off? Just curious b/c that can seriously affect the solution.

Don't bandage/wrap the feet, this will soften them and make it worse, b/c it'll retain moisture.