Re: RC: barefoot horses

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated Fri, 6 Jul 2001  1:18:26 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com> writes:

<< I totally disagree with this practice [hooves in water].  Maybe things are different where
you are, and where this was written, but around here if a horse stands in
water, he stands in red clay mud.  Go out and put your hands in it for a
few minutes to "moisturize them" then take them out and let them dry. 
Now do that for a few days and see how dried and cracked your hands get. 
Nothing will draw the moisture out of your skin like that drying mud.>>

Amen to that, Angie!  We don't have your red clay, but we have bentonite.  For ourselves, during irrigation, it is a constant battle to keep hands and nails from drying, splitting, breaking, chapping, etc.  Clays and some other types of soil are WONDERFUL drawing agents for REMOVING moisture from tissues.  Why else would we use clay poultices to remove swelling from legs, for example??  (Also, think of how your skin shrivels when you stay in the tub too long...)  Our climate is very dry, and the best way we have for keeping healthy hooves on horses (shod or otherwise) is to keep them OUT of the water!  An occasional creek crossing is not a big deal, but any sort of staying in the water is very detrimental, in my experience.  Our horses are out 24/7 in the dry, and by and large have very healthy feet as a result.  The only ones that are shod are the ones whose workload surpasses their growth rate.  And sometimes it takes several months for horses who are used to having wet feet!
 to toughen up to the point of h
aving healthy feet in "natural" conditions.

Heidi (who also tries hard not to overrun the water tank...)