Being that I am "blessed" to live and ride in Old
Dominion territory - ie, 'lots of rocks' and have two fairly shallow - footed
horses.( flatsouled ) I have been padding for years, most often than not, all
year long. I - my farrier, have had good results with
either a "red" commercial packing, sorry, I don't recall the name, but if
interestedI can probably find out what it was; and bonus was
- found we could reuse it for a couple shoeings, just
laid it back in hollow under pad and worked great. However, was
expensive.( About $25.00 a jar, was what he paid at the time. late 90's). Prior
to that we had used silicone caulk, but had trouble with it setting up, had to
wrap hooves in duck tape and hope it would dry and stay in ( seldom did
). ***Several years ago, my farrier found that by mixing a small
amount of *Betadine in with caulking, it sets up almost immediately and
stays put !!, is there when he takes shoes off, sometimes a little grit
gets in but not enough for any problems, even when have gone to "sand"
rides, shoes may wear out, but stuff under pads ok. ( I have not had
problems with thrush, etc. And I prefer horses padded than footsore
and bruised, or with cut soles. If I am feeling really 'bad' about
pads in wet weather ( rarely, :} ) can pour a little
Koppertox, Thrushbuster under pads, but can't say I saw any
difference when I did.) HAve heard others swear by method of cutting a
quarter,nickel - size hole at toe of pad, but my luck - that is where
horse would 'hit' that stone, and why cut up a good pad.? I use plastic
type pads, as leather I find is not tough enough, cuts/tears too easily; and
bonus - depending on amount of riding and where I have been
riding, can sometimes get two sets out of plastic pads. Of note, with horses,
that are used to being padded all time, I wouldn't just stop using pads and go
ride - takes while for sole to toughen up, if I do decide to pull them in
winter. That and at that time - remind farrier to leave sole alone and not pare
it. Also, with padding horses, they can tend to a bit more "slippy" in wet
grass, so use caution. ( had one go down with
me) Stephanie M.
