We have one horse who will keep shoes on this
winter for a variety of reasons. We live in an area that normally gets
considerable amounts of snow (Lake effect snow onto our mountaintop in WV), so
we use snow rim pads. They look like a thin rim pad with a "tube"
that runs just inside the inner rim of the shoe. The tube flexes as the
horse steps down & constantly pops the snow out - no ice stilts!
I've used Pam or other oils in the sole area - they
were all pretty useless!
Like Louise mentioned, galloping will help them
fling the ice out, too. How well this happens is dependent on the quality
of the snow - wet, dry ,etc. IF the horse is shod, a few sharp taps on the
rim of the show with a hammer will usually break the bond & pop the ice
out. I don't want to accidentally skewer someone's sole with a screwdriver
by chipping at it!
We have never made it past Thanksgiving without
significant snow on the ground until the following March. Guess
what? I put the pads on Chester & we haven't had ANY snow so
far. Cheap insurance...
With the recent snow and ice
storms in Missouri I've been having trouble with balls of ice forming under
all four hooves of my horses. The problem is more severe with the horses
that are shod. This morning when I went out to feed one of my horses had
a ball of ice about the size of a small grapefruit under his left front and a
baseball size ball under his right front. I took a hammer and
screwdriver and chipped it away.
