hoof hardeners

[Lucy Chaplin Trumbull <elsie@calweb.com>]

Angela C. McGhee wrote:

> The bottom line is, I started putting it on his soles regularly (Maybe
> once every week or two) and his hooves started crumbling around the
> clinches.  I didn't realize what was going on until I noticed how
> terribly my hands would dry out after applying it, even though I did not
> touch it.  Just the fumes would suck the moisture out of anything.
> 
> Just in case anyone recommends formaldehyde, make sure you only get it on
> the sole, and don't do it very often.  By the way, it will really harden
> the sole.

I'm confused by this idea of hard/versus soft feet in horses.

If you're travelling over rocky terrain, you want the horse's
feet to be hard, so he gets no bruises on his soles, right?. 

But you also want his frog to be rubbery, to absorb shock, to keep 
his legs sound?

Where I board my mare, the ground basically sucks all moisture
out of the horses' hooves, so most of last summer, Mouse (who's
not shod) had really brittle feet and her frogs were like rocks.
Now the rain has come, I suddenly see what her feet are supposed
to be like. But wonder if she will be more tenderfooted because
of it. 

Any thoughts?

-- 
**************************************************************
Lucy Chaplin Trumbull - elsie@calweb.com
Displaced English person in Sacramento, CA 

http://www.calweb.com/~elsie
http://www.calweb.com/~trouble
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