The Horse:Your Guide To Equine Health Care provides monthly equine health care information to horse owners, breeders, veterinarians, barn/farm managers, trainer/riding instructors, and others involved in the hands-on care of the horse.
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38 TheHorse.com THE HORSE September 2016 A safe boarding stable, high-quality feed, free access to clean water, a secure turnout, a roomy stall— nothing is too good for your horse, right? And then the farrier comes out, and you notice that the gelding in the stall next to yours gets leather pads when he is shod. And the mare across the aisle has pour-ins. Your horse only wears shoes, no pads. And he only wears them in the summer when the two of you are on the go most. What gives? Is your horse missing out? Should he be wearing pads, too? This is not a case of keeping up with the Joneses. Farriers apply pads to horses' feet for a variety of reasons, most of them involving hoof problems. Yes, there are other reasons for pads. In areas that receive heavy snow, for in- stance, farriers might apply anti-snowball pads or snow rim pads to shod horses to keep snow and ice from building beneath their feet. But why should a horse need anything to come between hoof and shoe? The Purpose of Pads We love to see a set of smooth, shiny, straight, dense hooves on a horse. But it's more complicated than this to identify a healthy hoof, which could appear any number of ways depending on the horse. We tend to be much better at notic- ing when something looks off—vertical cracks, horizontal rings, irregular bumps, wide white lines, chips in the hoof wall, thin walls, bruised or flattening soles, and so on. Further, hooves that look healthy one season might change the next. Hoof growth typically slows during long stretches of cold weather. Hooves can get soft during wet or humid weather or turn hard as rock during dry, hot summers. When problems appear, your farrier might advise pads for your horse. "Pads can be applied in many different ways to address many different situ- ations," says Tom DuBois, a certified jour- neyman farrier in Wallkill, New York, and immediate past president of the American Farriers Association (AFA). "There are numerous variables and conditions to consider when deciding when, how, and what type of pad to ap- ply," he notes. "Pads can be used to cover and protect, to elevate, and/or to support areas and structures on the bottom of the hoof. In cases that involve pathology (disease or damage), pads may be applied as part of a treatment recommended by a veterinarian." Travis Burns, CJF, TE, EE, AWCF, is lecturer and chief of farrier services at Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, in Blacksburg, Virginia. "Pads are there to recruit the frog and sole into helping with load-bearing," he adds. "They can spread the load, taking the load-bearing away from the hoof wall." Pads might be appropriate for horses that have thin, shelly hooves or quarter cracks, for instance. They can also serve as long-term bandages for some hoof conditions, he says. A farrier might hear from the owner that a horse has a hard time on frozen ground or walking across gravelly sur- faces, or he or she might notice bruising on the horse's soles during a regular shoe- ing visit. In these scenarios the farrier and owner need to start thinking about pads, says Steve Kraus, CJF, head of farrier ser- vices and lecturer in large animal surgery Hoof pads come in many shapes and sizes, including this leather wedge pad. Veterinarians and farri- ers might use wedge pads to raise the hoof angle when conformation defects or injury call for it. DUSTY PERIN STEP BY STEP MAUREEN BLANEY FLIETNER TheHorse.com/Step-By-Step Hoof Pads: What are They Good For? Sometimes horses need a little extra support or protection