Walker turned up lame again. I'm not overly concerned about it because with all the snow we have gotten, I have no doubt that he probably frolicked a little too hard, if you know what I mean.
However, it got me to thinking about his shoes. Normally I pull his shoes in the Winter and give his feet a breather. Now that he is wearing the elevated pads, I guess I'm going to have to leave shoes on. I'm nervous that the clumsiest horse on the planet is going to slip on the ice and hurt himself or that this lameness bout is going to be recurring.
Does anyone keep shoes on their horses in the Winter? Someone who lives in a place that actually gets a Winter...
I know that some people put cork shoes on, but I'm just curious. I called my farrier and left him a message about it, since Walker is due to get the toes trimmed anyway. I'll be curious to hear what he suggests.
I'm also nervous because we just got a bunch of freezing rain and everything is a sheet of ice. Literally. Nothing is more fun than scraping two inches of ice off your car.
We keep our Appaloosa shoed and he's never had an issue. We get snow and etc, ice, sleet, rain, you name it. Our farrier recommended that we switch to shoes with tread, like you'd use for a horse that's going to walk on asphalt. We were gonna switch but Spirit's hooves are super short and there wasn't enough hoof. :P (Stupid previous owner who thought it was great to trim herself!)
ReplyDeleteNo shoes for my wee one over the winter. Does he have pads? I would be more worried about snow balling up in his shoes than about him slipping.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be worried about a normal horse slipping, but Walker slides across the concrete floor like a figure skater, only lacking any grace. Hence my concern. He does have pads. :S
DeleteMiles keeps shoes on year-round here in Ohio and I've not had issues with them yet.
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