Vent: watched a shoe go from perfect to pancake in 3 months flat

I trimmed a mare back in March for a client near Lexington, and her fronts looked textbook. Three months later I come back and those same hooves are flaring out, sole flat as a board. Owner had been letting her stand in a muddy paddock 24/7 with no dry turnout. How do you guys get clients to stick to a dry lot schedule without them blowing you off?

3 comments

3 Comments

ray1891mo ago

Wait, she just left her in mud all day with zero dry turnout?

jakeb251mo ago

... yeah I get what you're saying, @ray189. I had a horse years ago that I couldn't keep dry no matter what I did, and it was a nightmare trying to manage her feet after mud season. What finally worked for me was building a small gravel pad right outside the gate where she could stand off the mud, even if it was just for an hour a day while I cleaned the stall. Also started rotating her between two different paddocks so one had time to dry out while she was on the other one. Not a perfect fix but it helped a ton with thrush and keeping her comfortable.

sammoore17d ago

One of my buddies had a mare that basically lived in a mud pit one spring. She was a rescue and the owners before him just left her out in a field that turned into soup. By the time he got her, her hooves were wrecked and she was sore all the time. He spent months just trying to get her feet healthy again and it was a constant battle with thrush and white line. It took a special farrier and a dry lot setup to finally get her comfortable. That kind of neglect is hard to come back from and it really sticks with a horse.