Farriers help owners maintain equine hoof health
Routine farrier services and caring for equine hooves between services are crucial parts of equine health.
Establishing a good relationship with a farrier is an important step to caring for equine.
Owners typically spend 30 minutes to an hour with the farrier during each service, depending on the horse’s needs. This regular interaction fosters a relationship between the owner and farrier, making trust and communication essential factors when choosing a farrier.
Farriers typically travel to their clients and perform their work on-site, causing them to spend a lot of time on the road.
“We spend on average 9 to 12 hours in the truck a day when we go out,” said Katlyn Demmitt, a farrier in Miami, Oklahoma.
Equine owners should value their farrier’s time and services, as part of maintaining that relationship with them.
“A lot of owners get their horses up, pick out their feet, clean their hooves and have their horses caught for us, and they’re ready to go when we get there,” Demmitt said.
Between services owners should clean their horses’ hooves, use hoof conditioner, provide horses with proper nutrition and take note of their horses’ performance between services.
If horses are tripping or having other issues between services, owners need to take note and let their farrier know so preventative steps can be taken.
“I like to ask my people, ‘hey did you have any problems this go around with your horse tripping?’” Demmitt said, “because there’s stuff we can do to prevent that.”
Transparency and communication with farriers are a large factor in giving a horse the best treatment. Allowing the farrier a better chance at knowing if it is a disease or simple issue that the horse is experiencing.
A common disease seen affecting equine health through the hooves is founder.
When a horse founders the equine owner should contact their vet or farrier. While this disease isn’t curable, it is important to address it as quickly as possible.
Demmitt said a key to avoiding problems like founder is to continue to seek information about horse health from reliable sources.
“People really need to educate themselves on founder, that it’s not just in the grass, it’s from stress, it can be caused from medicine, and so on,” Demmitt said.
Thrush, abscess, hoof bruising and many other ailments can affect the health of hooves as well. All of these diseases will make a horse very uncomfortable and in need of treatment.
When dealing with hoof health, Demmitt said, veterinarians just try to keep the horse as comfortable as possible.
Farrier services should be every six to eight weeks to keep the hooves from growing to fast and putting strain on ligaments causing further issues.
“Without a hoof you don’t have the horse,” Demmitt said.
