My navicular gelding has eggbar shoes and wedge pads. I don’t want to mess with his shoeing solution usually, since he’s sound…but the ice balls that accumulate are baseball size and don’t fall out naturally. How the guy stays on his feet is a mystery, since its like wobbly high-heels on his front feet 
I was wondering if i should ask the farrier to put normal shoes on backward, as they sometimes do for navicular horses. This would have to be better. Any other options?
thanks!
Probably best to ask your farrier. They know what they have available and what might work for your horse. Normally you would try snowball pads with the bubble in the middle, but I dont know if they can be added to the wedge pad.
My horse has a wedge pad and we just went from the frog support to the plain wedge to reduce snowballs.
We have one w wedge pads. His farrier added the snow pads that have the tubing as opposed to the bubble pad. It makes a HUGE difference. If one thing is about how saddlebreds are “shod up”, it’s sort of the same thing. Hope this helps.
Yes, these work since they keep the snow from contacting the inner rim of the shoe. But they are typically semi-circle shaped for regular shoes. Might have to use parts of 2 pads to cover the eggbar part. Easier to add for sure if you do the regular shoe backwards thing.
They don’t really add any bulk under the shoe, so I think they could be layered with your wedge pad.
On this particular horse, it’s just one pad per shoe and it’s working well. Two might be better in front if they paw in the snow. This horse is wearing them behind.
Edited because I’m not sure I was very clear when I said one pad.
I never had much luck with rim pads to pop out snowballs when he didnt have any other pad. Be interesting to see if it works better with the pad. Need a good foot to hold the layers on!
A couple of days ago I dislodged an ice ball from my horse’s hoof that was 4 inches deep. I don’t know how he was walking on that. My guy is barefoot, so I can’t offer any suggestions other than talk to your farrier. Just wanted to say I feel your pain.
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