Hoof Armor

[SonnysMom]

Has anybody used Hoof Armor? https://hoofarmor.com/

I have a pinto/arab cross gelding that is about 23 years old. He is retired. He is very flat footed. Over the years he has had 5 different farriers and none have been able to help that. 3 of the 5 were Certified Journeyman Farriers. All have a good reputation locally.
Just to give you an idea how sensitive he is: At one farm the farrier would have him stand on a towel with his front feet once they pulled his shoes since he was uncomfortable on the rough concrete aisle.

He has been retired 2 years due in large part to kissing spine. Most of the time he has only front shoes. Last winter we had to put on hind shoes since he didn’t want to walk around the frozen pasture.

I have just purchased the starter kit for Hoof Armor and going to try to transition to barefoot. We are hoping that spring with the wet ground will be a good time to try this. To go into/out of the pasture he has to walk across 16 feet of brushed concrete aisle and maybe 12 feet of rough asphalt driveway before he is on grass.

I board him at a friend’s house. She has 3 children aged 5 months to 4.5 years old. Both she and her husband work full time. I have an immunocompromised husband. Therefore it is not smart for me to go over regularly right now to paint stuff on his feet such as Durasole or Keratex. I have tried Durasole in the past without much luck with him. Therefore I am hoping the Hoof Armor will be a nice compromise.

We live in a pretty rocky area for trails. Somebody I foxhunted with uses the Hoof Armor on all of her mustangs to foxhunt. Yes I realize they are mustangs and he is not. But in my area you either need to shoe or boot if you want to trail ride let alone foxhunt. The few people I know that go barefoot without any hoof protection are asshats and their horses are clearly telling them they are uncomfortable. The horses hug the side of the trails and try to walk on the leaves and grass and not the trail. The mustangs were perfectly happy to truck on down the trails and showed no signs of discomfort. Since I am only trying for pasture sound I am hoping this will work.

Has anyone used Hoof Armor? What was your experiences with it?

[1bigPercheron]

Yes! It really helps toughen the feet. It has helped me transition my TB to completely barefoot . I use Scoot Boots for rocky or really hard ground just for added protection as we are only 6 mo in to being barefoot and I don’t want any bruising.
A tip for going barefoot: make sure there is absolutely NO thrush, especially in the sulcus area of the frog as this will make them weight-bearing tender. There should be no “butt crack” - split between the heel bulbs. It is surpising how often that is over-looked by farriers ( was in my case, by 2 farriers). My horse had terrible sulcus thrush when I got him and was reluctant to stand on concrete on one foot as you mentioned until the thrush was cleared. The farrier only offered pads with shoes and said " they all have this , it comes and goes" . ugh!!
Many other factors such as nutrition and of course the trim can help you with the transition and overall health of the feet, but that is a deeper discussion!.

[cilla1]

I tried it on both my horses during transition to barefoot (they are an haflinger and an uruguayan criollo). Honestly it helped a bit but nothing amazing. The one who was having more trouble was the criollo, with hoof armour he was not sound but he was a little less sensitive. I had to put on boots anyway also for a little promenade. And he Is a very good footed horse, after transition period he could go barefoot nearly anyway.
I see that tour friend is very busy but I believe your horse is gonna need boots also with hoof armour for the first period. I hope I’m wrong but maybe of you don’t have them you should buy a pair (at least for front feet) that your friend can put on before leading him outside and take off when she’ll bring him back to stable. Some brands are really easy to put on and off.

Regarding hoof armour I suggest you to protect your hands and clothes very well, it’s not at easy to use as they claim and the first times I made quite a mess!

[SonnysMom]

@cilla1

I tried it on both my horses during transition to barefoot (they are an haflinger and an uruguayan criollo). Honestly it helped a bit but nothing amazing. The one who was having more trouble was the criollo, with hoof armour he was not sound but he was a little less sensitive. I had to put on boots anyway also for a little promenade. And he Is a very good footed horse, after transition period he could go barefoot nearly anyway.
I see that tour friend is very busy but I believe your horse is gonna need boots also with hoof armour for the first period. I hope I’m wrong but maybe of you don’t have them you should buy a pair (at least for front feet) that your friend can put on before leading him outside and take off when she’ll bring him back to stable. Some brands are really easy to put on and off.

Regarding hoof armour I suggest you to protect your hands and clothes very well, it’s not at easy to use as they claim and the first times I made quite a mess!

The farrier will be putting on the hoof armor.

Since friend’s husband sometimes brings in/turns out horses I don’t think boots are an option. Realistically if he cannot walk 30 feet across hard ground then I need to keep him in front shoes. Her property is very wet due to how the run-off from the road frontage is so the pasture itself should not be hard for a few months. The fact her field is very wet was part of the problem 2 winters ago. When it was wet it got a lot of hoof divots and then froze. This winter in PA was mild so he was fine barefoot in the back.
Finnegan rubs easily so trying to fit boots on a horse that I really can’t go see in person due to Covid 19 is just not feasible. I used hind boots on him one summer but eventually gave up since I think I picked the wrong size so they would come off while cantering on trails. Thankfully he didn’t mind them flapping around on his ankles from the gaiters.

[wildlifer]

Yes I have used it on 2 horses. I agree that it helps a little but it is not as protective as a boot. It is a layer of epoxy that just helps take the sting out. I can vouch first hand that it will NOT prevent, say, a coffin bone bruise if they hit a rock. From your description, I suspect yours will at the very least still need boots for riding.

I do find it very easy to put on, it helped me a lot to have someone who had used it before show me how it was applied. I think I got about 14 hooves out of my first tube & if I’m quick & lucky, I can do 4 hooves with one tip. Have all your materials at hand & move quickly, the fewer tips you have to use, the less epoxy is wasted in them.

I use one glove on my smearing hand & then put a thick layer of baby powder on top so I can set the foot down on mats without sticking. Dries quickly. You can go faster if you do it over grass so you can put foot directly down.

I have not found that it lasts a full trim cycle of 4-5 weeks, more like maybe 3. It will depend on your ground. So I was glad that the tube lasts longer than I expected, bc it could get pricey quick.

I also found it helped with a foot that tends to get separation at toe, protects that & helps seal any weak white lines too. I like it better than durasole bc it doesn’t contain formalin.

Summary: helpful tool, I still use it, but don’t expect miracles. I’m also always skeptical of claims to “increase sole thickness” unless someone actually checked rads, plus there are many confounding variables there.

[Kyrabee]

I just tried this on my mare. Trying to put off having to use boots for another month. Well…I put it on immediately after a trim and within 2 days, she shed out more sole on all 4 feet taking the HA with it. I don’t know if that was due to the Hoof Armor or my timing was bad and they were going to shed anyway. Trimmer had taken off anything that was loose when she trimmed. It looked like a nice solid base of sole to apply the HA. I thought it was easy enough to apply. Just have everything within reach (all the nozzles) before you start. So, that was a giant waste. It didn’t prevent chips either. For this mare, chips are just part of life when you have to walk on angular gravel. She had hard feet that act like flint as the ground dries out in the spring. I have enough for one more round and will probably use that after the next trim but don’t plan on buying anymore.

Susan