Hoof Experts: Opinions About Formahoof?

[phippsie62]

My mare and I show in hunter/jumpers,mostly in the jumper ring. For summer showing season my mare was wearing steel shoes with a two-degree wedge in the right front. I hated using a wedge, but my horse has a negative palmar angle on that side and I didn’t want to ride her with that issue uncorrected.

When show season concluded I pulled her shoes. She has never been able to go outdoors comfortably barefoot, but I have several sets of boots she can wear to be hand-walked around the property. i plan to keep her barefoot for about four months while (hopefully) she grows a decent heel. But since she can’t go without exercise for four months, and I’m reluctant to ride her even in the indoor ring with an uncorrected palmar angle, I have researched high and low to find out whether there’s any tech innovation that would correct her angle and allow the hoof to repair itself, meanwhile making it possible for her to go back to work in our program.

I have hit on a new product/system called Formahoof. It’s not a boot, but is molded to the horse’s hoof, sort of like a cast. The hoof is trimmed and a new mold applied about every four weeks for two or three cycles. It can be molded so that a negative angle is corrected. It’s not intended to be permanent, just an assist in healing.

I’m curious about whether anyone on the forum has used the Formahoof? It turns out there are trained applicators in the United States and other countries as well. I first learned of it from an equine boot specialist in the UK. But it is a new innovation and probably not widely known.

[IPEsq]

I have not used it but know someone who did and her horse kept losing them in pasture so can’t say they were a success in correcting her horse’s problems since he couldn’t keep them on. I don’t think I’d use that system for a jumping horse in terms of traction either. There are some other ways using shoes or glue ons to build a wedge using similar pour in material to try ti stimulate growth that would be more secure.

[sherian]

have not used it myself but from what I hear from other farriers it’s expensive and traps a lot of moisture in the hoof. Like any other epoxy type system, good adhesion is highly dependant on the prep work - hoof must be dry and oil free and the horse must stand well - so it limits real world application.

[rulex]

I would focus on finding a good hoof care professional who has had success rehabilitating horses with negative palmar angles. If they use Formahoof as part of the rehab, that’s great. But it’s just a tool and the skill and expertise of the person applying it correctly and advising on all the other equally important aspects of rehab is the key.

[S1969]

@phippsie62

i plan to keep her barefoot for about four months while (hopefully) she grows a decent heel.

Why do you think that keeping her barefoot would accomplish this? Especially if she has never been able to be comfortable barefoot?

What did your current farrier say about you choosing to pull her shoes, if she was shod with a wedge to correct the negative palmar angle?

[DQHubby]

I used it successfully to correct thin front hoof soles on a 17.2 warmblood. Why it worked and all the other methods didn’t (diet, barefoot, shoes with and without pour ins and pads) don’t have a clue why. Once he grew the sole and retained it he was put into Duplo composite horseshoes and his soles were never thin again. He never lost the mold around his hoof and he was out 24/7 year round on stone dust, sand, mud and very wet snow. He wore the barefoot model. Talk to Dr. Taylor, she a podiatrist vet.https://www.facebook.com/DrDebraTaylor/ She helped my farrier. Correct application is key and the learning curve to apply is steep. Cost has increased since I used it 5 years ago but I would still use it again if I ever had another horse with thin soles that didn’t respond to traditional methods or laminitis.

[phippsie62]

Over time, wedging crushes the heel. My farrier favors removing the shoes, waiting until about March, and then seeing how much heel we have then. Meantime, he says to quit worrying so much and go ahead and ride the mare barefoot, on the uncorrected angle, in the indoor ring this winter. In March, if we haven’t gotten much heel growth, she’ll be put back in steel shoes and wedged again for the upcoming show season. Then, every fall, she’ll have a month off (as she’s getting now) and then returned to work, presumably barefoot in the indoor ring, and then shod with a wedge again to show.

This seems to me like a management plan for something the farrier doesn’t think can be fixed. It also seems like a guaranteed shorter performance life for the mare.

I feel like I have to make every effort to correct the angle by growing a better hoof. The Formahoof may fail, or maybe the farrier is right and the hoof will never repair itself sufficient to go without a wedge. But I have to try.

He basically takes the position that the horse is what she is. He doesn’t really believe me when I tell him that when I first met this mare, I inspected her feet, along with a friend who’s a good barefoot trimmer, and her feet were good. After that meeting, the former owner employed some farrier who did a terrible job.

[george]

I have used formahoof on two horses. One Warmblood gelding I did not see significant improvement with. One TB gelding went sound in formahoof when absolutely nothing else would help him. One thing I learned, the product is heat sensitive. It can not get too hot in the farrier truck before you apply it.

[S1969]

So are you looking for a different farrier then?

I don’t agree that wedges = crushed heel. And I question the plan that a horse who needs a 2% wedge should go barefoot in the “off season.” That seems like a pretty big change; either the horse needs a wedge or they don’t (and/or shoes or not). If they can comfortably winter barefoot with no wedge, I wonder how much they needed the shoes/wedge in the first place.

Or, you are right - and this is not going to be a good change.

So, I agree again with the recommendation above to find a good rehab farrier and then let them decide how to manage - maybe Formahoof, maybe something else.