We have a boarding facility and one of our boarders wants to fit her horse with calks. We are mixed regarding our thoughts. The boarder is concerned about ice and traction. We are concerned about damage to other animals should one get kicked.
The boarder is very insistent about adding these to their horses shoes.
What is your experience?
You are right to be concerned. I would see if the boarder would consider having the shoes drilled and tapped for screw-in studs. Then, with some practice, she could add some traction on days/rides when she really needed it and not have the risk to her own horse or others. This also avoids having her horse’s natural movement influenced by the traction all the time.
Or, see if some borium smeared onto the toes and heels of the shoes would be adequate. This is a touch more risky for pasture mates, but if not applied too thick, may be tolerable.
Suggest they get the drive-in ice studs instead of calks. They grip very well, do not protrude very far from the shoes, yet are EXTREMELY grippy on slick or icy surfaces. The nearest Hunt has most of the horses on these studs and go out twice a week in all weathers except sheet ice. Sheet ice cuts up the hounds, not because the horses have no grip.
We have used these stud on our horses for 30 years, love them. Horse is very confident when they know their hooves will stay under them on all surfaces.
They only stick out a very small amount, so any kick is not going to make big holes. Stud is only about 1/4 inch on its face. Made of tungsten carbide, they self sharpen by wearing down the stud’s collar as horse moves, to stay grippy. They do not “stop” the leg column hard like borium, drill-tek or calks. But the horse does stop well, just does it without the leg impact of hard stopping traveling up the leg column.
It you have snow, they should also get the snow-rim pads to prevent ice balling up in the hoof. Leaves the sole and frog open for easy cleanimg daily. Full pads (bubble pads) covering the sole tend to get mud under them, bubble quits popping, quits pushing out the build up in the shoe. And you can’t clean under them. Once the packing falls out, the mud loads itself in there. Might work better if you don’t get the freeze-thaw all winter lIke we do in Michigan… Ground and snow get cold, stay cold for winter.
IMHO, the biggest risk of slipping on ice/snow is turnout time - so using removables for riding only wouldn’t solve the problem for me.
Personally, I see little additional risk to the drive-in pin studs or borium. Both protrude so little from the shoe that it shouldn’t be much of an increased risk.
Our horses are all used to going in pin studs and snowball pads all winter.
Is the horse known to kick? Is the horse in a settled herd/group (none in or out in the last couple of months)? Is the horse known to play hard? Are any of the owners of the other horses in the group concerned about the possibility of their horse getting kicked?
I have a horse with a hole scar in his leg from getting kicked with a studded shoe. There’s still a divot that doesn’t grow hair. The original injury was minimal - he must have been out at the extreme end of the kicker’s range and/or not weight bearing at the moment of contact as any closer would have been bad (judging from the neat shoe print on his leg). I have had worse injuries from unshod feet - which isn’t diminishing the risk, but rather saying we were extremely fortunate that it wasn’t worse.
My horse has fronts only and has always been in borium studs for the winter. His farrier of 20 years drills the shoes and the studs are hammered in. He has a 2-degree frog pad. She uses a medicated hoof packing and adds some powdered copper sulfate. He rarely has any thrush. I have a small hammer from the hardware store for the snow that packs the shoes.
The one thing she reminds me of every year is that the borium grips the hoof on the ice. It stops the hoof’s forward motion abruptly. I’ve never seen any problems with injuries to other horses.
What is your location? If you have snow and ice, and horses are not wearing winter shoes, do horses not get turnout?
My farrier won’t put shoes on a horse without traction device(s) of some kind in the winter, but I’m in NY. He considers it abusive. But, that’s assuming horses are turned out.
That said, my mare’s borium studs are quite small. I sometimes save old shoes or reuse from winter to winter because the shoes get far less wear because of the studs, and I have to look carefully at my bucket of old shoes to find them. I would say they only protrude about 2 mm, if that. They are like the bump on a Lego.
I wouldn’t think they are any more dangerous than regular shoes.
ETA: Reading other posts now; yeah, what they said. LOL. My mare is in full snowball pads. They require some kind of packing underneath but can work very well for a horse that needs full protection.
My experience is that the shoeing of someone else’s horse is not your call beyond saying, “If horse gets hind caulks, they will be on individual turnout. Do you think your horse might do ok barefoot behind and caulked in front?”
The. End.
Caulks or tap ins + snow rims are absolutely 100% required for the safety of shod horses AND THOSE THAT HANDLE THEM turned out or worked outside in snow/ice areas in the winter. This shouldn’t even be a point of discussion. It’s fact.
I live in snow country and would never shoe in the winter without some sort of traction. I used to pull the backs for the winter and put borium on the fronts. I agree that if the horse is going to wear hind shoes with traction, individual turnout is the way to go. I suggest the alternative of investing in a pair of hind boots with studs. The horse would be barefoot in the back while turned out but have traction for riding.
I agree with the other posters.
I’m in Ontario. My A/O hunter lives out 24/7 in a herd. He wears four shoes. Starting in November he gets rim snow pads and small ice studs on the fronts.
The risk of injury from a slip is too great. Have you ever tried to walk a shod horse on ice or snow pack? They’re literally skating.
The smart ones go slow, the others? They panic. Not safe for them or anyone in the vicinity.
But even if you have a smart one, you can’t predict stupid things from happening like ice falling off a roof, or a handler slipping and falling and the horse trying to avoid stepping on them. Shoes without traction in winter is a recipe for disaster.
I took lessons at a barn that didn’t use winter shoes; they just didn’t turn out horses all winter. That’s ridiculous too.
Absolutely!
The driveway got slippery for a couple days this year before we got his winter get up on this year and even though he’s a “smart” one I was still holding my breath walking with him.
I was holding on to the very end of the lead, he had his nose to the ground carefully picking each step. But every so often a foot would slide out at a random angle.
A spook likely would have caused a fall or injury. Heck, at points a turn of his head could have thrown the balance off enough for an accident.
I was glad that his turnout wasn’t slippery, and since he lives out I didn’t have to worry about the staff dealing with it.
And for what it’s worth, it wasn’t slippery for me to walk on, even in my summer tall boots. But a horse with four metal shoes was skating.
I boarded for a while at a barn where I helped feed. There were about 20 horses, perhaps half shod-no traction devices no snow pads. They ran the whole herd in for meals-open all the stall doors, open the gate and stay back as the herd runs into the concrete barnyard and separate them selves into hopefully the right stalls.
It was terrifying in the winter. They would come in skating and sliding, as well as arguing with each other. I saw a couple really scary wipeouts, and always felt bad for the old man who came in on snow stilts every day.
I’ve always used winter shoes. My horse has fronts only. The farrier has been shoeing him for 20 years - he’s 26. She uses a borium stud at each heel. Drill out the shoe and hammer them in. I’ve never had one pop out. Heels should land before toes. Studs stop the hoof from sliding on the ice. Keep in mind that it stops more abruptly than the normal action. I’ve never had a problem with them. If you are on regular footing in an arena it’s irrelevant. Same idea for the path of packed snow DH keeps open around the hayfield. I keep a small hammer, 7 ounces, in my tack bag. It’s good for getting packed snow out of the shoe.
He’s on a 6 week schedule in the summer and 7 weeks in the winter. I wait until later in December to do the switch. This is one of those winters with early snow but there are enough warmer days that melt the ice. I found the last pair from this past winter to be reset.
I had the vet and farrier together a couple of months ago for another problem. While she had the x-ray machine out we did a complete set on the fronts. He is in an Avanti shoe, which I love, and has always had a 2 degree pad. The vet pronounced his feet as “perfect,” no signs of potential problems. She said it shows so many years of excellent trimming and shoeing. A lot of people think the farrier is too expensive. Not me!
I had a pretty huge vet bill with a cut all the way down to the tendon as a result of a kick from a horse with borium for winter riding…
IMO opinion removable studs would be a better option for this boarder if she wants her horse turned out with others.
I guess I don’t understand - wouldn’t they be put IN for the horse to be turned out? (As opposed to being removed?) So they would seem just as dangerous as borium studs to me?
We get plenty of snow and ice here and we never worried about them in turnout they were always fine, it was riding that a couple of the boarders felt they needed it pretty much all the time for traction on ice, pavement what have you. After the incident with the kick then the BO said no more borium so they went with the little studs. Those might be an option but borium is so sharp and they seem to hurt themselves on nothing. so IMO if the owner insists on borium… I would turn the horse out alone. Especially if horse is a known kicker.
Thank you all for your input. I met with the boarder over the weekend. We discussed the issue and agreed on safety measures; both for her horse and for other horses.
Best of holidays to all of you
I’ve known horses who had to be put down for breaking legs on icy turnout. A couple of years ago, I knew one who despite her owner being told footing was not safe for turnout even for an unshod horse got turned out and busted her hip. Well, not quite turned out. They didn’t make it the entire 50’ to the intended turnout paddock. That horse was lucky. She recovered.
In many parts of North America, we cannot ignore the fact that horses need traction assistance in the winter or they just plain cannot be turned out. Modifying turnout groups to accommodate those that need 4 shoes year round is a thing, not an out of the ordinary thing at all.
In terms of shoes/caulks/studs causing damage,n well, lemme tell ya about unshod feet. They are sharper than you’d think. My horse is currently recovering from the kind of injury you’d expect from a shod and caulked foot, except none of her friends wear hind shoes. The buddy she had the squabble with got off with a long scrape and a puncture. Yes, a puncture from my horse’s unshod hind foot. We went out to the field expecting to find some sort of fencing issue or other hazard. Nope, just what looked like a murder scene on level ground with zero hazards and a pair of hooligans with matching hind leg injuries. Jerks. LoL
Years ago, another unshod horse left his best buddy with a compound fracture of the mandible which looked like a puncture except for the bits of bone sticking out. When xrayd there was additionally a 6" “hairline” fracture curving up the mandible … and a mirror fracture on the seemingly unscathed mandible on the other side of the face.
Glad you got it sorted out!
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You may also receive promotional emails from The Chronicle of the Horse. You can opt out at any time.
For Customers
Company
Terms of Use
