While you’re getting things ready for working calves, don’t forget to kick the tires on the one of the industry’s most relied-on pieces of ranch equipment: your horse.
Many ranch horses get a vacation from work during winter. Often they are out on big pastures or maybe fed a little hay, and some may not have much hoof care until spring. Jeff Minor, a farrier at Baker, ID, gets a lot of calls when weather warms up, when ranchers need horses trimmed or shod—ready for working cattle, branding, taking pairs to new pastures, etc.
“If those horses haven’t been trimmed since shoes were taken off last fall, their feet are usually too long in the toe and there may be splits and cracks in the overlong hoof. The important thing is get the feet trimmed back to proper balance. Whether you put shoes on or not, the foot needs to be properly trimmed,” he says.
“If they are too long in the toe, it puts strain on the back tendons. If a horse is flat-footed, the feet tend to platter out and are more prone to breaking at the quarters. You definitely want them trimmed before you start riding again,” says Minor.
“If cracks are serious it may take more than just trimming; the feet may need shod to get the pressure off the crack, sometimes with clips to stabilize a crack on each side and keep it from continuing to widen—giving it a chance to grow out,” he says.
“If conditions are wet and muddy you need to check for thrush and treat it, and if soles are soft you can’t just put that horse back to work or he’ll get tender. In some cases, a horse may need hoof pads with that first set of shoes, to protect his soft feet. By the second shoeing he may not need the pads,” Minor explains.
Sometimes when Minor goes out to shoe horses in the spring for some of his clients, he encounters horses that still have shoes on from last fall.
“Leaving shoes on all winter—without the feet being trimmed and shoes re-set—is not recommended,” he said. Those horses’ feet will be out of balance, and sometimes shoes get loose and hit the opposite leg, causing injury.
When it’s time to get horses in and take care of their feet before they go back to work, plan ahead and get it done before you need to ride them.
“If you are calling your farrier, remember that it’s a really busy time. Be considerate and call ahead far enough to get on the schedule. He/she may not have time to work you in at a moment’s notice just because you need to ride the horse tomorrow to gather and brand calves. Everyone else is calling that farrier for spring trimming/shoeing. Give your farrier a heads-up in advance. I’m as out of shape as the horses are, in the early spring, and it’s nice to be able to start gradually before I get completely booked up!” says Minor.
The hooves generally don’t grow as fast in winter, but as soon as there’s green grass and warm weather the hoof horn grows more rapidly.
“The horses are shedding winter hair—growing a new short summer coat—and growing new hoof horn. That’s definitely the time to be checking feet, to make sure they are not chipping or breaking because they’ve grown too long,” he says. — Heather Smith Thomas, WLJ correspondent
