Zano had his shoes taken off when he injured his knee. It seemed pointless keeping them on when he wasn’t doing any work. My farrier, Jason, recommends that horses have their shoes taken off once a year (if that’s possible) beacuse it allows the hooves time to recover from having nails knocked into them. The funny thing is, I think Zano moves better without them. He’s got brilliantly hard and sturdy hoof walls, but his hooves and front legs haven’t got the best confirmation. It might be that, without the shoes, his hooves can find their own natural balance. We’ll have to see! But, in the meantime, I’ve decided to try and keep him shoeless, with Jason just trimming Zano’s hooves every 6 weeks.
The only trouble is that when Zano goes out on a hack now the soles of his feet are really sensitive. It’s a bit like us walking barefoot on a pebble beach! Well, Zano’s a bit the same and every time he put his hoof down on the smallest bit of stone or pebble he stumbled. Luckily, there’s a solution – horse trainers! Yup, you read that right... they’re like little boots that fit over a horse’s hoof, giving the sole protection and grip, too. So, I’m hoping that this will allow Zano to stay shoeless for a while, and make it much more comfy for him to hack out over any terrain. As well as his boots, my boyfriend’s regularly been putting Stockholm tar mixed with hoof oil on the soles of Zano’s hooves and hoof oil on the hoof wall. His hooves are now – officially – in tip top condition!