Hooves and pea gravel... and DDFT

[SedonaThunder]

I finally did it - I spent the money and made the paddocks of our stalls into what the "barefoot hoof enthusiasts" say is "best". We laid down about two inches of 5/8 washed gravel, then laid hoof grids over that, then brought in enough pea gravel to fill in the grids and have two-three inches over the top. It looks beautiful... it drains beautifully... AND IT IS LIKE WALKING ON THE BEACH! It's darned near impossible to push the wheelbarrow through if it's more than half full and my poor boy (Timber) with the DDFT lesion is NOT fond of walking through it. I sure hope it does "all that and more" for their hooves (they'll stay dry for a change so maybe no thrush this winter anyway:)) because I'm feeling really guilty for making Timber walk around in this. I'm not sure if it will do damage (he goes out of his stall to potty in this and he didn't used to bother so he likes it for that) due to the extra flex and tendon use or if it will maybe strengthen it... any opinions?

[vicklynn]

Cool!!! Whats a grid????

[SedonaThunder]

It's pretty cool stuff - here is a link http://www.hoofgrid.com/. It's pretty spendy though so we only did the runs off their stalls (about a 12'x20' space) as that's where the gravel constantly disappears and mud reappears. There is a farm down the road from here that did a whole 1.5 acre pasture and planted grass over it - no more mud.

[AppyLady]

Sounds great! It'll be interesting to see how well it works to strengthen their hooves.

My horses live on pasture 24/7, so I try to spend a lot of time riding on gravel roads during the winter. That helps get their hooves in condition for a summer of riding on rocky trails. It helped my Thoroughbred a lot, but really doesn't do much for my tenderfooted mare. She still needs boots on trail rides. I'm hoping it'll work with my Paint gelding so he won't need boots as often.

I wish all of my horses had hooves like my Kentucky Mountain Horse filly. She can go barefoot over the rockiest of trails, with no conditioning on gravel. She's amazing!

[WashingtonBay]

Hey - now that grid stuff looks NIFTY! :)

[SedonaThunder]

I hear you about the soft footed one's Appy... it's been four years of barefeet for Thunder and although he'll run across pavement and big rocks, put him on one of those forest service roads with the tiny gravel and he's walking on the weedy shoulder. When we're going anywhere with small gravel I just put his boots on and make things easier.

I ALSO WANT TO CLARIFY... after reading my first post I think it could be understood that the gravel hurts Timber's hooves - this is not the case. Pea gravel is something like what fills a bean bag chair - smooshy! I had no idea how smooshy until the day it was done (I was at work when it was laid) and I came home to see my 10 pound cat walking very strangely and slowly across it. I went to get a closer look and realized his little feet were sinking a bit! I picked the paddocks after that and could feel my calves complaining... sort of like walking around on the part of the beach that's not packed down. The theory is that it this "polishes" the horses hooves, keeps the rolled edge longer and helps the "hoof patties" (hoof shaped compact dirt/rock/poop that sometimes falls out and sometimes has to be picked out) fall out on their own. We'll see...