Using Sole Guard with Shoes?

[horsepoor]

Just wondering if any of you see a downside to this -- I have a horse that typically goes in bar shoes with equi-pak. We've also tried doing plastic pads with sil-pak underneath, but I did not like it as well (some of our footing is sand and the little rocks would get in the crevices between the pad and shoe and pad and foot). My horse is on a 5 week schedule and even with that short of a schedule, the equi-pak takes a beating -- usually some comes out before it is time to be done again.
So this last time the farrier supply store was out of equi-pak and so my shoer decided to try putting sole-guard in just like he would with the equi-pak -- using mesh and the foam boards to fill. We're about 4 weeks out and the horse is doing great and the stuff is staying put much better than equi-pak ever does.
Would this be okay to continue to use? Farrier was worried it might be too hard, but so far the horse is doing well with it -- guess we'll see what the foot looks like when he pulls the shoe this next time. But curious if any of you have any thoughts. Thanks!

[Ray_Knightley]

I got the first two packs of soleguard this weekend ,we want to use it in connection with superfast ..

my only thought is it really does stick to the hoof ,so take care taking it out if intact as you have a shoe in as well ..

the horse is always the best indicator of if it works as it is sound then all is good ..the next thing is the sole and frog see if they are not changing an the hoof give you an okay..eyes open..

ray knightley.farrier

cold germany..

[Dave Whitaker]

The SG is much stiffer than the EP,obviously. Your horse seems to be handling it fine and that is the best indicator, in my opinion, on whether something works or not.

I had a client's little barrel mare a few years back that was scrubbing the EquiPac out of her foot before the end of her shoeing cycle. I tried EquiBuild and she didn't like it at all.....I think it was too firm. Then I used EquiPac against the foot and covered it with EquiBuild on the ground surface and that work great.... she was comfortable and the EquiBuild took the abrasion better that the EP.

Dave

[THamilton]

EDSS makes a thin blue perforated pad taht you may think about trying. They are very reasonablebly priced. It would hold up longer than the mesh and provide alittle more protection to the material that you are using.

I have used many pairs of them for different purposes and like them for this type of application.

Tony

[Kaydence]

I've used sole guard with shoes on an endurance horse with good success BUT we didn't put it in thick like you are describing. It sets so hard that the rep emphasized not getting it too thick. Obviously your horse doesn't seem to mind at this point in time though. In the interest of reducing the risk of it being too hard when put it in that thick and in saving money, I'd recommend putting it in just the way it is recommended for a barefoot horse: fairly thin and mush it around into the place you want with a piece of plastic placed over top of it while it is hardening.

One trick I use with the equithane (blue label) on some of the horses is that I don't fill to ground level. I use a pour in pad (for the price difference, the owners can pay for it to stay in place the whole time, unlike the mesh, which can be tricky in our wet enviroment on the Coast) and I only fill to the pad level (cut the styrofoam to fit inside the edge of the shoe while filling). On one horse, he was never a shoe puller until I put the pour in pads on him in the common, to ground level way. He's an advanced event horse with a skilled rider on him and he suddenly started pulling shoes. We decided to try filling it a lot less and we haven't had a pulled shoe since. The owner also likes the cost reduction while still having the benefits of the pads.

We opted to use the pour in pads because when she competes in California, she was getting sand between the pour in and the solid pads in the past and it would form lumps. With the pour in pad we don't have these problems.

Cheri

[Rick Burten]

I've not tried the sole guard/shoes combination. That said, at the Summit this year, Vettec debuted a new Solepac product(Pink label) that they guarantee will stay soft throught the entire time it is on the foot(unlike the blue label which tends to stiffen/harden as it fully cures).

Rick