Trail riders and those who hike with pack animals must do this even more often on the road. Especially on rocky trails, all kinds of foreign objects can become wedged into the hooves, and this can be unpleasant and even dangerous for the animal. A hoof pick must be carried on the journey, same as a curry comb and a brush.
During our training hike yesterday, melting snow, gravel and slush soon agglutinated into large pieces of ice under Heidi's hooves. They were so big that the horse ended up balancing on something like four balls of ice and the hooves did not even touch the ground any more.
I stopped and began to remove the ice with my hoof pick. Easier said than done! Everything was as hard as concrete! Heidi waited patiently while I scratched, knocked, picked and levered.
It was simply impossible. I used the water bottle like a hammer and was able to remove the coarsest bits of ice. Then I continued with the hoof pick.
Finally I managed to get the hooves clean.
But the hoof pick has had it. The tip was totally bent!
The thing might be okay for a pony farm where little girls pick the turf from the riding ring out of the hooves of their Shetland ponies. It was not made for tough women and tough use on the trail.
It is good that I discovered this now. And not on the road.
Grade: unsatisfactory!
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