Pads

Pads rarely benefit a horse.  Here is my reasoning.  Fresh air, clean earth and exercise are essential for hooves to be healthy.  Pads, while they can help an ouchy horse feel less pain, they prevent air and earth from contacting the sole of the hoof.  Short term, pads appear to help an ouch horse.  However, pads slow the healing process.

The sole, is the softest part of the hoof and has the most, 'feel'.  Pads reduce the ability of the soles to feel the earth.  This prevents the soles from responding to their circumstances.

Horses living as natural as possible will be healthier.  Pads are a barrier to the very conditions that promote natural hooves.

The bottom of Hoofwings are shaped like the soles of horses hooves.  They are thin enough to give the horse a sense of the ground and thick enough to prevent injury. We have done several studies on foundered horses.  We kept a pad in one boot and no pad in the other.  In every case the boot without the pad healed faster.