From the inventor:

“Hoof Armor consists of only three ingredients: an epoxy base, Kevlar and a natural antimicrobial. Kevlar pulp is added for added strength, cohesion and thixotropic properties. The natural deritive in Hoof Armor acts as a cure accelerator as well as an anti-microbial. This ingredient has been found to increase collagen elasticity and increase dermal thickness. This is my sixth formula improvement in 18 years of making Hoof Armor.”

David & Brenda Jones, hoofarmor.com

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I began using Hoof Armor in 2016. My gelding Kenny was new to me at the time and his unique combination of conformation (narrow chested, crooked legged) and gait (inward front leg swing, deep overstride) made it nearly impossible to keep any hoof protection on him. Kenny prefers life au naturale, from his living environment to his hooves, and after trying to do things by the book and hiring the expensive professionals with poor results I got wise and turned Kenny back out to regrow hoof how he wanted. I asked his former owner how to keep him from wearing too much hoof off while allowing him to trim his own feet and move as needed.

The answer was and is HoofArmor!

The single greatest misconception about HoofArmor that needs to be cleared up immediately is that it is not a replacement for a boot or shoe. You do not generally apply HoofArmor to a sore hoof and have them walk away sound. HoofArmor is a coating that protects existing hoof from being worn off and helps promote antimicrobial hoof health.

Much like ourselves, most horses are not born with rock hard feet. Some certainly are but many are not. For the latter, careful attention to building a healthy barefoot hoof inside and out is the only way. In my experience you cannot achieve this through trim without diet, diet without trim, and in some cases, a horse will never be truly comfortable barefoot (see my Cob x, heavy footed and strided, shallow hoof concavity).

So, to return to the human analogy, most of us can’t go outside barefoot and run across the gravel driveway right now. If we were however to go outside barefoot daily and slow build our time, distance, and speed, many of us would likely be cruising over terrain pretty handily again in no time. We would probably, like native people, notice that even as our feet were toughening, we wore a bit too much off as the distance increased, and we may find a way to construct a light covering like a moccasin. You will still feel the ground and rocks through a moccasin but your foot skin will not be worn off and onward you can go, ever farther. The HoofArmor is the moccasin here, and for these hardy hooved independents, it really works.

The key to success with horses in my experience is an open mind and a deep toolbox. HoofArmor has been a fantastic addition to my own repertoire and I look forward to sharing it’s potential benefits with Washington state and it’s good people & horse partners!

Happy Trails! —-Aurora Grohman, February 2021

auroragrohman@yahoo.com * (707) 362-1422