How to Know Which Horse Hoof Polishes and Hoof Care Products Work the Best

Taking care of your horse’s feet is one of the most important areas when it comes to grooming your horse or caring for them. If your horse has hoof problems they can result in lameness, hoof soreness, or long term issues that can interfere with your horse’s daily life. Using the best horse hoof care products can ensure your horse has strong, healthy hooves.

Horse Hoof Conditioners: It is common for horse’s to get dry, cracked hooves. Using horse hoof conditioners, especially during dry weather, can help restore moisture and prevent chipping and cracking on the hoof wall.

Horse Hoof Polishes and Shine: Hoof polish and shine products are perfect to apply right before you enter the show ring as the added shine can enhance the overall look of your horse, show off their gaits and movement, and hide any imperfections that may be distracting to a judge’s eye.

Hoof Hardeners: Some horses have more sensitive soles and hooves than others and can be tender footed or bruise easily. Using hoof hardeners, including those with a traditional ingredient, venice turpentine, can help harden up the bottom of a horse’s hoof.

Hoof Packing: Using hoof packing for your horse can pull out bruising, soreness in a tender footed horse, and even help treat and prevent thrush and other bacterial infections of the feet. Hoof packing also draws out abscesses, speeding up the healing process when your horse is suffering with foot pain.

Hoof Thrush Treatment: Horse thrush products are excellent for preventing and treating hoof infections like thrush, hoof rot, ringworm, White Line disease, and other infections in the hoof. Some products can be painted on as a hoof conditioner and polish, with these additional healing ingredients for hoof ailments.

To learn more about taking care of your horse’s hooves, you can check out our helpful guide on Summer Horse Hoof Care and learn about growing healthier hooves, preventing hoof issues, and more.

Frequently Asked Questions About Horse Hoof Care and Polishes

How can I shine my horse’s hooves?

You can shine your horse’s hooves by applying a hoof conditioner, hoof oil, or a hoof polish product to the outside of your horse’s hoof. These products add beautiful shine especially when you are entering a show ring!

What color hoof polish should I use?

Deciding what color hoof polish you should use depends on if you just want a clear or traditional hoof polish and oils for a natural shine, or a darker hoof oil for that rich dark brown color. Some disciplines will use black hoof paint to paint the horse’s hooves black, however some show organizations prohibit the use of actual hoof paints and only permit semi-transparent oils.

What do you clean horse hooves with?

You can clean a horse’s hooves with a hoof pick to remove dirt, manure, and rocks, with a stiff brush on the outside of the hoof. If you need to wash a horse’s feet, any shampoo can remove dirt and mud.

Do horses need hoof conditioners?

Horses that are living in a dry environment may benefit from having a hoof conditioner product applied to help restore the moisture balance to their hooves for a healthier foot. When temperatures are dry, especially during fly-season when a horse might be stomping at flies all day, hooves can crack and chip easier if the hoof is too dry. Using a hoof conditioner can help reduce this dryness and cracking.

How do you moisturize your horse’s hooves?

You can moisturize your horse’s hooves by using good quality horse hoof conditioners and hoof oil products. These products add important oils and moisturizers back into the hoof wall, sole, frog and heels, better restoring the proper moisture balance of the foot. Just using water will not last like an oil will with keeping the hoof hydrated.

What is a hoof sealant?

Hoof sealant is used to block out too much moisture or help seal cracks and nail holes in a horse’s hoof. Oftentimes horse owners will apply a hoof sealant around the nail holes of a horse if the horse is bathed frequently to help prevent their feet from going from wet-to-dry too frequently, which has been said to cause chipping and cracks as well.