The use of hoof stands is widely recognised and recommended amongst equine professionals based on practical experience and anecdotal evidence.
Here are a few points that users agree with regarding the use of this device:
Hoof stands provide a stable and secure platform for holding a horse’s leg, minimizing the risk of accidental injury to both the horse and the person working on the hoof.
Using a hoof stand allows for better access to the horse’s hoof, enabling thorough inspection, cleaning, and maintenance. This can help in detecting and addressing issue like hoof imbalances, infections, or other hoof related problems more effectively.
Hoof stands provide stability and control, enabling horse owners or farriers to perform trimming, shoeing, or other hoof related task with greater precision.
Horse owners and farriers commonly report that using a hoof stand reduces strain and physical exertion. The stand holds the hoof in a comfortable position, reducing fatigue and allowing for more precise and efficient work.
Patrick wanted to measure the beneficial effect of using these hoof stands as he has designed them to help him to ease his back while looking after the feet of his own horses.
Luckily enough in 2014 our local University, the prestigious Queen’s University Belfast QUB agreed to help us with this investigation.
To be able to achieve scientific condition under laboratory condition, it was carried out using an apparatus to replicate the same effort to all participants. All participants have specific tasks to carry out as follow:
The simulated horse leg in situ, with a 25.4 kg weight clearly suspended from the wooden beam to approximate the weight of a horse’s leg that a farrier, handler, or groom would normally support.
The results revealed that there was a significant difference in the average time taken to complete the task by all participants, when using and not using the hoof. This difference was due to participants taking significantly longer in conditions with the hoof stand. The study also showed that that there was a significant reduction on the time that the participants needed to support the full load, in fact it was reported a 70% reduction of handlers’ strain.
In practice this means that the any horse handler can take longer performing any hoof tasks, without having to carry the weight of the horse, giving them a chance to do a better job, without having to compromise the health of her back.
In addition, this research showed that there was a significant decrease in the average heart rate during trials using the hoof stand demonstrating that the hoof stand reduced the physical effort of the participants whilst performing their task.
You can read the full scientific report here.
The same benefits have been observed and reported by the many horse owners who already use a Finnegan Tools hoof stand.
They certainly agree that their hoof stand is a valuable tool for proper hoof care and maintenance. Read here their testimonials.
You too can enjoy the benefits of owning a hoof stand to look after your horse’s feet very well, buy yours here today!