Zolas Hovar. Hovslageri och Smide

25/11/2023

Forget what I wrote in the last post, suddenly the sky exploded with colors over the whole Sweden, even furthest down south. Insane!! Happy I got to experience that. I’m brought up in the north of Sweden, I was used to having it happen several times a month sometimes. But living down south since I was 15, I forgot how freaking marvelous it is. Especially when the red colors comes out!! Basically it’s the Sun attacking us, but still super cool!

25/11/2023

Northern lights doesn’t usually come this south, but I was lucky enough to see it and watch it slowly dance across the sky. Moonlight shining up the snow, so you don’t need a flashlight when feeding the horses.

24/11/2023

OBS!!!
Nu när snön faller, och ni broddar på gamla slitna skor, tänk på att brodden är gjord för att passa en relativt ny sko. Drar ni ner brodden hela vägen på en sliten sko, riskerar ni tryckskador på era hästar. Det gör ont och orsakar oftast röda runda blödningar precis under brodden. Ett tips är att slipa ner brodden så den inte är så hög.

17/11/2023

❤️⚒

Vi samarbetar ofta med hovslagare när det kommer till olika hovrelaterade problem, här fina hästen Tritla som råkat ut en hovböld.

15/11/2023

Påminnelse 👇
När du gör en beställning på hästtransport från söder till norr, under vintersäsong, är det mycket viktigt att hästen har broddar alternativt är barfota. En häst som ska kliva av lastbilen med järnskor utan brodd riskerar att få allvarliga fläkskador!! Fast att gräset är grönt i Skåne är det ofta full vinter i norr.

14/11/2023

Viktig info till kunder. Jag planerar att ta min första 2 veckors semester på flera år, 7-21 januari. Det är iallafall målet och jag är i väldigt behov av vila efter en tuff höst. Jag ska göra mitt yttersta för att kunna planera skoningar runt det datumet o samtidigt behålla längden på den planerade semestern. Det är på den sidan av året de flesta hästarna kan gå nån extra vecka pga det ofta är kallt och hovarna inte växer särskilt mycket och skorna inte slits särskilt mycket pga många har brodd i skorna.

13/11/2023

Winter is coming, with all the colors of the rainbow 🤗⚒ a ribbed snow pad combined with a silicone pad and ShuFill A25. This is a combo if the weather is too wet for just only snowpads. Works both against mud and when the occasional snow arrives and disappears.

12/11/2023

Keep on fighting, never giving up the dream ❤️⚒

10/11/2023

My welding skills are definitely improving since I took a private course this summer. Hadn’t weld for a couple of weeks now, so I wasn’t sure if I remember it correctly. Got it rather right on the first try. As older followers remember, I was never taught how and why welding works, in farrier-school. They basically just gave us a arc-welder and said just do it. My mentor was a welder but not very pedagogical about that. I just welded like he did and it went rather ok. It was in my backbone how to do it, but I never knew why it worked most of the times. Then someone else…. A guy… saw when I was welding, and said I did it in the “wrong way”. And then I started to think about how to do it, and then my world just crashed. My mentor died and I had not really anyone to ask. And I actually didn’t know “how to weld”, only that it worked most of the times. A clients dad knocked on the forge, when I was taking a bit longer then normal. I thought he was just another guy telling me I was doin something wrong. Instead he very friendly showed me some small tricks and helped me finish the shoe. He had been a welding teacher, lucky me!! I directly ordered a full day welding course from him. And now, welding goes much faster and much easier. Arc-welding is not easy though 😂 buts that is what I have to work with at the moment. Icelandichorse with a huge abscess, got some extra support after weeks in a cast.

09/11/2023

Dressed for party 😂🎉⚒ safety first when changing a cast on a 3-year old Icelandichorse with an abscess ❤️⚒ got a bit rough there 😂

08/11/2023

We got 2 shoeing-cycles out of the summer Duplo, and now we go full winter-Duplo 🤗⚒❤️ he has widen his hooves with the Duplo, so we had to go up one size so he doesn’t outgrow them until next reset. Horse with arthritis, that seems to love the dampening of the vibrations to the lower extremities, that Duplo provides, while being ridden. I put the Duplo in the grinder to really get those edges around the whole shoe, soft and nice. Happy horse. Happy owner ❤️⚒ I haven’t worked a lot with Duplo, so improvement with nail-height will come with more training. 👌⚒ the hoof was packed with artimud around the frog and ShuFill DIM A15. he also got some fancy rockered toes on the hind hooves to help him with his dragging of the toes in the ground. Rocker toe is super helpful when done for the right reasons.

07/11/2023

Hoof deformities depend on horse's conformation and posture and therefore occur in specific patterns.

Recognizing those patterns not only gives us more understanding about the forces being at play and the load distribution over the hoof capsule, but also may help us decide what actions to take when it comes to addressing those deformities.

If you want to learn more about 4 hoof types, here's the link ☺️:

https://thehoofarchitect.blogspot.com/2023/09/demistifying-equine-limb-deformities_21.html?m=1

If you guys want to learn more, I'll be explaining this more in depth and also talking about trimming in the upcoming webinar with Yogi 😊

The FB event page:

https://facebook.com/events/s/new-understandings-in-hoof-mor/3564929467077786/

And here is the hub ticket booking…

https://equineeducationhub.thinkific.com/courses/understanding-hoof-morphology-1

07/11/2023

Hovslagaren Zola Runsten kommer från Jämtland, har bott i Stockholm och jobbar idag i Göteborg. Hon kan berätta …

03/11/2023

This is one of the reasons why we practice nail-placement every day. See how I hit the exact point in the healthy part just under the weak area. Next shoeing appointment, I will have to apply a hoofcast to be able to nail the shoe on. The horse suffered an injury to the coronaryband about 7-8 months ago. Injuries in that area disrupts the growth of the horn tubular, making it weaker and thinner. This often ends up with a horizontal bruise and a crack. Letting bacteria and fungus have a party like it was 1999. When the crack has grown down 1 cm away from the soft tissue of the coronaryband, I open up a “drainage” hole so the client can treat the area with anti-fungal ointments and such. Letting it grow down in its own time. This was a big one and as it grown down enough to disrupt the health and integrity of the hoofcapsule, I decided to ad support to the hoof with a wedged 3D pad and A25 DIM. This will hopefully also help out with the balancing of the hoof angles, since it has pushed forward and gotten too long. This is a younger horse, that just learned to stand still for the farrier… for a short while atleast 😂⚒ ❤️ much more work needed. But it’s a good start.

02/11/2023

31/10/2023

Incorrectly taken hoof photographs can lead to terribly wrong conclusions.

It has been over a year since I've created this article, but the problem is still up to date.

I believe it's equally important to learn how to take hoof pictures in a proper, repeatable way as it is to learn how to recognize the ways in which photos may distort reality - to at least be able to know when not to believe them.

https://thehoofarchitect.blogspot.com/2022/09/why-do-photos-lie-and-how-not-to-get.html

29/10/2023

Jag kommer inte jobba utomhus, eller i stall där det inte går att stänga dörr för att få bort drag, denna vinter, min rygg o mitt diskbråck klarar inte det. Kyla+svett/regn på rygg= sjukskriven
Blöta hästar gör oxå att verktygen får kortare livslängd. Ta in din häst i tid vid dåligt väder. Mina olika verktänger kostar i dagsläget mellan 4300-4500 kr/st att köpa nya, raspar byter jag var 4-6 arbetsdag och kostar 430kr/st.

27/10/2023

Have started using artimud on top of the frog, the last couple of weeks, on recommendations from colleagues that also use 3D pads on regular basis together with DIM. Exited to see the difference in frog-health as promised 🤪 have used solepak and copper sulphate before, only 50/50 results, some funky frogs after a shoeing period because of heavy rains the last months. Then I used Hoofclay with good results, but it’s quite expensive and a bit tricky to apply to the frog because it sticks to my fingers rather then the frog. But Artimud was really simple to apply. And smells amazing as well. Clay+zink+honey+eucalyptus ❤️

26/10/2023

Meet the horse's ancestor
Here is the Hyracotherium, the ancient horse ancestor from 50 million years ago, about the size of a lamb. It roamed forests in North America, Europe, and Asia, with a small stature and unique feet—three toes on the hind legs and four on the front. See it next to a cat's shadow.
Photo Credit: Di Caz41985 - Own Work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

25/10/2023

Diagnosen EMS innefattar att hästen har en insulindysreglering, alltså att hästen har en nedsatt insulinkänslighet. Ofta är hästar …

23/10/2023

I saw a cool thing on the internet and “finally” had a client that I could try it on. Then…. I put some oil on the hoof before taking a photo and you barely see it 😂 .peers74 had posted a photo about supporting a broken wall with putting a leather-patch behind the side-clip. So that is what I did. Hopefully it works just fine. The horse have some hoof-wall separation going on, on 3 out of 4 hooves on the sides where he loads most weight. I do not want to glue that area, since bacteria and fungus is on the rise as the wetness and mud season of the west-coast of Sweden, has just started. We think it can be the insane weather changes in the summer, but also that he moved to this stable around 1 year ago, and that the change in environment that affects the hoof a lot, has grown down to the ground now. A hoof-capsule takes about 11-13 months to grow from coronaryband to the ground-level. He is already a bit tricky, because he has a leg-conformation only a mother can love 😂 lands hard on the lateral wall and rolls over on the lateral toe, and is in-toed like a clown. The way I grind the shoes makes the weirdness of his strides, a bit less weird and seemingly kept the crack in the quarters in check to be just very superficial. But he has lived trouble-free most his life and has competed up to 150 cm in jumping. So it basically to keep him happy as much as possible. He is such a gentleman to shoe ❤️⚒

21/10/2023

It’s been a couple of hectic weeks. Packing and cleaning the rented house, and then Moving to our new house, while both of us struggling with the flu on and off and on again and also trying to work. I never want to move ever again. I never want to lift another moving box in my life, and next time I will employ a cleaning company for the move-clean. That s**t was stressful. Hopefully I won’t have to. Been exhausted to the point of feeling bloodtaste in my mouth and almost fainting. But finally. First 2 day weekend off for real, since 6 weeks. Settling in, slowly unpacking with no stress. Just enjoying the moment in the unbelievably amazing house we bought. Still can’t get it wrapped around my head that I own a house for the first time in my 41-year life. The animals have showed us that this was the right choice. They just love the space and freedom. Nero doesn’t want to come in, like a true Pyreneen dog guarding the house, sleeping with one eye having one open 😂but when he does he has found his perfect place to lay. Like a polar bear pelt infront if the fire. Toooo romantic 😍 we now live in a forest, where Nero run around without a leash and can bark around and talk to the neighbor dogs through the trees. I’m not used to the total complete darkness we get here, compared to the other house we lived in. Before we had 4 other houses close to us with lights on all the time. But now; totally dark in the night 😳 when there is no wind, you hear the highway over the hill. But the wind often comes from the opposite side from the river, then the traffic sound is just very small. It’s a little paradise, very close to Gothenburg only 35 min away with car. We have a bus station just 600 meters away and that takes you down to the trains, and you get into Gothenburg from our house in 50 min. In the weekends the last bus leaves our busstation at 01.20 in the night. Which is insanely privileged considering we live in the countryside. This means we both can go out to the pub and leave Nero at home without a problem 😂👌🍷 Slowly I will get into more work and can update more about more hooves. Thanks for reading ❤️

10/10/2023

06/10/2023

Struggling all the way to Friday, feeling exhausted and light-weighted from on and off and on again seasonal flu-s**t. But last clients of the day, gave me some much needed energy-boost. And with that I’m signing off for 1 week MUCH needed vacation, I’m back to “the office” in Gothenburg the 17th of October.