Red Gorilla® Hoof Pick

Red Gorilla Hoof Pick

Red Gorilla's hoof pick is the two-job version: a metal pick down one side for levering out stones, packed mud and clods of grass, and a stiff nylon brush on the other for sweeping the sole clean once the debris is out. Doing both with one tool is the difference between a foot that looks picked out and one that actually is.

The handle is weatherproof polypropylene with a soft rubber bobble grip, which is the part that earns its keep on a wet winter morning when you are holding a foot up with cold hands. There is an eyelet moulded into the end so it hangs on a hook rather than living in the bottom of the grooming box.

Performance & Benefits

• Metal pick with enough stiffness to lift a wedged flint rather than bending around it.
• Stiff nylon brush on the reverse for clearing the loosened dust and dirt off the sole and out of the clefts.
• Soft rubber bobble grip that holds in a wet or gloved hand and reduces the ache over a full string of horses.
• Weatherproof polypropylene handle, unaffected by heat or cold and unbothered by being left out in the rain.
• Moulded hanging eyelet, so it goes back on a hook by the door instead of into the bedding.
• 32cm long, which gives real leverage compared with a stubby folding pick.

Suitable For

• Daily picking out, before and after riding and at turnout and bringing in.
• Horses on hard, stony or flinty ground where stones lodge in the frog clefts.
• Winter and wet ground, where packed mud needs brushing out as well as picking.
• Anyone who wants one tool rather than a pick plus a separate brush.
• It clears debris; it does not treat anything. A foot that smells, weeps or is sore needs a farrier or vet, not a harder pick.

How to Use

• Work the pick from the heel towards the toe, following the clefts either side of the frog, and always away from your body.
• Lift out stones and packed material with the pick first, then turn the tool and brush the sole clean.
• Rinse with clean water after use and let it dry out before the next time.
• Hang it by the eyelet rather than dropping it into the grooming box or the bedding.

Specification

• Length 32cm, width 11cm, height 6cm.
• Weatherproof polypropylene handle with a soft rubber bobble grip, a metal pick and a stiff nylon brush. Moulded hanging eyelet.
• Colour: supplied at random from Red Gorilla's colour range. Red Gorilla's own listing shows it in red.
• Red Gorilla publish no weight and no product code for the hoof pick, so neither is stated.

Care & Caution

• The pick is metal and comes to a point. Keep it out of reach of children and never leave it loose in bedding, a haynet or a feed skip where a horse could stand on it or swallow it.
• Pick away from yourself, not towards. A foot snatched away while you are pulling the pick towards your body is how people end up with a puncture wound.
• Stay off the frog itself and out of the central sulcus with the metal point — that tissue is live and the brush is the right tool for it.