One thing you can do to break up that nasty "ball"
is take a long handled regular screwdriver (flat, not the star-shaped end) and
work it in, you can usually just pop the ice ball out, or at least scrape
off the rounded part.
"Horses can actually tolerate ice buildup, to a point -- I've
seen horses walking around literally on ice balls, ROUND on the bottom, and
that worries me! But if it's not making round bottoms they pretty much
knock the ice and snow out, walking around."
That's what concerns
me...if I don't get the ice off a couple of times a day, he's skating around
on his toes with a ball of ice on each forehoof. (I don't know why, but ice
doesn't seem to build up on his hind hooves...maybe it gets knocked off
easier just by walking around). So I'm worried if I can't get the
thinner stuff off, he'll build up some balls of ice
again.
