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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
   
Location: North Dakota | My horse has had bad hooves since day 1. Thin, sensitive soles and constant chipping. He had an abscess burst through a couple months after I got him which led to him losing a good chunk of the sole of that hoof. That had to be packed and padded for months and then we just kept front shoes on him. He grew beautiful, thick soles and his hooves were shiny and healthy.
He now lives on a several acre pasture and within 3 days he pulled a shoe. He wasn't lame so I just had the other pulled and he was happily barefoot for nearly a year. This spring has done a number on him though. He has several fine vertical cracks in all 4 hooves, they're chipping like crazy, his soles are not as thick as they were. His "trouble" hoof wants to flare out as it grows, despite being on a 6 week trim schedule.
He's shown no signs of lameness or tenderness except if I try to ride him over gravel. He picks his way over it like he's walking on broken glass and tries to find the shortest route to softer ground. I want to nip this in the bud before it gets any worse.
I've thought of a few options that I'd like to bounce off you all.
1. I just heard of hoof armor for the first time. I can't do any products that require daily application but if this stuff lasts even a week and doesn't have any negative side effects, it sounds perfect.
2. Hoof supplements. I know this would take months to start having any effect. He eats only grass now. No grain/supplements.
3. Hoof boots for trail riding. My only concern is that I would have to go to a 4 week trim schedule because his hooves want to flare so much as they grow, even after only 6 weeks. Also he still would probably need something to protect him in the pasture, and hoof boots would not be feasible for that.
4. Shoes. I don't really want to shoe him again, because they are so darn expensive and I don't know how to keep shoes on him in the pasture...or anything for that matter. In 3 days he lost that shoe, removed his fly sheet, removed his braid-in tail bag, and took out the 15or so braids I'd put in his mane. He likes to be nekkid.
What at would you do? |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| BioStar. I emailed them told them everything about my horse especially about his feet, and they recommended 2 supplements. I trim every 5 weeks with a barefoot trimmer. My horse was just like yours as far as hooves were concerned. I have been trying for years to find something to help him. I love Cur Ost , but nothing there was working for his hooves.
I started the supplements the week before my trimmer came out and of course, no change.
The next time she came which was 5 weeks, she was shocked at how much sole she had to trim off and he was barely tender on the caliche road. His cracks and flares he has for years are just about gone, this next trim will probably take care of them.
His feet did not grow any more than normal, but the slight swelling he has always had just above his cornary band is gone, too. He was more flexible in his hind legs when she was trimming him, also. You might email them and just see what they say. |
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 Too Skinny
Posts: 8009
Location: LA Lower Alabama | What are you feeding him? |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | cowgalsissy - 2017-06-27 4:44 PM What are you feeding him?
Nothing. He lives out on a several acre pasture 24/7 so grazes all day. It's very good pasture. He's quite shiny and his mane has tripled in length since being turned out there. His hooves were an issue before when his old owner had him as well as when I had him on a dry lot where he had grass hay, alfalfa, renew gold, whole oats, and some other supplements along the way. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 599
| My farrier just told me today that I should start keeping my horses up at night. The dew is keeping their feet super wet, and when they go in their stalls for the day, the shavings dry them out. All the contracting and expanding are causing loose/missing shoes, cracks, and nothing good.
I guess I'm going to suck it up and keep them up at night and out during the day. So much for my shiny beautiful coats! ?? |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | dRowe - 2017-06-27 5:05 PM My farrier just told me today that I should start keeping my horses up at night. The dew is keeping their feet super wet, and when they go in their stalls for the day, the shavings dry them out. All the contracting and expanding are causing loose/missing shoes, cracks, and nothing good. I guess I'm going to suck it up and keep them up at night and out during the day. So much for my shiny beautiful coats! ?? That is something I've wondered about with mine. He has access to a pond but the ground is very hard and dry so IF he's going in the water and mud the dry to wet to dry could be causing problems. I have no way to control that though. I board and don't have access to stalls. Nor would the barn staff trek out every night to find him and put him away for me. It can take a half hour to find him some days, it's a massive pasture!
ETA- I also can't get to the barn every single day, so topical treatments or supplements that require daily application or feeding are impossible. Grrr.
Edited by cavyrunsbarrels 2017-06-27 5:41 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 599
| Farrier told me that if I refuse to keep them up at night, I need to paint their hooves every single night with something along the lines of rainmaker. Maybe I'll try that first and see if there are any changes. |
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Expert
Posts: 1409
Location: Oklahoma | What I have learned and if you want to treat the hooves from the inside to outside you need supplement with zinc, copper and methothine (sp?). So far the best I have found is California Trace Plus. If you look at the hoof supplements they pretty much have these ingredients in them if not they probably wont work. What I like bout the California trace is that it doesn't have fillers and really reasonable. has no soy in it too. Also, lysine will make a huge difference even if just by itself and super cheap. You should see if a supplement will work within a month by the new growth around the band even tho it seems to takes forever to get a new foot on the outside application good ole pine tar. it is cheap and it will work! but super messy I use a stencil brush to apply and you only have to do 1 or 2 times a week depending how bad they are. You will be able to see the hoof be darker for a few days after you apply you can tell it soaked thru to the foot. Good luck! I have been thru the ringer on feet! |
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Expert
Posts: 1409
Location: Oklahoma | I just checked out the hoof armor and that looks neat if it works! Im gonna try on one of my horses that is tender on the fron feet! thanks I been looking for something like that! |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| Hooves I feel are like a canary in a coal mine, much like our fingernails, and an indicator of overall health. While you can get some improvement through topicals, adjustments to diet and fixing the problem from the inside out is best. A farrier can only work with what he is given. You can try a free choice mineral, copper and zinc are important to hoof quality, but at the end of the day you may have to figure out how to get a quality supplement into him. I'm a fan of Platinum as it balances ALL nutritional deficiencies.
6 weeks in the high summer is too long for most horses. Hooves grow faster in the summer - we are trimming every 4 weeks right now and taking off a lot of hoof. Keeping flares trimmed up is crucial to fixing them.
Also a note on gravel - my barefoot trimmer always tells me, there is a thin line between sore and cautious. If you step down on a lego block in the dark at 2am, you don't keep stepping on it, you jerk your foot away. Same thing for a horse on gravel - if they step down on a piece that is applying too much pressure to a portion of the hoof, expect that they will jerk their foot away vs continue to put pressure on it. Doesn't mean they are sore or crippled, just that they can feel what's under them. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 599
| Here's an article about wet feet.
https://www.americanfarriers.com/articles/7449-super-soaker-tips-tac... |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | OhMax - 2017-06-28 8:00 AM
Hooves I feel are like a canary in a coal mine, much like our fingernails, and an indicator of overall health. While you can get some improvement through topicals, adjustments to diet and fixing the problem from the inside out is best. A farrier can only work with what he is given. You can try a free choice mineral, copper and zinc are important to hoof quality, but at the end of the day you may have to figure out how to get a quality supplement into him. I'm a fan of Platinum as it balances ALL nutritional deficiencies.
6 weeks in the high summer is too long for most horses. Hooves grow faster in the summer - we are trimming every 4 weeks right now and taking off a lot of hoof. Keeping flares trimmed up is crucial to fixing them.
Also a note on gravel - my barefoot trimmer always tells me, there is a thin line between sore and cautious. If you step down on a lego block in the dark at 2am, you don't keep stepping on it, you jerk your foot away. Same thing for a horse on gravel - if they step down on a piece that is applying too much pressure to a portion of the hoof, expect that they will jerk their foot away vs continue to put pressure on it. Doesn't mean they are sore or crippled, just that they can feel what's under them.
I did find a hoof supplement that comes in treat form https://www.statelinetack.com/item/majestys-bio-plus-hoof-wafers/SLT... IDK if it's the absolute best, but it's one I know I could get into him.
You read my mind about the 6 weeks. I was always taught 6-8 weeks for trimming but I think he needs it more. My farrier is gonna love me lol.
That makes sense about the gravel. I just have noticed a huge difference in the last 1 1/2 - 2 months. On the same road he was walking fine, not really concerned about anything. Then this week he pas picking his way over it like it was hot coals. If there wasn't gravel all around the barn and gravel roads leading to the trail, I probably wouldn't be as concerned. |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | dRowe - 2017-06-28 8:06 AM Here's an article about wet feet. https://www.americanfarriers.com/articles/7449-super-soaker-tips-tac...
That article makes total sense except the fact that at least where I am, there's no dew in the evenings. Maybe in the early morning hours but I'm regularly out in the pasture between 6 and 10 pm and it's dry as a bone. So if he is exposed to dew, it's not for as long as the article is talking about. |
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Married to a Louie Lover
Posts: 3303
| cavyrunsbarrels - 2017-06-28 12:00 PM
OhMax - 2017-06-28 8:00 AM
Hooves I feel are like a canary in a coal mine, much like our fingernails, and an indicator of overall health. While you can get some improvement through topicals, adjustments to diet and fixing the problem from the inside out is best. A farrier can only work with what he is given. You can try a free choice mineral, copper and zinc are important to hoof quality, but at the end of the day you may have to figure out how to get a quality supplement into him. I'm a fan of Platinum as it balances ALL nutritional deficiencies.
6 weeks in the high summer is too long for most horses. Hooves grow faster in the summer - we are trimming every 4 weeks right now and taking off a lot of hoof. Keeping flares trimmed up is crucial to fixing them.
Also a note on gravel - my barefoot trimmer always tells me, there is a thin line between sore and cautious. If you step down on a lego block in the dark at 2am, you don't keep stepping on it, you jerk your foot away. Same thing for a horse on gravel - if they step down on a piece that is applying too much pressure to a portion of the hoof, expect that they will jerk their foot away vs continue to put pressure on it. Doesn't mean they are sore or crippled, just that they can feel what's under them.
I did find a hoof supplement that comes in treat form https://www.statelinetack.com/item/majestys-bio-plus-hoof-wafers/SLT... IDK if it's the absolute best, but it's one I know I could get into him.
You read my mind about the 6 weeks. I was always taught 6-8 weeks for trimming but I think he needs it more. My farrier is gonna love me lol.
That makes sense about the gravel. I just have noticed a huge difference in the last 1 1/2 - 2 months. On the same road he was walking fine, not really concerned about anything. Then this week he pas picking his way over it like it was hot coals. If there wasn't gravel all around the barn and gravel roads leading to the trail, I probably wouldn't be as concerned.
We used those wafers when I was growing up, I remember them being okay, but I admittedly wasn't super involved in the choosing of supplements for the horse.
If his feet are suffering he very well could be tender on gravel. When the wall gets long and starts making contact with the ground it is like having longer fingernails - every once in a while you bend a nail back, ouch! Same concept, the laminae of the hoof are the fiborous connective tissue that hold your fingernail on. So anytime you're getting chips or flares in the wall, you've got stress on the laminae. In a laminitis case the laminae have separated from the wall, which allows the coffin bone to sink.
Heat and moisture cause hooves to grow faster - if you kept track of how often you cut your fingernails, you'd probably find it to be more frequent in the summer too. So until the flares are under control, consider a 4 week trim schedule and then 4-8 weeks depending on the time of year.
If you're not using someone who is a barefoot trimmer, consider trying to find one. My personal experience is that farriers who shoe tend to want to set horses up for shoes, even if they aren't shoeing them. Subtle but important differences. A good barefoot trimmer can also help evaluate what might need to be done in the way of glue ons or boots, some of which work very well for turnout. If the general areas around the barn and your riding surfaces includ gravel, I would look into boots for sure for that.
I've developed a bit of a passion about this since moving all of ours to being barefoot, understanding the body mechanics etc. really just being tired of not knowing what I was looking at and relying on farriers to whom I was also writing a check. I'd like to get to the point where I'm trimming my own eventually. |
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Veteran
Posts: 148
| My horses feet would get so bad in the summer (he goes out at night & up during day) they were flaking off and he was soooo tender. I tried Keratex, putting oil on them, he was on a good hoof supplement and nothing was helping. I changed farriers and the new one told me to put Koppertox on his feet 2x a week. I use a syringe and squirt around the nail holes and when they were really bad I squirted around his shoe from the bottom. He was so much better in 6 weeks it was amazing. This year I started doing it early in the summer and his feet look better than they ever have. Before I started using the Koppertox about 4 weeks into a shoeing his toe would be so eat away that I could stick the hoof pick between his toe and the shoe but not anymore. Amazing what 1-2 times a week of Koppertox does! Farrier said they get a fungus in there from the expanding and contracting from going wet/dry/wet/dry and it cause their hooves to flake. The Koppertox kills the bacteria which stops the issues. |
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Red Bull Agressive
Posts: 5981
Location: North Dakota | Well I ordered some hoof boots and hoof armor. Next is a supplement. Fingers crossed. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12841
| My farrier just told me to order VITA HOOF. He said put it on a couple of times a week. It should be down at the front gate now. The cheapest I found it was Amazon |
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 Expert
Posts: 1718
Location: Southeast Louisiana | You said he now lives out on pasture... did you just move him? I just moved , too. My horses' feet are all looking better. I read an interesting article that made me think it might have been the water. Where I was before, we had well water. We are on city water here, and I'm seeing improvements. Just a thought. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 898
Location: Mountains of VA | Keratex daily if you can, apply to the outside from coronary band down and on the sole. Also a good loose mineral/salt free choice. This has worked on several of my horses. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Sounds like your horse is lacking minerals. |
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