They get very brittle and chip easily, she has never been lame or tender on these feet but she tends to chip them alot, from small chips to larger chunks.
Does anyone have any advice of what to put on her hooves?
At the moment we are using the worlds best hoof oil.
Nothing topical treats chipping feet. The best and most effective barefoot remedy is a strong bevel so there is no sharp edge to chip off and more frequent touch up trimming.
Put her on a good hoof supplement and make sure she's getting enough exercise. Proper trims will also keep the cracking down. She may need to get trimmed more often depending on her.
But the hoof supplement will kick in around 6 months+ so maybe look at her diet and see if all bases are covered.
Diet & nutrition are huge factors & so is environment - if the horse is living in too wet environment for eg. and infection(seedy toe/thrush) may be a factor. The way they're trimmed & the confo of the horse for eg. may be why the backs are being effected more. I don't believe pigment/colour has any bearing. Topicals don't help, but have the potential to make matters worse.
Her feet don't look so bad at all to me, from what can be told of those pics, just she looks overdue for a trim & needs the flaring & bit of imbalance addressed. After 3 weeks from the trim, there's not usually quite that much excess growth, but there could be, depending on other factors. It is uneven & the flares & such *may* not have been addressed adequately. But we also don't know what the feet were like before that trim, how long between, etc, etc, so I couldn't say whether it was good or bad. Be interested to see pics after next trim.
For a fact, that white hooves would be not as strong as black hooves is total nonsense. The only different is the pigment, which doesn't change how a hoof is made up (from a protein called keratin).
As people have said, she looks like she has major flare which can contribute to a lot of chipping. The sole looks like there's a lot of build-up of sole that's long ready to come off. Something that would be great for that is to make an area in her paddock/pasture with (pea) gravel that she will regularly walk over. This will help the hooves to wear off the sole healthily and might even improve her hoof growth thanks to a different kind of pressure.
As for the diet, biotin (one of the B vitamins), copper, zinc and a good ratio of omega-3 and 6 fatty acids are essential for good feet (and an overdose of readily digestible carbohydrates is detrimental to them, and can even contribute to the development of laminitis as most people probably know). As I've read somewhere once, the feet are the mirror of the horse's health. A horse that feels great and is fed all the right nutrients will have great feet (provided no outside factor, like environment or farrier, messes them up).
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
The Horse Forum
3.4M posts
92.6K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to horse owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about breeding, grooming, reviews, health, behavior, housing, adopting, care, classifieds, and more!