I have a gelding who has been puzzling me for some time now. He's a 17 yr old B/S Paint who is in overall good health. His feet are giving me a fit though. He's barefooted, has always been. We've had him since he was 3 and he's never needed them, as he is only ever on dirt or grass. So here's the odd part. On 3 of his 4 feet (both fronts and one hind) he has V-shaped cracks across the front of the hoof, about halfway down, each is about 3 or 4 inches across. They look semi deep, but they don't bother him in the least. If it were one hoof, I'd think that at some point, he'd injured his coronary band and it left an injury to the wall as it grew out, but in three, I don't know. He has not been lame at all, or had heat in any of his feet. Ever. He has had one abscess in the last year and that is all. No diet changes, no new pastures. Since it doesn't bother him, it's more an enigma than anything threatening, but I AM worried when they grow out a bit more he might have some problems with his hoof splitting. Has anyone else ever seen something like this? And to make it worse, my last farrier was clueless to what it was as well. I have a new one coming out in a couple weeks, (our old one was too far away to be regular,) but she's new so I'm not sure she'll have any ideas either. Sorry for the novel!