Hoof nutrition

Hi guys,

My mares feet seem to be cracking a bit recently, not badly but there were none previously. I was wondering if she was lacking something.

She's currently on lucerene pellets, free choice grass hay, a slight pick of grass plus:

Hygain Balanced - Mineral and vitamin balanced pellet

I suppose it could just be the odd weather we've had. Freezing cold one day warm the next.

What do you think? How does the balanced look?

Hi,

Not the weather. More likely to be diet &/or nutrition &/or mechanics &/or if you're putting topical goop on her feet regularly. Is she a lami sufferer/risk?

I don't like that the Hygain has lupins, maize & wheat in it - wheat can also cause imbalance but can't remember details. It's additional energy & starch, so not great for 'easy keepers' & lami risks.

The hygain does look reasonable from a nutritional perspective - if you're feeding half kg daily, iodine is the only one that comes up short(thru FeedXL.com cos looking into it for my horses at one point), depending on what's in the pasture/hay, which can be addressed with a bit of seaweed meal. If you're feeding less than that, zinc is also deficient tho. But I didn't do a balance with addition of lucerne, which is high in calcium, protein, phosphorus, etc so might put it out of whack. You don't say how much you're feeding tho?

You're not in Southern Australia are you by any chance? (weather sounds familiar...)

Hi thanks for the reply I'm located in Melbourne, so southern yes south no.

She's not a lami risk, weight wise she's almost back where she ought to be, She was slightly round not not enough to risk lami etc.

I really should reword posts, by the weather I was actually referring to the effect it has on the ground, mud and slush to dry and hard.

Not gooping regularly maybe once a month IF that, I was trying to add moisture but just got lazy with that. Although the more I read the more it seems she's better without goop.

At a guess I'd say she's on 800-1200g a day I don't know the exact measure. BO years ago said 'this blue scoop', about the equivalent on a litre jug perhaps.

I tend to use a concentrated vit/min support because you cann easily add/take away calories as needed without changing the nutrition as much. I use khonkes own cell provide (I think - it's the blue one) really low dose, and well balanced.
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