Is it possible that the chipping is associated with climate?
The two worse times we had chipping was when the muddy ground became frozen leaving a very rough surface to walk on and the other time was last summer when it was super dry. We started using a hoof conditioner and that seemed to help.

 

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I thought of that but I never had these problems with my first farrier who retired. Also the other horse owners who used him were not overly thrilled with his work either.

So I'm now trying this new guy who handles the horses amazingly and the hooves look great but now I'm seeing that some of my horses are becoming toed in which they were 100% straight before and I don't know if that change is because of pasture, age, or hoof work or if any of that can even cause this.
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My first thought is, are they ACTUALLY toed in or were the hooves left a little long on the inside making them appear toed in? Can you take pictures and post them?

 

yes - pics would help a lot in this case - toed in/toed out is 'usually' a conformation issue and isn't man-made - again I say 'usually'. Farriers have to be careful - if a horse is naturally toed in/toed out/ straight legs, whatever - they should be trimmed to however the horse stands naturally and should never be trimmed to force a foot to go a direction unnatural for them. So good for you for noticing that something is different. So yes, post some pics from all sides and lets take a look at it. Be sure to include shots of the legs all the way up to the knees, not just the feet. Let's see the whole leg - it will help out a bunch. All four sides!

 

I tried getting a few pictures a little while ago but its about to rain and with all the knats the horses were just not having it but Ill make sure to get some posted asap.

Yea, I didnt thing a horse could just become toed at least its nothing I have ever heard. Also the legs are all straight it just looks like the hooves have started to grow inward.

 

if they are growing inward, it means more pressure is on the outsides of his feet than the inside (the flare always grows where there is LESS pressure) and may not mean that he is toed in - it could just mean that he sort of walks on the outsides of his feet. That's not necessarily a bad thing - it's just how he goes. Draw an imaginary line (or use a pencil, lol) down the center of his hoof from the coronary band to the toe (don't look at the ankle while you do it - only the hoof - you want to get the very center of the hoof only regardless of the rest of the leg) and then stand back and look at the leg as a whole.

if the cannon bone/fetlock is straight and your pastern and hoof/pencil mark sort of turns in, then you can say he's officially toed in. If the leg, pastern and hoof(pencil line) all run pretty much straight, then he is just has hoof flares b/c he walks on the outsides of his feet more than the inside. If this is the case, then that's why you see it when he's due for a trim, but then goes away right after. Hopefully some of this helps? LOL!

 

Thanks Clippityclop that helped a lot. So I did as you suggested and they are just hoof flairs according to the drawn line.
That makes me feel a lot better
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