A few numpty hoof questions?

[Kokopelli]

These questions probably seem incredibly stupid to most on here as I've always been very ignorant to my horses feet (can spot an obvious problem but that's about it.)

I've recently been doing some reading and various sources say that deep collateral grooves are bad but I can't seem to find out why? Louie has very deep collateral grooves and I wonder if it's something I should be concerned about?

Also he's had very nice feet (from my inexperienced eye) but recently I've noticed his new growth has lots of ripples for a couple of inches and the older hoof is very slightly flared. What would cause this? This is only on fronts where he has shoes one (soon to come off) but he does have the ripples on his back feet just minus the flares (unshod back.)

Why are ripples bad? Should I wait until the ripples have grown out before I take his shoes off?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm sure I'll have more later but I don't have anyone to talk to as they all think I'm mad for taking shoes off.

 

[cptrayes]

Deep collateral grooves are only an issue if the frog is not in contact with the ground on a smooth hard surface. In that case they might indicate that the heel was too high. If the frog's in contact with the floor they usually just indicate a nice meaty back half of the foot

Ripples indicate varying nutrition and we generally feel they indicate a problem. They are normal in laminitic feet for example.

You don't need to wait until they are gone, but you may need to restrict your horse's carbohydrates and put him onto a mineral supplement that is low in iron and high in copper. There are two easily available. Without this, he may always be footie without shoes on.

Hope that helps

 

[Meowy Catkin]

*Deep collateral grooves/central sulcas'/frog clefts are often combined with contracted heels and or a weak caudal hoof (the back - so heel bulbs, heels of the hoof wall and frog) plus the deep groove can become thrushy more easily.

RE the ripples, they occur with a change of diet or problems such as laminitis. I caused big ridges in my horses hooves when I changed their feed, but it was a good ridge because the horn was actually growing in tighter above the ridge with a nice, tight white line. My grey also had ridges (one ridge per hoof) on her hooves from when she was weaned when I first bought her, again this wan't a problem as it indicated a diet change and it just grew out.

Have you been changing his diet? Has he been footy at all? Just be aware that ridges could indicate past low grade laminitis episodes.

You don't need to wait for the ridges to grow out before you take his shoes off (don't let the Farrier trim his hooves or frogs when the shoes come off or pare the sole). It would be good to get him on a good low sugar, high fibre diet with a good supplement, to promote good horn with tight white lines.


ETA - * Deep and narrow as if you could stick a credit card in the groove and it would stay there (with the horse's hoof held up), not large and wide.

 

[Kokopelli]

Thank you both, I'll try and get photos of his feet tomorrow. I've been changing his diet slightly, we put him on hay but he coughed too much so he went back onto haylage and I've been playing around with chaff.

What is a good diet, he is currently fed graze on with d&h build up cubes. I want to replace the build up cubes with a good balancer and micronised linseed or keep him on the cubes and just add the linseed?

The reason I've been concerned about him lately is for the past 2 weeks he's had a bit of intermittent lameness which I think is a mixture between bad feet and muscle issues. He is a bit footy behind I think as he's been unwilling to push through when working on the flat and when hacking he's very sensitive front and back to stones which is one of the reasons I've been putting off taking his shoes off.

He has wide and deep collateral grooves.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

High fibre, low sugar and low starch. I believe that when you add up the % of sugar and starch in the feed they should be under 10%. No molasses. Many people like Pro Hoof, available on ebay as a vit&min supplement.