Any cheap supplements that will improve hoof quality?

[ycbm]

And the horse I think too. I don't have to feed my mare minerals and she has great feet. Gelding on the other hand needs them to help his feet and keep winter abscesses at bay.
Probably not dissimilar to people who have great hair/nails regardless of their diet, and then some have poor quality and need to supplement with zinc or multi vits/mins..

Exactly. I once ran out of brewer's yeast. I had three horses. One stayed rock crunching, one felt the odd stone, one went completely footie.

 

[Pigeon]

Apparently you can feed them gelatine for the hooves. I'm a vegetarian so not overly keen on trying but it is super cheap! I've seen cornucrescine have good results too.

 

[Llee94]

I get a big bag of limestone flour from the warehouse at Mole Valley. Think it is only about £2 a bag and with 4 horses it lasts months. I found it made a really difference in my TB's feet that were previously held together with glue when I bought him!

 

[Mince Pie]

I use pro balance

Me too.

 

[criso]

I believe the correct zinc: copper ratio is 3:1

I feed the sulphate for cost reasons and it works fine according to my blood tests.

Thanks, I knew it was more than 1:1 - mine's about 2.5:1 but that's based on my forage.

 

[missyclare]

Iron:Copper:Zinc:Manganese 4:1:3:3 is the total balance sought for trace minerals. The iron is the opponent in relation to copper and zinc and manganese is iron's partner in crime.

 

[meesha]

An all round supplement rather than a hoof supplement but very cheap at moment is topspec cool balancer, half price so £11 per bag. Mine looks great on it, feet great etc but then again his feet were never bad even before he was on it.

 

[Spyda]

Is the mega high iodine level in seaweed not a problem when it is fed as forage? Just wondered as I am using 4g/day of dried seaweed to balance my ration; that's all that's needed to add the iodine boost I require.

I tend towards dried seaweed as a supplement to aid with good keratin production (though H really gets it for his mane - which he rubs in the winter - rather than his hooves per se).

It works for H, and it's not terribly expensive if you're on a budget, though I don't think I know many people outside Highland or Shetland Pony-owning circles who use the stuff (ponies that live on Scottish islands tend to have seaweed as a decent chunk of their forage, especially in winter, and people who keep them elsewhere often keep up the practice to at least some extent).

 

[criso]

Is the mega high iodine level in seaweed not a problem when it is fed as forage? Just wondered as I am using 4g/day of dried seaweed to balance my ration; that's all that's needed to add the iodine boost I require.

Yes it can be, I have had forage analysis done at 4 yards now and only on one did I need to supplement Iodine and then it was a tiny 1ml scoop.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Mine too.

One of then gets magnesium fir his skin but otherwise hay grass and a trim every 14/14 weeks.

 

[burtie]

Interesting how many people use supplements. Mine live on grass, weeds and twigs, and their hooves are 100%... even those who came to me with bad ones.
Time, minimal trimming and plenty of exercise on the road seems to do the trick, unless there's something very special about nettles.

My friends horse has terrible feet his whole life, he is feed a variety of supplements but his hooves have improved greatly since he started lining out 24/7, we can't do it all year but it has helped enormously. I think a lot of the reason is good blood supply because they are always moving around on it!