Any farriers? Grit in foot - advice please

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sonjafoers

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My horse regularly gets abcesses and grit in her foot and I wonder if anyone can help me with dealing with this.

I have an array of disinfectants, hoof washes & hoof dressings which I use continually - it's almost a full time job! I alternate soaking her feet in hoof wash & applying Kevin Bacon once dried with using a nail hole disinfectant around the frog and nail holes, allowing it to run under the shoe where possible.

This keeps the majority of bugs at bay but it obviously doesn't stop grit getting into the foot from time to time, which is a real pain as it can put her out of action for weeks at a time. I am wondering whether coating the sole with Stockholm Tar would prevent this, does anyone know? My concern is that I would have to do it permanently and what problems this would cause.

Any other tips or advice much appreciated!

Thank you
 
IMO, If the grit is getting into the white line under the shoe, there is very little you can do about it other than use a wire brush and give the sole a scrub to get it out as best you can. My mare went barefoot in July last year and I was amazed at how much those tiny bits of grit can wedge themselves into the hoof and the pain that they could cause her!
 
I am not a farrier
Not sure if you are trying to go barefoot
My land here is on gravel so used to the problem on and off over the years
Think you may be over doing the disinfectants
Feed a good hoof supplement
Clean hooves before farrier comes
Put eg Keratex hoof putty on white lines and shoe
 
If there is stuff regularly getting stuck in the white line, this suggests to me that the tissue is weakened, possibly due to dietary concerns. Is there flaring of the hoof wall? Is he on a lot of grass at the moment?

I ask because my pony likes to start a "rock collection" in small areas of white line separation to the point where he was collecting infections in there, too. Sorting out the sugar in his diet has brought a much tighter white line which is much more resistant to grit and gravel. All the dressings in the world won't do much good if he's toddling around with LGL!
 
Ok thanks everyone.

Firstly she isn't barefoot & I'm not trying to go barefoot. She has poor foot confirmation & so really can't cope even with a shoe off for a few hours! My farrier has worked very hard for the last year to get us to a point where we can go without equithane gel, and the foot is now much more balanced than it has been in the past. Her hoof walls don't particularly flare out and her feet aren't crumbly or cracking.

The infection this time is in the outside bar of one of the fores, which is a real shame as it's taken ages to grow decent bars and now this one has been completely dug out.

She is on NAF pro feet which is apparently one of the few supplements that can be safely fed in line with her balancer, and she is fed winergy equilibrium ( small quantities this time of year) so the sugar content of her feed shouldn't be too bad. Spookypony we do have decent grazing at the moment though so I wonder if that has anything to do with it?
 
It might very well! If the grazing's too good, then she may well be suffering from low-grade laminitis, which would of course cause the white line to be weakened and thus provide more opportunity for infections to make their way into the hoof. Since she's shod, this could well be masking a certain amount of pain, which means you might not notice, because she appears sound! Have you noticed any sort of correlation between the abscesses/grit and the time of year?
 
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