Are white/cream hooves weaker than black or old wives tale ?

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thinlizzy

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Are black hooves stronger than white/cream ?Whats your opinion ?Why / and your experiances please one of my horses has two black and two cream coloured ,and was just wondering is there any fact to back it up ? Or is it just a old wives tale pls discuss
 
I asked my farrier this question a little while ago and he said there was no difference. I have heard lots of people say that white hooves are weaker - but sounds like it is just an old wives tale (although there is generally some truth in alot of them).

Do I sound like I'm on the fence on this one LOL

I'm with my farrier :)
 
I have a mixture, one with all 4 white, one with 2 white & 2 striped, others with black & one white. No difference whatsoever.
 
My farrier has a theory that it stems from the fact that bruises etc. are more visible in light hooves than dark. But I reckon there's no difference.
 
White hooves will show up any damage as a visible mark or bruise, whereas you won't see it on a black hoof. Hence the thinking that the black hoof is stronger.
 
My appaloosas have white hooves with black stripes (a characteristic of the breed). My quarter horse has black hooves, he has to be shod to be ridden as I have tried barefoot with him and he hates the Hampshire flints and walks on the grass wherever possible and sometimes where it isn't possible - whereas the appaloosa always gets ridden out barefoot with no problems. Yes you can see bruises which often worries me but hadn't really thought about the fact that you just can't see them on black feet. My farrier always says that the appaloosa has good strong feet. So it would appear that white feet are not weaker in my case. :)
 
I think this idea comes from the fact that on white hooves you can everything more, eg bruising and cracks.

Any horse I've had with white feet has always had very strong horn (which can't always be said for dark feet!)

Farrier says no difference.
 
Another one whose farrier says no difference. I've seen no difference in my experience too - my daughter's horse has 2 white and 2 black and his hooves are strong as a mustang's. My horse has 2 white and 2 black and require constant nurturing.

I agree that it probably stems from being easier to see problems on a white hoof.
 
Old wives tale IMO. This has been discussed at length on the barefoot forum I go on and (amongst "barefooters" at least) there's no noticeable difference. If white hoof was physically weaker / softer than black then surely stripy hooves should show different wear rates or even be prone to splitting along the change?

No difference that we could identify in the incidence of thrush, WLD, abscesses etc either so not sure about them being more prone to infection, though I guess the sample number may not have been comparable with farmed cows / sheep.
 
My farrier also said there is no difference! Sometimes, a lot of bad cracked feet is due to what food/supplements they are given...I say sometimes!
 
Old wives tale :)

Just being learning about the hoof for my jan exams and the colour of the hoof is determined by the pigmentation in the skin just above the hoof. So if the skin above is white you will get a white hoof, if it is darker you get a black hoof or area of hoof.

Hope this helps

Jasper65 xxx
 
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