At a loss to her poor feet :0(

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Abz88

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My mare is barefoot and has been for at least 3 years. Farrier said her feet were lovely and strong last time he came (Mid Jan). I noticed then getting slightly cracked heels/frogs. So bought some oil for cracks etc. I have been uing this for over a month and at the weekend, I jumped off, hosed her feet down and she had 2 chuncks of hoof mising, one from the back and one from the front. She has also been on codlivine suppliment for over 3 months and is on Hoof Kind feed. I am at a total loss as to what is going on over the last few weeks with her feet! Any ideas? Anyone experienced this?
 
The weather is having an affect I think, it's wet, dry, cold, warm and doesn't know what it wants to do half the time.

What do you feed her in any 24 hours?
Has there been any change to her routine, a change of paddock?
I'm sure you know but even a change in forage supply could change the quality of a hoof.
How long a go did you first notice a change?
 
I moved her to a new yard at the end of Jan. Where she was, is the place the farrier saw her and said her feet were fine. In her new place she was in a little 'holding field' type thing, normally used for a couple of sheep. She is now in her 'proper' paddock. It is not lush with grass, it has a gravel base. There is not lots of mud there either. She is fed 'Hoof Kind' mix with 2 scoops of codlivine suppliment and one handful of Mollichaff herbal. She then gets a hay/straw mix for grazing (aprox 70% hay, 30% straw).

I keep her feet clean and oiled, this is a once a day minimum. She hasnt put on weight or anything else. There is no heat or noticable pulse in her feet or legs and she is not lame.
 
Is she still sound? Only asking because my boy used to just lose chunks of hoof from the medial wall. He was still sound as a pound though so we just carried on.

If lame, then you need to look into it. Oil is no good for barefoot feet in my experience. You either lock in too much moisture or you lock out essential moisture. Better to feed a hoof from within than without.

I can't say if it is your new move because hoof takes roughly 6 months to grow so if the horn is weak then it was weak 6 months ago.

Molichaff is molassed so that is a no no for me. Also, wondering if you are over supplementing. Some minerals block the absorption of others so you have to be so careful what is being fed in what amount and take everything into consideration, even grazing and hay.
 
Check the ingredients on your Hoof Kind because it used to contain molasses, or molglo, as does your chaff so thats lots of sugar.

Also oils and hoof hardeners stop the hoof being able to breathe and can cause fungal infections. Keratex hoof hardener contains formaldehyde - drying to say the least.....

Its not the stuff you put on their feet, its what you feed them that makes them produce that foot :)
 
I'd change your diet to one without added sugar or codliver oil; horses are not adapted to digest either of those. Then I'd stop oiling the hooves, better to hose them daily if the ground is dry. We just make sure that the field water overflows, they stand there and their hooves get wet.
As someone else said, you need to look back about 6 months to work out what happened to her feet, unless the problem is that they were too long, so broke off.
 
TigerTail said:
Check the ingredients on your Hoof Kind because it used to contain molasses, or molglo, as does your chaff so thats lots of sugar.

Also oils and hoof hardeners stop the hoof being able to breathe and can cause fungal infections. Keratex hoof hardener contains formaldehyde - drying to say the least.....

Its not the stuff you put on their feet, its what you feed them that makes them produce that foot :)
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Well said.Sound advice!
 
Cut out all sugars, carrots, apples etc, give her one sachet of gelatine per feed, home baking section of supermarkets, my farrier commented on how good our TB's feet were looking, he was gobsmacked when I told him what I
was using, ours had huge cracks down his hooves, I use a cube of jelly a day
for my fingernails, it really works, I have really strong nails that I often use as a screwdriver, try it and see, results are very quick, 12 weeks for the horse
 
Why not try cornucrescine for hoof strength it rubs on and can take about 6 months to work but it does work.
Short term perhaps try something like easy boot (Vids on you tube) I have just used these for a different reason and as long as you get the right size and they fit correctly they appear to be really good.

Hope this helps

Ian
 
In my experience that is not what I found, the hooves since application have been stronger and crack free, it took over 6 months for it to grow through. I now only apply it once or possibly twice a week. But for me (& more importantly) the horse it worked.

Ian
 
HorseandGroom said:
In my experience that is not what I found, the hooves since application have been stronger and crack free, it took over 6 months for it to grow through. I now only apply it once or possibly twice a week. But for me (& more importantly) the horse it worked.

Ian
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cornucrescine works because it is an irritant which increases the blood supply to the foot. I think that a better way to increase the blood supply to the foot is to take off the shoes. If the shoes are already off then I personally think that the answer is to increase the nutrients within the blood that is supplied, not to irritate the coronet to bring more blood to the area. It does work though.
 
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flirtygerty said:
Cut out all sugars, carrots, apples etc, give her one sachet of gelatine per feed, home baking section of supermarkets, my farrier commented on how good our TB's feet were looking, he was gobsmacked when I told him what I
was using, ours had huge cracks down his hooves, I use a cube of jelly a day
for my fingernails, it really works, I have really strong nails that I often use as a screwdriver, try it and see, results are very quick, 12 weeks for the horse
Click to expand...

Do you mean the standard cubed stuff, you add water to, to make a jelly? I may well try that.
 
tallyho! said:
Is she still sound? Only asking because my boy used to just lose chunks of hoof from the medial wall. He was still sound as a pound though so we just carried on.

If lame, then you need to look into it. Oil is no good for barefoot feet in my experience. You either lock in too much moisture or you lock out essential moisture. Better to feed a hoof from within than without.

I can't say if it is your new move because hoof takes roughly 6 months to grow so if the horn is weak then it was weak 6 months ago.

Molichaff is molassed so that is a no no for me. Also, wondering if you are over supplementing. Some minerals block the absorption of others so you have to be so careful what is being fed in what amount and take everything into consideration, even grazing and hay.
Click to expand...

She's sound, no heat or swelling or strong pulse in her legs at all. Feet anr't hot either.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
I'd change your diet to one without added sugar or codliver oil; horses are not adapted to digest either of those. Then I'd stop oiling the hooves, better to hose them daily if the ground is dry. We just make sure that the field water overflows, they stand there and their hooves get wet.
As someone else said, you need to look back about 6 months to work out what happened to her feet, unless the problem is that they were too long, so broke off.
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I will stop feeding the chaff as it is sugar filled. I havent oiled her feet for a couple of days now as I decided that I have been oiling and her feet seem worse than when I wasnt!
I havent owned her 6 months, owned her for 3 (ish) so not sure what was going on 6 months ago. She was used as a broodmare, not sure if this would make a difference? Shes been bare for at least 3 years (old owner never shod her) and in the time I have had her at least, her feet havent been allowed to get long.
 
Abz88 said:
She was trimmed only 4 weeks ago, so length wouldn't have done it I don't think
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Depends entirely on how long your trimmer left them in the first place. If you pick them up and look downwards on the sole, how high is the hoof wall over the sole height? The maximum should normally be 2mm at the most, a tiny amount.
 
cptrayes said:
Depends entirely on how long your trimmer left them in the first place. If you pick them up and look downwards on the sole, how high is the hoof wall over the sole height? The maximum should normally be 2mm at the most, a tiny amount.
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They don't seem to long. I have the farrier coming out friday to have a look and see what he thinks. He said we may have to put shoes on the front as I am bringing her back into work and hasnt been ridden for 3 odd years, and no idea if she was shod when ridden before. Hopefully my farrier can tell me whats going on and give some suggestions too. I think sugar is deffinatley out for my girly though!! Tad worried she'll lose weight though? Or should this not make a difference. Also, I was under the impression, sugar is good if you're working your horse? Just need to get the balance I guess. May be not ride her until her feet are in decent condition and go from there.
 
Sugar isn't good at anytime really. Energy and calories is what is needed, doesn't have to come from sugar.

Oils, proteins and bulk fibre is what gives a horse energy without sugars. If you are worried he will lose weight, change to a higher oil higher fibre diet. Horses cope much better with oils than they do sugar.
 
Right, firstly, your horse has been a field ornament for the last 3 years, walking over the same ground daily... she is now being asked to work over various terrain and her feet haven't had the time to adjust.... give her a bit more time - go back to just walking in hand across stony ground for 10 minutes 3 times a week and build up from there - you can use hoof boots for hacking in the mean time ;)

In her case I feel that diet will be a HUGE contributing factor. Remove the sugar and Mix from her diet and I'm sure you will have much healthier feet (and horse in general). Try feeding her speedi-beet or fast fibre and if she needs energy then Micronised linseed is supposed to be quite good (also good for the feet anyway) she might need supplementing with certain minerals, in which case, I'd reccomend getting your hay analysed to tell you which ones she could be lacking rather than forking out on supplements she may not need.
 
My last share horse had nightmare feet. Farrier said to not use anything but purple something on them (possibly hoof and sole but can't remember 100%) I doused the stuff on them after every ride and it made the world of difference :) Cracking stopped completely within a few weeks and looked so much better, we then just coated lightly when bad ground or working more.

Pan
 
Abz88 said:
I moved her to a new yard at the end of Jan. Where she was, is the place the farrier saw her and said her feet were fine. In her new place she was in a little 'holding field' type thing, normally used for a couple of sheep. She is now in her 'proper' paddock. It is not lush with grass, it has a gravel base.
Click to expand...
Hooves can react surprisingly quickly to diet changes. The new place grass may be higher in sugars or lacking in minerals etc.etc.
Hoof and horn quality is down to diet and movement.

To add. Conversely things may be better here and old horn is breaking away. Cpt. is right, horn tends to break off if it's too long. Have a look at the top inch or so of her hoof horn. Is it looking different to the older lower horn?
 
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