Chipped/ cracked hooves

[Archie07]

Arch's hooves have begun to crack and chip recently and I came up this morning to find a rather large chip out of his front hoof.

He is only 14 months but his feet seem to be falling apart recently, he has the farrier every 6 weeks and they've been absolutely fine up until this past week or so. The farrier's coming Friday so I'll ask him then.

Can anyone recommend something for them? Sorry might seem like a silly post!

 

[AlexThe Arab]

Had exactly the same worries as you

Lost a shoe Sunday, farrier came yesterday but had been due this Friday. In my horses case and it may be the same for yours, it's quite common for this to happen in summer and is due to the weather, the hoof is dry, then wet, then dry

Condition should improve as we head into autumn

When I asked if there was anything to put in feed on directly on to hooves I was advised not to bother as his feet where generally in good condtion. If your farrier hasn't been concerned about his feet on earlier visits I'd be hopeful that it's just a temporary thing

 

[Kallibear]

Sounds like they're just getting too long and starting to self-trim to take the extra length off.

Chipping is normal in barefoot horses and only happened when there is too much wall. It looks messy and can even be horrific, but it's not painful for them. You never see it with feet that are short with no flare.

Cracking is different. Short grass cracks (from the bottom up) again happen when the feet are long and flare. But proper sand cracks (start front the top, or mid hoof) are a sign either of poor hoof quality (poor diet etc) or incorrect balance. If the wall is long and stretched on one side, it puts shearing pressure on the wall and causes them to split.

 

[Silverspring]

I'm having problems with cracked hooves too, the farrier said it was the weather and to moisturise her feet. No more cracks have appeared since I started, fingers crossed it's working.

I asked about supplements but he siad if the horse was getting a balanced diet it would make no difference, she's on varied grazing and gets hard feed every day so I'm hoping I can be spared the further expense

 

[Archie07]

Thanks for that, from what you've described the cracks are grass cracks. He has his feet trimmed and rasped every 6 weeks anyway just to keep them in good condition as he's only young, I'll check with the farrier if he needs them done more often then to prevent the chipping. It's only happend very recently so maybe it's a mixture of the dry and wet weather too.

 

[damsel]

I have a mare whos feet crack all year round and my farrier also said that it was to do with the weather being dry and wet constantly. I was told by my vet and farrier to put iodine in the cracks to prevent infection and to put on a non-oil based hoof protector, I use Effol which helps alot. It is water based so it doesn't dry the hoof out. hope this helps.