Crumbling hooves

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ukhollie768

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My mare has had a full set of shoes on for as long as iv had her but i decided to give her some time off and take her shoes off. Within a week her feet began to crumble and break away, i called my farrier and he came out and said she needed a set of shoes put back on to help support what was left of her feet. I thought that would be the end of it and was corincresining everyday to help the growth. Unfortunately i brought her in today and she has lost one of her back shoes where her hoof has crumbled once again.... The farrier is coming out tomorro but im so worried and dont know what i can do to help her... shes not lame and touch wood hasnt been since iv had her. Has anyone got any ideas of what i can put on her feet or something i can feed her.... please help im at my wits end :( x
 
I would think that the crumbling is mainly around where the nail holes were, if she is sound and has good quality feet usually,it is likely that once the nail holes had grown out she would have been fine. Every time she has nails put back into her feet there will be less to nail into and the problem will get worse.

If she is not being ridden and is comfy, I would consider taking them off leaving her out on grass and letting the foot grow out fully, she may need a change of diet to encourage better growth.
 
Must be very worrying for you. I think micronised linseed and a hoof supplement such as pro hoof would be a good idea, what do you feed her? Don't think there is any short term answer to this as it would take months for the hooves to grow down and benefit from the supplements unfortunately (going through similar myself at the mo)
 
Firstly dont panic :)

Secondly the hooves, without shoes, are telling you that the horse isnt right diet wise. The hooves are a reflection of the horses health which is masked very effectively by shoes.

So rather than 'oh what a disaster' think of this as an opportunity to sort it out :)

First of all post up his routine, diet (everything!), and pics of his feet if poss :D
 
Thanks for all ur replies, she is a 15'1 traditional cob, propbably carrying at bit more weight than she should atm due to her having some time off:) She has just been brought back into work so her weekly routine is this: Twice a week lunging for 20-30 mins, one 45min schooling session a week and depending on time i try to fit in one or two 30min hacks that is mainly road work. She was on mollichaff calmer, scoop of garlic, linseed, scoop of d-itch and a scoop of fly free. She is now on allen and page light comp mix with the above plus electrolytes when she has worked hard. She is turnt out 24/7 and deu to thte weather one minute its really wet and the next its rock solid, i will get some pics tomoz and post them up. Ty xx:)
 
Errr...light competition mix?

Sorry, but take her off it. Doesn't need it! Why the change from what she was getting? She is not doing anywhere the level of work needed to justify the competition mix, light or not.

If you need to get vits in, try fast fibre. Literally only a half cup of it (dry weight) and use plain water to soak.

It has also been wet so even hardy barefooters will have feet that are a bit soft and looking a bit the worse for wear.

If crumbly this can mean too much sugar in the diet. I personally would remove all feeds (but maybe feed a very small amount FF with vits/mins if you want her to have a token feed after riding for instance), stop with the cornucresine as this stops the hoof breathing and won't help in the beginning. As the work load increases, feed more fibre in the form of FF or a plain chaff (no molasses/molasses substitute) and if you are truly doing the workload look to add oil to the feed.

Magox, seaweed/kelp are good for hooves.
 
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Feed the feet Lol NAF profeet worked wonders for my old boy who had very poor quality hoof. He went from crumbling and barely holding them 5 weeks to hard and holding 8 no problem!! Kevin Bacon hoof ointment is also brilliant stuff when used everyday religiously. The mane loss may be related as hoof and hair are both made of keratin.
 
hmmm... one of my horses (TBxID) has cracked hooves, which started as a result of a few months off without shoes. I posted on here for advice and quite a lot of people said it was his weight/diet. I have six horses/ponies, all living in a herd of different breeds. None get any hard feed, all the right weight, the rest of them have pretty solid hooves, with or without shoes. I'm sure everyone has the best of intentions with their advice - but I'm really interested in how if they are all on the same grazing, how diet can be the problem...???
 
victoria1980x said:
Must be very worrying for you. I think micronised linseed and a hoof supplement such as pro hoof would be a good idea, what do you feed her? Don't think there is any short term answer to this as it would take months for the hooves to grow down and benefit from the supplements unfortunately (going through similar myself at the mo)
Click to expand...

I agree with this - I also feed micronised linseed and Pro hoof and have a barefoot TB who's feet are starting to look amazing!
 
I would suggest that different horses have slightly different metabolisms and deal with the same diet differently - just like people. In particular I would think each horse would have a slightly different microorganism population in their hindgut which may affect how they process their diet. Also hoof growth is affected by work so if the others do more work their hooves may be stimulated more and therefore will grow faster and with thicker walls so less crumbling is seen.
 
In response to the post about why one horse in a herd of 6 would struggle when on the same lack of feed I'd say it could be down to having a greater susceptibility to sugar than the companions, or less of an ability to make use of minerals in the grass or hard feed or hay.

My cob has just come back from Rockley and he went a week without his minerals and it made a huge difference to how comfortable he was. Some horses maybe able to go without them but my lad can't. Maybe it's the same for your one horse out of 6 too?
 
the farrier came out today and said that they were actually better than last time so something is working??!! he just said that its going to take time for it all to grow out but he's happy with them which is a big relief. Im not sure if her diet is effecting it as her feet went bad before i changed her feed, and i know people may think she does not need a comp mix but when she is in this type of work she becomes very lazy and needs a little boost :) fingers crossed next time the farrier visits they will be back to normal:)
 
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