Done to death - best hoof supp?

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DirectorFury

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I know, I know, we’ve all read this thread or variations on it a million times. Sorry for being boring an unimaginative :p. Horse has poor hoof quality, it seemed to get better for a while but is now back to splitting and cracking, particularly around nail holes. She’s on a strict 6 week shoeing cycle but hardly grows any hoof so nail holes are never far apart. Thankfully she’s not the type to pull shoes. She’s been on Farriers Formula for 12 months but I don’t think it’s making any difference at all.

Caveats: horse is not barefoot and barefoot doesn’t work for her in our current setup. I tried for 18 months last time and she was incredibly unhappy. I don’t have any real control over turnout or grass levels (full livery) and to be successful BF she’d probably have to live on a grass free track. They’re not a thing here.

She won’t eat Pro Earth Pro Hoof unless it’s mixed with large quantities of sugar beet :rolleyes: so that’s out. I’d prefer something pelleted so it’s easy to feed, though am open to a powder if it’s the only option.

I’ve tried to buy the Forage Plus pellet balancer ~5 times but it seems to be permanently sold out.
 
ester said:
equimins adv. complete.
job done lol.
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That looks like it’ll do the job, ordered and should be delivered by the weekend. I’ve ordered a tub of the ‘Laminator’ pellets too, she better have amazing feet in a few months :p.
Thanks! I’ll just PM you next time we’re having hoofy problems ;).
 
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I persist with supplements, mine wouldn’t eat turmeric or Danilon until I hid it in fast fibre and will now eat it without protest. I think it’s worth trying again with Pro earth, it made a huge difference to my horse’s feet.
 
Cinnamontoast said:
I persist with supplements, mine wouldn’t eat turmeric or Danilon until I hid it in fast fibre and will now eat it without protest. I think it’s worth trying again with Pro earth, it made a huge difference to my horse’s feet.
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I’ve been trying it on and off for about 5 years, never with much success! She’s only guaranteed to eat it if it’s mixed with a large quantity of the cheapest, sugariest, sugar beet which sort of defeats the object of a low sugar hoof friendly diet :(.
 
DirectorFury said:
I’ve been trying it on and off for about 5 years, never with much success! She’s only guaranteed to eat it if it’s mixed with a large quantity of the cheapest, sugariest, sugar beet which sort of defeats the object of a low sugar hoof friendly diet :(.
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I know what you mean! I am a persistent cow, I added nice stuff, like sugar free polos, which he loves, a couple of treats. I use fast fibre, no molasses. I’m not ashamed to say that I hand fed him for a few days. Now he is super keen to come in and eat, chucks the readigrass out of the way and head’s for the teeny amount of fast fibre concealing Danilon/supplements.
 
Honestly it is worth persisting with the pro earth (or maybe try forageplus as an alternative). The mare I got last year is the fussiest diva imaginable and had been used to feeds stuffed with molasses so you can imagine her reaction to my preferred feed of pro earth minerals, grass nuts, unmollassed beet and oat straw chaff ?

She is now eating said feeds happily but it took literally months to get there. I started by giving her the feed she was used to with just literally a pinch of pro earth added. Did this for a week and then increased to 2 pinches. By the end of 2 months I had her up to the full dose of minerals so I started on the feed. I replaced a handful of her nuts with a handful of grass nuts until she could cope with all grass nuts, then moved on to the sugar beet, then the chaff. The whole transfer took nearly 6 months but she never rejected a feed except at the start when I presented her with the full mineralised sugar free version and she just looked at it and walked away! Her hooves are sooo much better now with soles that don't flex and actual noticeable growth when a trim is due!!!
 
Maxahoof has far more bio available biotin than equimins. But isn't pelleted. I opted for maxahoof simply because of the high level of biotin and it has made a difference. I also use Red Horse strong horn spray.
 
Shay said:
Maxahoof has far more bio available biotin than equimins. But isn't pelleted. I opted for maxahoof simply because of the high level of biotin and it has made a difference. I also use Red Horse strong horn spray.
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Again, if it works for you that's fine but it contains added manganese which has the same effect as added iron.

Biotin levels are not the magic hoof quality ingredient they were one thought to be. Horses on a good diet make plenty for themselves.
 
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Mine is very fussy and eats equimins. Its my go to now.

Biotin isn't really an issue Shady, a healthy horse produces its own biotin. What is important is no iron and high balanced levels of copper and zinc. Maxahoof is a really poor spec and not really comparable. It would be worth you looking around at alternatives.
 
awelshandawarmblood said:
Mines on Formula4Feet and I add rosehips & seaweed supplement.
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Seaweed is not a good idea. The high iron and iodine are not good for horses. It was a big thing a few years back, but we know better now. I use dried rosehips as treats for clicker training sometimes but you don't need to feed them every day. A decent mineral balancer will cover anything you get from them :)

I wont comment on forumla4feet as they monitor the forum and contact admin threatening legal action and then I get banned for a few days. I would be happy to elaborate further to anyone interested but not on this forum anymore ;) I'd just advise that you read the website VERY carefully and take a close look at the spec and ingredients and the claims made.
 
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because the things that are the most important are high, balanced levels of copper and zinc, and no iron. Then magnesium and vitamin e. The EAC has a good all round basic spec which will balance the high iron in most UK pasture and hay. Ester adds extra mag ox to hers, I add extra vitamin e. For most people the EAC will make a significant difference.

I really need to find the photos that show the difference in my mare from when she started on it. The youngsters on it now. He has typical brilliant highland feet, but even they have improved.
 
Thanks LW, will have a look.

Just wish the ground wasn't so hard, she's wearing them down as quick as they're growing ? although still early days, must be more patient!
 
Photos would be great if you have them LW! 10/10 service from Equimins so far - I ordered at 11:30pm last night, it was dispatched 9am this morning, and should be delivered before 10am tomorrow.

Continuing with the Pro Earth just isn’t an option, she’s on full livery and I can’t get there every day to make up faffy feeds and I feel unfair asking YO (who is absolutely fab) to do it. Even when she was DIY and I was increasing it by 1 gram a week as soon as it got to 2 scoops she’d stop eating. I’ve wasted so much money on different feeds plus unfinished bags of Pro Hoof. We might be able to compromise and do EAC over the summer and half measures of Pro Hoof over winter when she’s more likely to want to eat hard feed.
 
You can see the old hoof growing out at the bottom

66432795_2163415727286179_2498045119287001088_o.jpg


The full post is on my trimmers page here:

Bobbies feet
 
So I've never really looked at the other equimins products as I've not needed to and I am really uninterested in biotin :D.

Before using it I was custom mixing minerals based on forage analysis. However he was always trick to feed them, it did improve but he certainly never ate them with relish and I had to use more feed (fast fibre at the time) than I would have been doing for a native out of work in summer.
The spec of the EAC was pretty much spot on for my forage, except the magnesium so I have fed that ever since. He went off the pellets once and was leaving them so we switched to powder but has been back on pellets ever since he went back to Mums, ermm 3ish years ago?! now
 
mavandkaz said:
Why this one, and not one specifically for hooves?
My mare is newly barefoot and has great hoof quality but is not growing enough hoof. Had a look at the equimins range and am now confused
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I have one at livery that doesn't have the best feet, he is also very fussy, Equimins recommended their hoof mender for him and his feet have improved in the 9 months he has been on it, the other mare has been on advance complete since having her shoes off last autumn, she has always grown very slowly but has good quality horn, so I think her owner is going to give the hoofmender a try this time to see if that encourages faster growth.
I will say it does need to be added very slowly, the mare is not fussy but will leave her feed if I don't put enough linseed in which seems to be the key to both eating up, the fussy one will eat it in a mug of linseed but not in plain grassnuts.
 
I started feeding equimins advance complete back in January after looking at positive reports on here and all I can say is wow, I never expected such a well priced supplement to have such an impact, my pony is barefoot and absolutely rock crunching like never before. I did have to add it slowly into his feed but it is definitely worth it
 
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