Dry weather causing vertical cracks in bare hooves?

[Jericho]

Can any barefoot gurus help? Mare has been barefoot for two years now, feet looked great during winter, she struggles sometimes on very sharp stones but is otherwise fine. Fed prohoof, chopped straw, handful of purefeeds easy (grass nuts, straw mix) and very watery speedibeet - in all the whole daily hard fits into about 1 Stubbs scoop but is split between 2 feeds. Out 24/7 on pretty poor grazing ( and looking well on it!)

Have had some very dry weather last two weeks, ground hard and dusty and both front feet have some hairline splits about half inch long right up centre of wall. What do I do? Do they need external moisture? Don't want the cracks to get worse.... Walls are chipping along bottom but I expected that as usual but I just don't like these cracks!

 

[LucyPriory]

A well fed hoof is fairly elastic/plastic and at their best are glossy on the outside like a french polished table.

Too much sugar/starch and/or mineral imbalance and/or metabolic disease and/or inappropriate trimming can lead to cracks.

'Dryness' type cracks are often down to the sugar/mineral balances.

I know your diet is pretty good, but there is quite a lot of straw in there. Straw can be a problem for some, some of the time.

Check out this blog entry http://barefoothorseblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/overweight-and-starving.html

I am not suggesting that your horse is overweight, but the pictures are good examples of what can happen when the diet is not right for the individual horse.

When the diet was right the cracks grew out and neither horse had any issues during or after.

Moisturerisers can do more harm than good and I have seen entire hoof wall breakdown from inappropriate use.

 

[cptrayes]

I have owned several, and got one now, and know of others owned by my friends, where surface cracks scarcely deeper than a line in the hoof wall appear whenever the weather is dry for a spell. They never cause any problems and I have never succeeded in getting rid of them with moisturisers, though once I thought I had some cosmetic improvement. My horses are rock crunchers in spite of them and I think they are quite common.

As long as you can't get a finger nail down into them, I wouldn't worry if your horse is good on stones.

C