Hoof cracked through coronet band

[foreverhorses]

How have you got on with a quarter crack on hind hoof that starts at top of coronet band? Horse is 5yo & lame. Vet says it will never grow out & farrier says "never say never" currently wearing heartbar shoe,farrier every 5 wks, feeding Farriers Formula & good balancer with added salt & applying Kevin bacons daily. Other 3 hooves in good order its just this one horrible crack Feeling despondent ��

 

[ycbm]

My experience with severe cracks is that they will not grow out until you remove the pressure in the wrong place which is causing the crack. That's very difficult to do in shoes.

My guesses are:

Assuming there was no injury to the coronet band, that the horse wants a foot which will look far from symmetrical, and in shoeing it symmetrical the farrier is causing the uneven pressures that have resulted in the crack.

That if you tell your farrier you are going to go shoeless and see what happens, they will tell you that the foot will fall apart.


I will look out my photos of an unstable quarter crack which was cured immediately the foot was allowed to grow the shape it wanted to. One of many I've seen.


I would also put the horse on a no iron, no manganese, high copper supplement, because brittle, thin feet crack more easily and this is often caused by high iron in a lot of UK grazing/forage.

 

[ycbm]

This crack was unstable, it moved as the horse shifted his weight. Unfortunately I've lost the one of it once it was gone, so you'll just have to believe me that there was no sign of it at all.