hooves barely growing?

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catherine93

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my horses hooves seem to barey grow, probably an inch or less between each time he is shod, and the little bit of growth there is seems to be outwards, only way i can describe is that they grow out and look likeplates rather than get long. Farrier also commented that the hooves were bad and crumbly but just said some horses dont have good feet, tried him without back shoes as he is mostly out of work but had to get farrier out after a few weeks to get them back on as the odd time he was in the school he was lame, any ideas on anything to improve/help this?
 
Look at diet, low sugar and possibly no alfalfa.

Pro-earth on ebay is brilliant hoof supplement.

Also I would LOVE my horses feet to grown an inch between farrier visits! As it she is now barefoot and self trims for the most part!
 
Sounds like flaring which is usually due to a dietary problem. I'd start by removing as much sugar and starch from the diet as possible. Mine has speedibeet, micronised linseed, whole soaked oats plus a min/vit supp and mag ox. I'd also swap farrier - saying some horses have bad feet without giving an alternative or explanation rings warning bells that the farrier isn't doing enough to help you!
 
Diet and a good foot suppl, make sure farrier trims away the flare each time he visits and dont leave inbetween shoeings longer than 5 weeks, the more foot supp, the more regular trimmings the quicker the new good hoof grows and the old bad hoof gets trimmed away, hope that makes sense. Should grow about 5mm a month. Will grow more with movement and foot supp and in summer. Agree above post re farrier
 
my pony also doesnt grow much foot. i moved yards a few months ago and had to change farriers, new farrier recommended Dengie coat and hoof supplement, i also changed his diet and he now has fast fibre which i add his supplement to and lots of hay. his feet have improved so much and the farrier actually managed to trim them the other day!
 
putasocinit said:
Diet and a good foot suppl, make sure farrier trims away the flare each time he visits and dont leave inbetween shoeings longer than 5 weeks, the more foot supp, the more regular trimmings the quicker the new good hoof grows and the old bad hoof gets trimmed away, hope that makes sense. Should grow about 5mm a month. Will grow more with movement and foot supp and in summer. Agree above post re farrier
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5mm a month is exceptionally slow growth for a decently active working barefoot horse, in my experience. 10 mm would be more like it.
 
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