Hooves chipped at edges! How to protect/improve?

A

Arizahn

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 May 2011
Messages
4,297
Visit site
First off, the farrier is coming out again in the first week in January.
Ali is growing out some poor hoof edges; they are chipped and ragged looking. The farrier is however pleased with her overall hoof health (phew!) and reckons he may even be able to improve the angle of her left fore; it turns in a little.

She is on a general supplement that includes biotin, but today she chipped the wall of her left fore on a sharp rock in her field :eek:
The chip is at the bottom edge of her hoof, just above the shoe. It is just the outer wall and the shoe is still in place. The chip is a 1 cm triangle.
She is walking normally. I cleaned and dried the area whilst I was picking out and washing her feet this afternoon. I wash and dry them every day since I have to scrub her lower legs anyway (mud fever). I also apply Stockholm tar to her hooves twice a week.

So should I play it safe and put her on box rest until January - exercise in hand, etc? The grazing is very muddy at the moment. I am worried about this weakening or damaging her hoof further.
Also, my OH was wondering if we ought to fill the chip with anything until the farrier can see to it?

All advice welcome!
 
Dont worry about it. I certainly would not be putting her on box rest for something so minor

It is not ideal but it is amazing how much they can chip off with out feeling it. Ask the farrier for advice when he comes but dont panic it is just one of those things and not an emergancy

Biotin will help but it takes a good few months of feeding it before you get any difference because of the way the hoof grows. I personaly wouldnt use stockholm tar twice a week. While it is good at clearing thrushy feet it is oil based and can actualy deteriorate the hoof structure. I recomend Kevin Bacons hoof dressing but it is dificult in the winter as you can only use it on clean dry feet.

Wet grazing will not do it any good but unfortunatly there is not alot that most horse owners can do about that this time of year. It is the constant getting wet and then drying out which is bad for the horn. Please dont box rest your horse to keep it off wet grazing. Box rest would be far more detrimental to her welbeing than a chipped hoof x

I'm sure your horse will be fine and her feet with improve with time
 
My horse has a tendency to brush behind, and recently I had been making a real effort to get him working more forward which was great. I did however notice that he must of been forging as there were chips out of the inside of his back hooves just by the shoes, on one side the hoof was no longer resting on the shoe for about 1cm!

He wasn't lame or bothered by it and his shoe was firmly on (although I kept a close eye on it).

I put a sausage boot on one back leg and that solved the problem.
 
Thanks, she's been out and about as normal and seems fine! I will cut back on the Stockholm tar and get hold of a non oil based replacement as soon as I can.
I worry too much, lol!
 
Um...I put the Stockholm tar on because I thought it was meant to protect the hoof wall by waterproofing, not to make her hooves look pretty! It was an honest mistake on my part.
I think the ragged edges are due to her not being trimmed often enough - her old owner left her for eight to nine weeks at a time. I was planning on every six but am having them checked every four instead for now.
 
AH, so, are we talking about an unshod horse, mature horse in a field situation or is it a shod horse left too long between shoe-ings?
Or a youngster needing corrective shoeing to straighten a hoof?
Confused
 
Last edited:
My boy had crumbly hooves below the nail holes. Since I took his shoes off, only a few months ago, no crumbling.
 
Miss L Toe said:
AH, so, are we talking about an unshod horse, mature horse in a field situation or is it a shod horse left too long between shoe-ings?
Or a youngster needing corrective shoeing to straighten a hoof?
Confused
Click to expand...

Sorry, she is ten and has daily turn out for six to eight hours, unless weather is too wild.
She is shod, but had been left too long between trims by her previous owner so I am trying to resolve the problems that has caused.
Her left fore turns in slightly, but she stands and moves well - not lame, clumsy, etc.

Really glad of all the advice:)
 
Id take them off entirely tbh and let them grow how they want to do for a couple of months and then review with trimmer/ farrier.

If they are crumbling it is because the horn is of poor quality, the diet isnt right for her and the shoe is compromising that :)

What exactly is she being fed on?
 
I am in the process of changing her feed.

She is currently on two slices of soaked hay (one large hay net) per night. I will be keeping the hay as is.

She also has a scoop of Mollichaff Original and a handful of cool mix (high fibre, low sugar, low starch, added vitamins and herbs) in the morning, and the same in the evening. The evening feed has her biotin added.

I am weaning her off the Mollichaff, and onto a sugar and molasses free chaff instead. The plainest stuff I can find.

Going to phone the farrier this week and discuss taking off her shoes, as he said it was an option depending on what sort of riding I would be doing with her.

I will only remove her shoes if the farrier agrees it is suitable for her.

Her hooves are starting to improve and are growing at a good, even rate.
 
TigerTail said:
Id take them off entirely tbh and let them grow how they want to do for a couple of months and then review with trimmer/ farrier.

If they are crumbling it is because the horn is of poor quality, the diet isnt right for her and the shoe is compromising that :)

What exactly is she being fed on?
Click to expand...

She spent five years with no additional feed or supplements - just grass, and some hay in winter. Her feet weren't seen to often enough either, tbh. When I got her, my farrier and I noticed the issue and he said to put her on the biotin.

I stupidly purchased Mollichaff and am really annoyed at myself over that. I had been using a sugar free chaff prior to that, but the feed store stopped stocking it. They recommended Mollichaff as a replacement.

I have since changed feed stores.
 
trottingpole said:
thank you moorman for the link to your website; fascinating reading. Isn't it about time h&h did more articles on this?
Click to expand...

H&H are NEVER going to be friendly towards barefoot -t hey think it's just an eccentric fad - ling live shoes and even better massive hoof intervention :(

Sorry but H&H even had a senior staff member out there hunting barefoot horses and narry an article written.

H&H - you need to catch up!
 
1) H&H are always going to reflect their readership, I would assume that the majority are owners who shoe their horses.
2) The majority of vets in the country are still very sceptical about the barefoot approach, and after the Strassa debacle who can blame them
3) It is not in the interest of feed companies (one of the H&H biggest sources of revenue) to do a complete rethink without reason
It is up to all of us to continue leading by example:
If we find:
A Pre/Post Navicular horse gets better due to a barefoot regime
A laminitic is now sound due to barefoot
A horse is doing everyday work on all surfaces, barefoot
A shod horse is not happy in its shoes
We should get all the relevant details and post them on sites like this one
We are starting to make a difference; if you had talked about barefoot 4 years ago it would have just meant taking the shoes off.
I salute the trimmers/farriers in the UK who have stuck to their guns against all the odds.
I can’t say it enough: All horses can go barefoot, but not all owners
Barefoot is here to stay.
 
Arizahn said:
She spent five years with no additional feed or supplements - just grass, and some hay in winter. Her feet weren't seen to often enough either, tbh.
Click to expand...


Noticed what issue? No additional feed or supplements is absolutely fine provided the grazing isnt very deficient in something. As long as she keeps her weight there is no need to feed buckets of rubbish :D

Id lose the cool mix and just give her half a cup of micronised linseed along with your plain chaff (readigrass is what i use if that helps) - anything pre mixed in a bag is a no no for hoof health ;)

Your feed store are about the same as any other merchant - useless!


Fabulous post Moorman :D
 
moorman said:
1) H&H are always going to reflect their readership, I would assume that the majority are owners who shoe their horses.
2) The majority of vets in the country are still very sceptical about the barefoot approach, and after the Strassa debacle who can blame them
3) It is not in the interest of feed companies (one of the H&H biggest sources of revenue) to do a complete rethink without reason
Click to expand...
True. Also many experienced and influential people are very against barefoot, no magazine wants to alienate it's subscribers.

I also agree barefoot is here to stay. Horses don't lie or have an agenda and their response to good and appropriate barefoot management is undeniable.
 
moorman said:
1)
if you had talked about barefoot 4 years ago it would have just meant taking the shoes off.
.
Click to expand...

whilst I hated the Strasser trim and the damage it caused her methods were far more than a trim. It was a method and if you read LOS then half of the book details the living conditions etc required. OK she didn't get a lot of it right but she certainly stressed it was not just taking the shoes off, exercise, living conditions etc were important That was back in 1999.

Both KC and Ramey stressed that it was not just a case of removing the shoes and we have all been arguing for many years now over diet, exercise, grass restriction etc.

I agree that vets are sceptical after the Strasser debacle but many only went down the Strasser route as farriers wouldn't help people take their horses barefoot.
It is great now that more professionals are coming on board. It is certainly unlikely that feed companies will rethink their products or that vets and farriers are going to change their ways very quickly so, as it always has been, it is left to owners and trimmers to research and work out for themselves what is required and to share that knowledge.
 
I agree vets (not all) are slow to catch on to the benefits of barefoot, they have invested many years of studying, which puts them in a position of being committed to using all that knowledge to show their authority as a professional. They wouldn't command such confidence in their wisdom if they started saying, mmm well, despite what the farrier says, I think you should take his shoes off:rolleyes:
Same with the farriers (not all). They've studied for years on how to make shoes and nail them on to a hoof, so it would be throwing all that away if they said, well I think the vet's wrong, and I think I've made a mistake all these years, so you should think about taking his shoes off and going barefoot. And they would only be able to charge say £15 for a grass trim instead of charging you (about) £60 for nailing some shoes on.
So in the meantime, so many horses are suffering because these (not all) stubborn professionals don't want to lose face by saying "well maybe there is something in this barefoot movement"
I do think though that there would be far fewer reasons for going barefoot if farriers (not all) would stop shoeing horses badly. It is such a common sight to see shod horses with long toes and underrun heels - a navicular problem in the making. This is what happened to my gelding. He was only shod by this farrier for 18 months in which time he allowed his feet to grow deformed. He was shod every six to eight weeks by the way and I know of many of my friends horses who have their horses shod at the correct intervals and their horses still have LT and URH.
I wonder when farriers (not all) will be sued for causing these problems to happen, and a dereliction of duty charge brought against them by their professional body whose motto on the heading of their web site by the way is "Promoting the Health of the Horse Since 1356" :mad:
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top