How can I stop her feet cracking?

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dallas

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Hi all

I recently had my cobs shoes taken off but now with this really dry weather we've been having, at parts her feet have cracked and chipped from where the old nails were. The chips are only from where the nails were though and do not extend up past them.

She's a young 5 yo and very green, I'm pregnant and following advice I've turned her away until next year. So she's out 24/7 and purely grass fed. I was given her a balancer alongside chaff throughout the winter as she was a little underweight. Her weight is perfect now and she seems to be a very good doer.

I have been soaking her feet with the hose daily (a task in itself!!) and have been putting on effol summer gel but her feet are still very dry and cracking.
I am planning on getting the farrier round to trim her feet a bit too and
will see what he says then.

Any suggestions on what I can do/ try next in the meantime?
 
If she hasn't been trimmed recently then the cracking could well be to do with that, also if the hoof wall is weak it will tend to break off, it should thicken and harden up after a while. When mine had shoes removed this happened initially, I didn't worry too much about it as the pony was sound and happy and it corrected itself once new horn had grown down.

Diet can be a huge factor in hoof quality, and grass often has to be restricted for horses working without shoes as the sugar affects them, so if you find the cracking doesn't improve in time it may be worth looking at the overall diet.
 
I wouldnt worry too much about them chipping around the old nail holes. This will happen as the hoof grows out.

Kevin Bacon Hoof Solution is quite good for keeping them in good condition though. I Prefer the liquid as it doesn't freeze solid in the winter.
 
This subject has come up a few times recently and I've also hear a couple of people at the yard make the same complaint. Surely horses feet are designed to deal with dry weather? Is it possible that the damage was cased by the very wet year we've had where most horses had constantly wet feet and the cracks that are now appearing are a result of the constant soaking they've had over the winter?
Can't find the article right now but there was some research done in the USA which showed that constant submersion in water..wet conditions weakened the horn.
 
Could it be the wet weather providing a "better" environment for bugs to proliferate? I seem to remember someone before saying that the wet weather didn't necessarily mean that the hoof would be weakened, but would make infection more likely, and that could be the cause of cracking, especially when there is pre-existing cracks/nail holes.
 
dallas said:
Hi all

I recently had my cobs shoes taken off but now with this really dry weather we've been having, at parts her feet have cracked and chipped from where the old nails were. The chips are only from where the nails were though and do not extend up past them.

She's a young 5 yo and very green, I'm pregnant and following advice I've turned her away until next year. So she's out 24/7 and purely grass fed. I was given her a balancer alongside chaff throughout the winter as she was a little underweight. Her weight is perfect now and she seems to be a very good doer.

I have been soaking her feet with the hose daily (a task in itself!!) and have been putting on effol summer gel but her feet are still very dry and cracking.
I am planning on getting the farrier round to trim her feet a bit too and
will see what he says then.

Any suggestions on what I can do/ try next in the meantime?
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To improve quality of feet you need a balance diet - sufficient vits/mins protein etc. feet are one of the last priorties for the horse so if there are deficiencys in diet the feet are the first to suffer as the horse priortises what is avaliable to the more important regions.
 
dallas said:
Hi all

I recently had my cobs shoes taken off but now with this really dry weather we've been having, at parts her feet have cracked and chipped from where the old nails were. The chips are only from where the nails were though and do not extend up past them.

She's a young 5 yo and very green, I'm pregnant and following advice I've turned her away until next year. So she's out 24/7 and purely grass fed. I was given her a balancer alongside chaff throughout the winter as she was a little underweight. Her weight is perfect now and she seems to be a very good doer.

I have been soaking her feet with the hose daily (a task in itself!!) and have been putting on effol summer gel but her feet are still very dry and cracking.
I am planning on getting the farrier round to trim her feet a bit too and
will see what he says then.

Any suggestions on what I can do/ try next in the meantime?
Click to expand...

You have kind of answered your own question...

Shoes off... cracks and chips where nail holes are... well of course!

Without the previous protection of a thick metal band, the hoof is now moving as it should and the "weak" areas where the nail holes have been will naturally peel and chip away as the horse walks.

There's no need to worry, it won't ever get all the way up the hoof and this will continue until the bits that "need" to come off, come off.

I'm surprised that you farrier did not round off the hoof so that the chipping wouldn't "look" so bad to you. If you have a rasp handy, you can just smooth the edges off yourself.
 
Thanks for all the advice. I've got the farrier coming out soon to tidy them up a bit. The rest of the hoof seems to be fine but I'll keep an eye on them. Thanks again
 
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