Cragrat
Well-Known Member
How important ACTUALLY are iron levels, in a barefoot horse?
Mine have been barefoot for 16 years, 15 years and all his life of 10 years.
At first I was blissfully ignorant of mineral balancing, though fed a forage and straights low molasses diet, and their hooves were massively better than when shod.
Then seeking further improvement in my own skills, I attended hoof care courses, and became aware of the demonic iron. I have fed forage plus/ prohoof type balances for a few years now. Their hooves are functional (hunting /PC/ affiliated BE90/dressage etc), and don't cause any problems ( fingers crossed). But this is expensive, a nuisance having to order and hope it doesn't get destroyed when left outside etc. I honestly don't know if their hooves are amazingly better than before.
I have had them on topspec for a couple of months, which does have iron, and maybe their white lines are a TINY bit softer- but then it's winter, incredibly muddy, and they got stones in their whiteline last year.
I am not going down the forage analysis route- we buy hay from a dealer, so it varies bale to bale, and our grazing is hugely varied - I am sure each part of each field would be different- the types of grass certainly are. I do know the area we are in used to mine iron ore, so conceivably there is lots of iron around.
The reason for this rant is I have been talking to Hack Up recently( following reviews on here) and the vit mineral mix they use, formulated by a Newmarket vet(yes, I know, not a nutritionist) has roughly 4:1 iron to copper( if my maths is correct,converting percentages to numbers, and pounds to kilos!).
Will this matter?
Aaaaarrgh
(Bury head in sand and shoe them seems easier at times )
Mine have been barefoot for 16 years, 15 years and all his life of 10 years.
At first I was blissfully ignorant of mineral balancing, though fed a forage and straights low molasses diet, and their hooves were massively better than when shod.
Then seeking further improvement in my own skills, I attended hoof care courses, and became aware of the demonic iron. I have fed forage plus/ prohoof type balances for a few years now. Their hooves are functional (hunting /PC/ affiliated BE90/dressage etc), and don't cause any problems ( fingers crossed). But this is expensive, a nuisance having to order and hope it doesn't get destroyed when left outside etc. I honestly don't know if their hooves are amazingly better than before.
I have had them on topspec for a couple of months, which does have iron, and maybe their white lines are a TINY bit softer- but then it's winter, incredibly muddy, and they got stones in their whiteline last year.
I am not going down the forage analysis route- we buy hay from a dealer, so it varies bale to bale, and our grazing is hugely varied - I am sure each part of each field would be different- the types of grass certainly are. I do know the area we are in used to mine iron ore, so conceivably there is lots of iron around.
The reason for this rant is I have been talking to Hack Up recently( following reviews on here) and the vit mineral mix they use, formulated by a Newmarket vet(yes, I know, not a nutritionist) has roughly 4:1 iron to copper( if my maths is correct,converting percentages to numbers, and pounds to kilos!).
Will this matter?
Aaaaarrgh
(Bury head in sand and shoe them seems easier at times )