Older horses and foot growth

[Puppy]

Well as mentioned in my last post, I saw my farrier today, and we were chatting over tea as we do, and something came up that I'd not heard about/considered before...


Has anyone heard of older horses, whose feet start to grow slightly differently from how they always have previously. I don't just mean in terms of quantity, but also the shape they are naturally taking. I want to stress, always with a good farrier taking them back into a nice shape at every shoeing, (so certainly not the farrier's doing before anyone suggests it), and always with very frequent shoeing, but just growing differently to how they used to....

And happening as old age sets in??

I had never heard of this before, but I suppose it's possible. Anyone any experiences??

 

[Tia]

I've never noticed this to be the case - sounds like a load of old rubbish to me, but who knows....

What I can believe though is that a horse's hoof shape could change IF the horse had suffered an injury to the leg or foot or if the bone structure within the hoof alters significantly ie. navicular or laminitis etc.

 

[oliviacharley]

weird you posted this as my mares feet have yes...!
the shape at the front of the feet has not change but her back feet grow quicker....does not see to bother her but I do have to ask the farrier to trim down the back feet more then the front..!!

 

[Chex]

I've not noticed any difference in Chex feet, or at least the farrier hasn't mentioned it (I'm not very observant!). I think his feet grow slower now than they used to though.

 

[Sparkly]

Cindy's feet hardly grow at all now! I have the farrier look at her every 7 weeks or so when the boys have their shoes on and for ages she hasn't needed trimming - think she gets a bit taken off every 2 or 3 sets, but that is mainly just to take off rough edges and keep the shape, there is hardly any growth!

But she is an ancient old fluffball at 36years...