Sandcracks.. what can I do about them?

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randira

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My mare has two sandcracks one right up the front of both of her front feet. One has split right up past the coronary band. The farrier has put quater clips on and says there is nothing you can really do about them. I wondered if they could be operated on to join the two edges back together again? She was meant to be for sale but thats knocked that on the head as I cant see anyone buying her now. She is sound and I am ok to ride her, they just look horrid. She is a great jumping horse and I am a little worried about how they will effect her. Bugger it ...
 

My mare used to get them quite badly on her front feet & the one was persitant to say the least!

We eventually got it sorted with regular farrier visits, a good hoof cream. I used Cornecrusine & good hoofcare generally.

They do go but you just need to spend a bit of time on the feet.

It never affected her soundness at all either.
 
So, they are starting at the coronary band and have worked down the hoof. Has there been any damage to the coronary band at all? if so, it may be a permanent damage, but at the moment yes, the only thing that can be done is as your farrier has already done. try to help the coronary band by massaging them daily to help improve the circulation and hoof growth.
 
When i bought my mare she had bad cracks but not quite up that far admittedly.

The farrier put quarter clips (rear shoes) on the front and this helped as reduced the movement in the foot. Also make sure you hose the foot off quickly after to remove any grains of sand etc which are the worse cuprit.

My farrier also smoothed away the edges of mine quite a bit all the way up the outer wall, this prevents the edges of the split rubbing together and making it worse.

You probably know all this, but thought i'd try.

P.s. the mare now has beautiful feet with no cracks at all!
 
If it is any consolation, I have a mare with one front foot having a crack which you could fit a credit card into. This goes from the bottom to the coronet band. She was purchased with the crack and to the farriers surprise has never grown out. She has never been lame and competes regularly. It doesn't look good but not sure what else you can do.
 
I bought a horse with awful sandcracks. He was, however, only 4yrs old and pretty much straight off the field. I wasn't put off because he was sound and the vet thought they were fixable. Within six months they had completely disappeared. I'm afraid I can't recommend anything other than a great farrier and a good supplement like formula 4 feet.
 
I used to use a hoof "oil" which was in a pink/purple pot with a yellow brush in the top, I think its called Hoof-Heal. This really helped my old horse who'd get awful cracks
 
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She was meant to be for sale but thats knocked that on the head as I cant see anyone buying her now.

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If it's any consolation, two posters above have mentioned they bought horses with sand cracks. It doesn't mean you can't sell her though the price will obviously be affected. Properly managed, horses with sand cracks may stay perfectly sound, so potential buyers with a bit of knowledge behind them may well take the chance, especially for the right price.
 
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