Strange loss of feather

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Sossigpoker

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My full feathered cob went out on Saturday to a clinic, in a trailer.
After we got back, I noticed that he'd lost his feather on the inside of both hind legs at the coronet band. Like it's been chopped off.
He wore travel boots in the trailer and the arena surface was quite deep rubber (awful ).
Does anyone have any idea why of how this has happened and if I can do anything to avoid it in the future? It will probably take a while before it grows back down sadly.
 
Britestar said:
Probably brushing in the deeper arena.
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Thanks I did think that too but can't get my head around why the deep arena would only rub the inside of the leg feather off (thankfully !) and not the outside?.
The surface was way too deep IMO so I won't be going back to that place again.
 
Could he have trodden on it with the other hind? If it was deep going the feather would have stayed on top of the surface as his foot sunk in.
 
I would definitely suspect he’s stood on it and pulled it out. My mare had beautiful full feather and came in from the field just the other night with about half an inch piece missing from the front on both front feet, I found both pieces in the field 🤦‍♀️. Hers had actually got longer than her hooves, I ended up trimming them at ground level all round.
 
I'd go for brushing/clipping it on the deep surface, particularly if your horse can be close behind. When mine was shod his hinds always looked like I clipped the inside around the coronet band, but it was just his feet. Now he's barefoot it doesn't happen anymore.

Hope it grows back soon.
 
It's quite common for a horse that goes close behind to slice the feather off at the coronet band with the opposite shoe. It's probably happened because he wasn't used to the surface or he was more tired than usual. You can put on overreach boots to stop it happening.
 
I suspect it was that awful surface as he works in the school at home several times a week and this hasn't happened before.
Very annoyed !
 
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