What hoof supplement would you recomend?

I've just started using the cornucrescine one, cheaper than farriers formula and seems to be identical even down to the smell!
 
snp robust hoof.
it's made a big difference to one of ours.his feet were awful (not helped by a bad farrier) and couldnt hold nails without crumbling.
they're much better now and we haven't had any issues yet. needless to say, we changed farriers as well
 
The forage plus summer/winter balancers. There's a line in my horses' hooves from the day I started feeding this, and everything above it is far tighter and better connected. Even fed at half dosage it still has better specs than almost all other hoof supplements on the market.
 
My boys feet aren't great (he's just come out of racing) and he seems to be prone to bruised feet (he's off at the moment with bruises).

i've never had to use one before so am finding it a mine field!!
 
emmiec12 said:
My boys feet aren't great (he's just come out of racing) and he seems to be prone to bruised feet (he's off at the moment with bruises).

i've never had to use one before so am finding it a mine field!!
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It sounds as though his feet are structurally very weak. Are you able to post some photos?

Having raced, he will have been shod young, which will have inhibited the development of the internal and external structures of the hoof. He may also have been fed a high starch diet, which will cause separation of the laminae.

Another thing to bear in mind is that often the lifestyle that racehorses lead make them very prone to ulcers (some figures say that 90% of racehorses have ulcers) and these will also affect his feet.

ETA: if he is bruising his feet you need to be very careful indeed. It suggests thin soles, which will leave the pedal bone very vulnerable. I would advise hoofboots to protect the soles in this situation.
 
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I feed my mare who had very brittle and cracked feet Dengie Healthy Hooves and has helped her feet loads, went from shoeing every 4 weeks because feet not holding them long enough, cracked and britle (nearly had to have glue on shoes) to shoeing every six weeks and never having loose shoes and feet still looking good when shoeing due :)
 
Two Stroke you scare me.... lol :-). But i know you are right. However my farrier (who i have used for years and is brill) doesn't seem too worried. Fingers crossed it will all work out. I'm just off to get him some arnica to help bring the bruising out.
 
emmiec12 said:
Two Stroke you scare me.... lol :-). But i know you are right. However my farrier (who i have used for years and is brill) doesn't seem too worried. Fingers crossed it will all work out. I'm just off to get him some arnica to help bring the bruising out.
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Don't mean to be the harbinger of doom, lol! A good hoof supplement will help build better sole depth, as will work on a conforming surface (once the horse is comfortable enough for work). I should be careful to keep him off rocks completely until he has better sole depth.
 
I suggest a full on barefoot diet is better than one supplement, the diet is hi fibre lo sugar, no cereals, so rules out most branded mixes and pony nuts.
In summer I feed [465kg pony]:
50gm micronised linseed meal
500gms Fast Fibre [Allen & Page]
15-20gms minerals and vitamins.
In winter I feed two such meals plus Dengie non molassed chaff
and non molassed sugar beet pulp for extra slow release energy.
The minerals and vitamins are considered by some to be supplements, by others they are seen as part of a balanced diet for horses.
Feedmark, Equimins , and pro hoof from pro-earth all do suitable mineral mixes, also forageplus do a summer and a winter UK supplement.
The Healthy Hooves are low in mins and vits, look at the amount you need to feed: http://www.dengie.com/pages/products/healthy-hooves.php
 
My (KWPN) boy had very crumbly feet when he came to me and pervious owners had only been able to keep his shoes on 4 weeks at a time.

I started him on Linseed and his feet are MUCH better now and he goes 6 weeks. Don't know whether this is partly due to a change in grazing and farrier as well as linseed though!
 
I have seen excellent results with farrier formula ,poor with formula for feet , my horses hated pro hoof and it was a nightmare to get them to eat it at the moment I am seeing excellent improvements with farriers Favorite .
 
I have an ex racer who used to have awful feet and tried alot of the commercial supplements on the market. He is also quite senstive to molasses in feed from a behavioural point of view so I am careful what I feed. So from my trial and error my suggestion would be

Strip back the feed to something sugar free and basic (e.g. unmolassed chaff, unmolassed sugarbeet. There are safe feeds you can add if you need condition or energy later on but start with basics.). Fast fibre is popular but I personally prefer not to use a mix of any sort as using straights gives me the most flexibilty to tweak according to work, time of year etc

Add Micronised Linseed (about a mugful in the winter, half that in the summer if they are at grass)

Forageplus and pro hoof do good balancers. The reason I prefer these to others on the market is that they do not contain Iron or Manganese. Both these can prevent the uptake of Copper and Zinc which are key for hoof and coat. Equimins do a good one but it is not listed on the website and I understand people are being cross examined when they ask for it.

Add a probiotic or yea sacc or brewers yeast. I use the latter as it is cheap and also has good levels of Biotin and other b vitamins. All of them have gut calming properties and alot of racers are prone to ulcers.

The other advantage of my suggestions is the linseed, brewers yeast and the basic feeds are cheap. The balancers will cost about the same as any multivit. but overall the whole package wouldn't be too bad.
 
4 Feet are running a free trial at the mo with their new hoof supp. They also make ProKalm if youve ever used that !

To get in on the trial, I emailled them... ap@sciencesupplements.co.uk and all they wanted was pictures of before and after.

Ive only just started him on it but have everything crossed that it will improve his trotters !
 
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