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Horse Hoof Health

November 26, 2007 By 5 Comments

The most important aspect of the health of a horse’s hoof is how it is trimmed.

Oh there are nutritional supplements that help and there are hoof applications that help and how you ride and what type of surface all helps in determining the health of the hoof but THE most important is how it is trimmed.

So now we can open a can of worms as to how is this accomplished? What is the best way to trim a horses hoof? There are arguments upon arguments or shall we say intellectual discussions on how this is to be done. There are farriers who have been around for centuries it seems that have never gone to farrier school and say it should be done this way, and there are others straight out of farrier school that say it should be done this way and then there is every type of farrier in between. Just take a look at one of my favorite forums to lurk – http://www.horseshoes.com/forums/ This forum is a great resource to learn about shoeing and trimming and everyone there has an opinion. You just need to be able to read between the lines or rather take all the information in and form your own opinion OR just read my blog and I’ll give you your opinion…LOL

Dynamic hoof balance, geometric balance, natural balance, physiologic hoof trim, Strasser trim (OK not that ONE) all are techniques used to improve the soundness of the horse and not one of them is the RIGHT one for every horse. A good farrier will know how to use one or more of a combination of these techniques to improve the hoof health and soundness.

As a horse owner how can you tell if your horse’s hoof is trimmed so that it is healthy. What should you look for? Here are three foundation principles you need to notice about your horse’s hoof and if your horse’s hoof does not follow these foundation principles, you need to ask your farrier why. Now there may be a perfectly valid reason why your horse’s hoof does not exactly follow these three principles and your farrier may have a good reason for not following these but they are a good start to building a healthy sound hoof…

First, look at the bottom of your horse’s foot (the sole). Draw an imaginary
straight line through the widest part of the foot. From that line back to the heels
should be more total surface area than in front of that line.

Second, the frog should be at least ½ as wide at the heel base, as it is
long. It should also make contact with the ground at the base.

Third, the angle of the hoof should parallel the angle of the pastern. It is
not an exact number but usually falls between 45 and 55 degrees. The best way
to determine if proper angle is met is to look at the foot from the side and place a
straight edge (ruler) along the front aspect of the hoof from the toe to the coronet
band. If it is a correct angle, the front aspect of the pastern will follow on the
bottom of the straight edge exactly all the way to the fetlock.

If your horse’s hoof follows these three foundation principles then it should be as healthy as it can be. If not ask why not, because as the Native Americans used to say…no foot, no horse! Or was it some old british farrier, I can’t remember. In any case a healthy hoof is a good foundation to a healthy horse.

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  • Barbara

    One more important issue to hoof health is proper nutrition. Common feeds today, high in sugar, are detrimental to hoof health. Ingrediants like corn, wheat, molasses, grain sweepings, etc. are just not good for horses. They all have shown to produce negative metabolic changes in horses and should be avoided.

    Living conditions are also important. Stalled horses are less likely to have a healthy enough foot to go barefoot, and often have problems like thrush and white line disease (more often then pastured horses that is).

    The trim is definitely very important, but even the best trim can’t make up for improper nutrition or less then optimum living conditions (for the HORSE, not the owner’s convenience).

  • Barbara

    One more important issue to hoof health is proper nutrition. Common feeds today, high in sugar, are detrimental to hoof health. Ingrediants like corn, wheat, molasses, grain sweepings, etc. are just not good for horses. They all have shown to produce negative metabolic changes in horses and should be avoided.

    Living conditions are also important. Stalled horses are less likely to have a healthy enough foot to go barefoot, and often have problems like thrush and white line disease (more often then pastured horses that is).

    The trim is definitely very important, but even the best trim can’t make up for improper nutrition or less then optimum living conditions (for the HORSE, not the owner’s convenience).

  • http://www.evetclinic.com Daniel Beatty, DVM

    Barbara,

    I completely agree with you on the aspect on nutrition. If you read most of my blog you will see that nutrition is very important in the aspect of the whole horse, including hoof health. With that said, truly the most important aspect of the hoof’s health is how it is trimmed so that it can benefit from proper nutrition. The least important is actually the conditions of the horses environment. A properly trimmed foot can overcome less than optimal living conditions. It is hard to say how much nutrition plays a role, obviously it does; however usually what I have found is that if a horse is not receiving optimal nutrition he is also not receiving optimal hoof trimming. I agree with your stance on high sugar content. I have seen horses with great feet being fed sweet feed and other processed feds high in sugar but eventually it would catch up with them. These types of feed are overall bad for the horses health, but many horses do fine on them (It always amazes me the abuse some horses deal with and still keep on going) and their feet are just fine, because they are trimmed similar to what I expresses in the post

    Also did you know that thrush has been proven to be mechanical disorders of the foot rather than sub prime conditions. Of course you still need those sub prime conditions to exist to have thrush but this explains why two horses being fed the same and kept in the same conditions but have completely different feet one is genetics the other is how the foot is trimmed.

    I’ll give you an example of a barn that I was in, not optimal conditions. It was winter time, horses were kept in most of the day, the stall cleaners were not very diligent, the barn owners did not like to bed the stalls very deep, the whole bad barn story. They were having problems with thrush…go figure…There was a new farrier in town trying to build up business. I had seen his work and liked it. He was willing to work for cheap because he had to build a client base. I had this barn switch to the new farrier for these thrush horses. One trim and seven days later the thrush did not return, again. The horses that stayed with the old farrier continued to have problems with thrush. The conditions all remained the same for all the horses, the only change was a new farrier. The old farrier blamed the wet weather and stall conditions.. The new farrier said nothing…LOL…but went on to take over the whole barn. Conditions did eventually change in that barn as well with two of us hounding them about the stall conditions and turn out for the horses.

    By the way your comments are fantastic and shows a horse owner with a good knowledgebase, please feel free to comment more often I like your insight!

  • http://www.evetclinic.com Daniel Beatty, DVM

    Barbara,

    I completely agree with you on the aspect on nutrition. If you read most of my blog you will see that nutrition is very important in the aspect of the whole horse, including hoof health. With that said, truly the most important aspect of the hoof’s health is how it is trimmed so that it can benefit from proper nutrition. The least important is actually the conditions of the horses environment. A properly trimmed foot can overcome less than optimal living conditions. It is hard to say how much nutrition plays a role, obviously it does; however usually what I have found is that if a horse is not receiving optimal nutrition he is also not receiving optimal hoof trimming. I agree with your stance on high sugar content. I have seen horses with great feet being fed sweet feed and other processed feds high in sugar but eventually it would catch up with them. These types of feed are overall bad for the horses health, but many horses do fine on them (It always amazes me the abuse some horses deal with and still keep on going) and their feet are just fine, because they are trimmed similar to what I expresses in the post

    Also did you know that thrush has been proven to be mechanical disorders of the foot rather than sub prime conditions. Of course you still need those sub prime conditions to exist to have thrush but this explains why two horses being fed the same and kept in the same conditions but have completely different feet one is genetics the other is how the foot is trimmed.

    I’ll give you an example of a barn that I was in, not optimal conditions. It was winter time, horses were kept in most of the day, the stall cleaners were not very diligent, the barn owners did not like to bed the stalls very deep, the whole bad barn story. They were having problems with thrush…go figure…There was a new farrier in town trying to build up business. I had seen his work and liked it. He was willing to work for cheap because he had to build a client base. I had this barn switch to the new farrier for these thrush horses. One trim and seven days later the thrush did not return, again. The horses that stayed with the old farrier continued to have problems with thrush. The conditions all remained the same for all the horses, the only change was a new farrier. The old farrier blamed the wet weather and stall conditions.. The new farrier said nothing…LOL…but went on to take over the whole barn. Conditions did eventually change in that barn as well with two of us hounding them about the stall conditions and turn out for the horses.

    By the way your comments are fantastic and shows a horse owner with a good knowledgebase, please feel free to comment more often I like your insight!

  • Bill

    Have you heard about photonic therapy? It seems to be gaining support from people who use it. I understand it was developed by a Vet in Australia and uses red light to stimulate acupuncture points. I believe it is great for pain relief and accelerating healing. Anyone using it?