* Healthy Hooves! *
~ 4 Keys to keeping your horses hooves healthy & strong... & a bit about going barefoot ~
Written By: Lynette H Langley
There is NO 'MAGICAL TRIM' that will automatically make your horse suddenly become sound on any terrain. A lot of people snarff & sneer at the thought of 'Natural Barefoot Trimming.' "Ha ha ha, what a crock of crap!" Well, as a former traditional farrier's apprentice & now a full time professional barefoot trimmer/farrier, I used to say the same thing! I HAD to have shoes on all of my riding horses. There was no way I was going to go out on a trail ride or to a horse show without a pair of shoes! The thought of riding my horses around barefoot everywhere was crazy to me... not any more. Here at our farm, every one of our 16 horses (yes, 16!), are barefoot & will stay that way. I still shoe horses for people, but try to tell them about the benefits of keeping horses barefoot & the problems that long term shoeing can cause. A lot of people assume that natural barefoot trims magically make horses sound over all terrain. I want to let people know that there is much more to going barefoot than just a trim.
A few years ago I started researching natural trimming & proceeded to remove the shoes from all of my horses, applying a barefoot trim. Over the next few trimmings, I noticed that the hooves were changing... Contracted heels were spreading, hoof walls were getting stronger & thicker, the frogs were getting wider & tougher and the soles of the hooves were becoming MORE concave. I was impressed...
I decided to keep them all barefoot and see what happend; but the whole understanding & belief in the concept of the 'Natural Barefoot' lifestyle for horses really sunk in for me a few months later. I had a lady (now a great client & good friend) call me one afternoon about a mare that had foundered a few days before. She asked me to come out that evening & put a set of shoes on the mare to ease her pain. When I arrived it was nothing out of the norm, just a fat foundered mare. The first thought was to do the traditional 'turn the shoes around backwards & nail them on' thing. So this is what we did. The pain the mare was in during the nailing process was almost unbearable for her... I knew that the coffin bone needed some sort of support in the pinch, so I packed some plumbers putty (making sure that it had no harmful chemicals) into the soles. The mare seemed more comfortable upon returning to her stall. I reminded the owner to keep the mare off of sweet feed & grass and told her that I would return in four weeks. During this time, I continued my research on natural barefoot trims & natural lifestyle changes for horses.
When I went back to see the mare, she was still in a ton of pain. I picked up the hoof & upon looking at her sole, I was horrified... Her coffin bone had rotated furthur, penetrating through her sole. This was the first time I had ever actually seen this happen first hand. I talked the owner out of the shoes & applied a barefoot trim for foundered horses, lowering the heels, allowing the frog to have contact with the ground & backed the toe. Obviously, the mare was still in much pain but it was no worse than when I had arrived. Again we scheduled a four week interval, keeping this up for about 6 months. The mare was kept on a strict hay diet with only a handfull of oats here & there. She was allowed to roam around in a dry paddock freely.
Everytime I returned to trim the mare, she was better and better. She actually wanted to walk around & didn't just stand around depressed & in pain. The coffin bone started to recess back into the hoof capsule & the soles slowly began to gain in concavity. We eventually moved the mare to a 6 week schedule. Within a year the mare was back out to pasture running, trotting & traveling around with all of her pasture mates, almost completely sound with only an off step here or there. Now, (a few years later) her hooves have no outward signs of having ever foundered. When I show up to trim, she runs around the pasture like a bat out of hell avioding capture. It has been amazing to see the changes that took place in this mare's hooves during & after her episode of founder. She is now one of many horses that I have seen a dramatic change in hoof health & soundness.
Going with natural barefoot trimming isn't some magical fix for all things. It takes lifestyle changes such as feeding, housing, trimming, transitioning, conditioning & overall, time. Even if you decide to keep shoes on your horses, these four keys to healthy hooves will benefit your horse. I urge horse owners to look into a barefoot lifestyle for their horses & to consider giving it a try.
Cleanliness...
There is more to keeping your horse's hooves healthy than just getting them trimmed by a farrier every 6-8 weeks (6 weeks being ideal & four weeks in some cases). Clean your horse's hooves AT LEAST once a week. It is ideal to pick them out every day if possible. Even if your horse has no signs of thrush, it is a good idea to treat the hooves with a thrush treatment/preventative once or twice a week - depending on the living conditions. Thrush can cause discomfort and lameness. Sulcus Thrush (a yeast growth between the heel bulbs) can cause slight to severe lameness that is often overlooked and can go untreated for YEARS! We normally use a 50/50 mixture of bleach & water in a spray bottle daily to treat thrush and use it as a once weekly preventative for thrush. It is simple and cheap. Try to keep your horses living quarters as dry and clean as possible. Wet, muddy paddocks and the ammonia in poop & urine break down healthy frogs, sole & hoof wall; making them soft, weak & creating a breeding ground for bacteria.
Feeding your horse...
Feed your horse the minimum amount of daily concentrated feed (sweet feed, pellets, etc.) required to keep weight on. Most horse owners dont know that ultimatetly, large amounts of carbohydrates & starch going into the intestines at feed time can cause some horses to have problems in their hooves. They can develop tender soles, weak wall growth, fast growing toes, swollen painful soles and various other hoof problems - not just founder and laminitis. Extra protein in the diet does not put or keep weight on a mature horse that is only doing light riding, nor a horse that is standing around in a stall or pasture doing nothing. Protein is required to build muscle through excercise & growth. Unless your horse is being worked daily or is young and growing, all excess protein that the body does not use passes through the intestines, into the kidneys, then is urinated out. This puts unessesary strain on the horses internal system. Putting and keeping weight on a horse is best done by feeding extra fat in the form of oils, and fiber in the form of hay (or beet pulp for horses who cannot chew hay well ). Horses with otherwise good hooves who always seem 'ouchy' on hard/rough ground may possibly just need a change in feed (along with proper housing and hoof care). Provide as much forage (good quality hay) as possible to keep weight on your horses, and stay away from huge scoops of sweet feed. A safer grain/pellet choice for horses is a controlled or low carb, low starch feed. Most horse owners are concerned with the extra price of these feeds - the truth is that if you switch to a better quality feed, you will probably be saving money or spending the same amount!
Most of the 'cheaper' ( around $7.50 per bag ) sweet feeds require that you feed at a rate of:
6-8 lbs per day to a 1,000 pound horse plus 12-15 lbs of quality hay for weight maintenance.
A quality feed such as Strategy® Healthy Edge® ( around $13.50 a bag ) requires feeding at a rate of:
3.25 - 4.25 lbs per day to a 1,000 pound horse plus 12 lbs of quality hay for weight maintenance.
This is a controlled carb/starch feed & is our choice of feed here at BCS for our mature horses. If you do the math it isn't really any more expensive & an all around better choice for your horse. When feeding a better quality feed in smaller amounts, the chances of colic are greatly decreased, hoof problems associated with laminitis reduced, nutrition levels increased, and the overall health of your horse will be better.
Exercise & Stimulation...
Exercise and freedom of movement is also important in keeping your horses hooves healthy. The more stimulation that your horses hooves get, the better the hoof growth and hoof health will be. The stimulation that the hooves get from exercise also allows for tougher, more developed soles, bars and frogs. Just like the horses spine, the hoof and its internal structures (coffin bone, sole corium, digital cushion) do not finish growing & fully develop untill the horse is 5 years old. If you do not allow your horse to use and develop these structures while they are young, they never fully mature and could be a cause for life long overall weakness of the hooves.
Think about all of the thoroughbred horses that are out there. Im sure that you have heard that they all have crappy, weak, flared out hooves.... How did that horses life start? A lot of them, in a small well bedded stall or small paddock. The hooves never had much stimulation to develop fully or correctly. Then at the age of 2 yrs. (some younger than this) the horse has a set of shoes put on and is then overworked with a still growing body & not fully developed hooves. When that horses hooves, legs or body break down at the age of 4 or 5 (some younger than this) and he is no longer sound to race, he is thrown away. Someone buys him from a dealer, takes him home & notices "Hey, this horse has such crappy hooves." Its not all in the genetics of these horses. These horses are just asked to do too much with an immature body, frame & hooves. The effects of this stay with these horses for the rest of their lives.
Keeping a horse barefoot at least until the hooves are fully matured is very important and will help keep your horse sound into his old age. Developing tough hooves is alot like me or you running around outside barefoot all of the time. We would build calluses on our feet that help protect them & allow us to not be 'ouchy' on rough terrain. Your horses feet are the same way. If you pull the shoes off of a horse who is used to wearing them, or if the barefoot horse just stands around in a bedded stall, mushey ground or small paddock all day, the frog & soles of his hooves are going to be tender when you take him out every other weekend and expect him to ride you around on any hard or rough surface. Riding & working your horse daily on a lounge line or in a round pen will help create a healthier hoof. Just taking your horse out for a 20-30 minute walk with you down the road or behind a four-wheeler will help stimulate healthy growth & toughen the hooves.
Trimming Schedule...
Keeping your horse on a 6 - 8 week trimming (4 weeks for horses with hoof problems or that are heavily ridden) or shoeing (if you must) schedule with a good farrier is also important. I hear people (who dont keep on a schedule) say all of the time how the hooves 'just started' breaking apart & chipping (after 10-12 weeks - even 4 or 5 months!) since the last trim. They ask if the horses need shoes because of this. I tell them that hooves will do that when they wait so long in between trimmings. It's like us growing out our fingernails & toenails. If our fingernails get too long, they get in the way and end up breaking off or bending over backwards (OUCH!!) when we use our hands a lot. You cant just tell your horse "now dont do too much walking around with those pretty little hooves or you will break them off!" No trim can keep a horses hooves from breaking up & chipping when owners wait so long between trimmings. If you shoe your horse, getting him re-shod every 6-8 weeks is also important. Waiting longer than this causes the shoes to embed into the hoof and can cause bruising, corns, underslung heels, contracted heels, etc.
We make horses live in our world and hold up to our standards. We dont ask them what they need or want. We tell them what we think they need; what is best for us; how we want & think things should be.
(Forgive the farrier frustrations!)
If you would like more information on keeping your horses hooves healthy or switching your horse to a barefoot lifestyle, please feel free to contact us!
~ Here are photos of some of our clients super healthy hooves! ~
Sidney of Fort Mill, SC.
Gauge of Kershaw, SC.
Morgan of Rock Hill, SC.
Splash of Rock Hill, SC.
Normally, his hooves are maintained by his owner who does his own barefoot trims (Great job Joe!), but he asked me to trim him the past two times because he has been working so much.
Work in Progress....