Horses hooves have suffered in the summers wet conditions and it has been a frustrating time of lost shoes, lameness, unsightly splits and cracks, fungal and bacterial infections in horses hooves.
Having had a big problem myself I wanted to do a bit of research into finding out what to do, and here are my findings on advise for treating cracked horses hooves :-
Hoof Hydration - Horses hooves need to maintain a level of hydration, ideally, not too dry and not too wet. Too dry and the rigid keratin wall becomes brittle, and loses its flexibility. Too wet and the hoof walls and sole become soft and lose their strength. Cornucrescine hoof moisturiser helps to replace moisture in your horses hooves. Check out the Cornucrescine website for more information on these Carr and Day and Martin hoof products.
Hoof Growth Rate – A quick fix to repair the hoof would be great but in fact it takes a long time for the outer wall of the hoof to grow down, it is like our fingernails or toenails. This study giving information on hoof growth statistics is interesting and found hoof growth rate to be between 0.102 mm and 0.506 mm a day.
How Does a Horses Hoof Grow? - Horses hooves grow down from the Corinary band which is at the end of the hair and beginning of the hoof. The outer wall begins life as skin cells. This outer layer of skin called the Epidermis has no blood vessels and gets its oxygen from the underlying dermis. In a horses hoof the outer layer nearest the surface dies off, dries and hardens forming the protective hoof wall. The hoof wall is like our fingernails and does not have nerves so we can trim and cut it without pain.
What Happens When The Hoof Cracks? - The hoof wall splits open either from the bottom called a grass crack or from the corinary band called a sand crack.
What Can Be Done To Resolve Cracked Hooves? - Firstly you need to find out if the cracking is due to outside conditions or poor quality hoof growing down, to be able to use the right corrective measures. The Forge & Farrier is very informative regarding horses cracked hooves. If your horse is healthy and eating a good diet with plenty of grass this should produce a strong hoof. If the diet is less than ideal it is possible that this can cause the poor hoof growth. Environmental factors are likely to play some part in the development of cracks or fissures, and some suggest wet then dry is a recipe for cracking. All these factors play a part to some extent. Cracking will appear where the horses hoof is weakest. You will never heal the crack as this is dead tissue. The aim would be to stop the splits from getting worse and ensure the horse has a good diet and supplements to encourage healthy hoof growth. A good supplement that is very popular with farriers is Kevin Bacon Hoof Formula, other similar supplements for horses hooves are Formula4feet and Farriers Formula.
How to Help Hooves that have split – It is vital to stop further splitting or the cracks will get too deep and chances of infection will be increased. There are several products made by Keratex that will repair the hoof temporarily while it grows, Keratex Hoof Putty will help to make a repair to your horses cracked hoof, and enable your horse to be shod as sometimes the hoof has broken away so much that it is impossible for the farrier to refit his shoes.
Hoof Products to Help your Horses Hooves – There are many hoof products on the market and you might say why put anything onto dead tissue? The hard shell of the hoof protects the underneath, and it is flexible. A healthy hoof has about 25% moisture. If the hoof is dry when it flexes it is likely to split, or if it is too wet the soft horn can be damaged. Therefore anything that helps to keep the moisture levels as near to the ideal must be good. I found this article “Practical Advice for Hoof Management” by Carr Day and Martin interesting.
Having done this bit of research into horses hooves I feel that I know a little bit more about them and hopefully can make a better choice about how to treat them, with a horse hoof supplement in my horses feed, moisturising horse hoof products to go onto his hooves or both.
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