This Happy Hooves article is part of our Joint and Hoof Health Awareness Month. Brought to you by Cosequin Joint Health Supplements.
Your horse’s hooves are literally the foundation of his entire life, so you know they require proper care and diligent attention. But if you’re a trail rider—whether you take the occasional excursion or spend the majority of your time out in nature—your horse’s feet require extra TLC.
Hoof Basics
Exercising sound hoof-care practices requires a basic understanding of the hoof and how it works. Each horse is an individual and has his own quirks, and that’s true of his feet, too. Some horses have strong, hard feet that rarely have problems. While others have softer or more brittle hooves that need more frequent attention and care to keep them from chipping, splitting, or wearing away too fast. Here are a few nuggets of hoof knowledge that’ll help you make the best choices for your horse’s feet.
Hoofs are stronger if kept dry.
Hoof horn is like your fingernails—the insensitive outer covering protects the inner, sensitive living tissues. Keeping the hoof wall and sole healthy and strong prevents problems like hoof cracks, abscesses, thrush, and white line disease. Keep the feet dry to maintain the hoof wall’s strength. As is true for your fingernails, constant moisture can weaken the hoof horn. It becomes softer, making it harder for the hoof to hold a shoe. It also becomes more damage-prone, or likely to wear away too quickly if the horse is barefoot. Continuous wet-dry cycles are hard on feet as well. Just as being in and out of water is hard on your hands and can lead to cracking.
Pasture offers hoof benefits.
Wild horses have strong feet and healthy hoof horn because they travel over dry ground and their feet wear down about the same speed as they grow. Horses kept in confinement such as a stall or pen—where feet may be in contact with manure and urine (which damage hoof horn)—need more hoof care. Check your horse’s feet and clean them daily to remove any bruise-causing rocks and wet mud that can lead to thrush (bacterial growth). Schedule regular trimming/shoeing to help keep feet healthy and prevent lower-leg lameness.
Diet is key for healthy hoofs.
A balanced diet containing all the important nutrients for healthy hoof horn is essential. Good pasture provides these nutrients. If your horse doesn’t have access to pasture, ask your veterinarian or equine nutritionist about feeding a hoof supplement, depending on the quality of your hay/grain and your horse’s hoof strength. Cosequin ASU Joint and Hoof Pellets is a great solution as it has biotin in it to support the quality and growth of hooves in horses; methionine and lysine for protein production to support hoof integrity; and copper and zinc which supports hoof strength and durability.
The Shod Traveler
If you choose to put shoes on your trail horse, shoe him for the job and the conditions he travels over, ensuring that the shoes adequately protect his feet and stay on. Your farrier should pay close attention to the hooves’ balance so they land flat, break over the center of the toe, and travel straight (to the best of your horse’s conformation and natural leg action) so he’ll never hit himself. Shoeing for trail riding is different from shoeing a show horse.
Adequate protection and traction are also important.
If your horse has relatively flat feet and travels through rocky terrain, ask your farrier about toe and heel calks or hoof pads to protect from bruising. For rocky or slippery terrain, keep traction in mind. Shoes with raised toes and heels are often adequate, but in some instances your farrier might weld a dab of borium (tungsten carbide) to the toe and heels of the shoe. This not only adds good traction but also extends the life of the shoe. The tiny crystals of tungsten carbide are harder than diamonds and don’t wear away. A trail horse going many miles a day in the rocks could easily wear out his shoes before it’s time to for a new set, but borium can make the shoes last longer.
Even if your horse isn’t wearing out his shoes on the trail, maintain a regular shoeing schedule. Long feet lead to stumbling and put the foot out of balance, which places more strain on your horse’s lower legs. Horses differ in their shoeing intervals. For trail horses, every 6 to 8 weeks is about average, though some need trimming and reshoeing every 5 weeks and others can go 10 weeks without problems. The important thing is to know your horse and schedule shoeing accordingly.
The Barefoot Voyager
Not all horses can travel over rough terrain on trails barefoot. It depends on the horse’s feet (structural integrity and hardness), the footing he must travel on, and the amount of work/miles you ask of him. A horse with strong, hard feet traveling on dry ground or sandy soils with few rocks can often stay barefoot for part or even all of the riding season. This is especially true if you smooth the edges of his hoof wall with a rasp whenever they need it to keep them from becoming ragged or splitting. It’s even more likely to work if his feet are well balanced.
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