Arena Footing and Hoof Wear

[TightHairnet]

I’m concerned that the new footing in our arena is wearing down my horse’s hind hooves too quickly, and I would like to hear the thoughts of the collective.

My barn owners recently added new footing to our outdoor arena. Previously it was a mix of blue stone and sand, and they topped it off with more blue stone. My horse is on a 5-week farrier schedule, shod in the front and barefoot in the back - the picture is three weeks out from her last appointment. We don’t work hard and stick to 20-30 minute rides 3-4 days a week.

So tell me, do you think this looks like excessive wear, or am I overthinking? If it’s excessive wear, would immediate next steps be hind shoes, or is there a hoof dressing I can put on to help keep her feet from wearing away?

[beowulf]

I guess we would need to see a before and after photo to tell if it is worn down, but if you are noticing something chances are something is wearing the hoof down.

Bluestone is a broad term and means something different from region to region. Do you mean they added this? Nickle for scale:

I have not seen that shear off hoof excessively, but that is not to say it does not happen. My run in sheds all have crushed stone-dust and pea gravel laid down at high traffic areas and it doesn’t seem to impact their hooves. They do gallop on it regularly. What I notice shears off their hoof is riding on pavement, even at the walk.

Is her turnout situation rocky or gravelly?

[TightHairnet]

That picture of the stone dust looks about right. I’m including a picture of the ring from right after the footing was added, and I did find a picture of the feet a week after her last farrier appointment…It’s not the best comparison picture because I didn’t know I would need one

Our turnout isn’t rocky, but the ground has been hard from a lack of rain this summer. We never ride on pavement.

[beowulf]

Did you recently switch farriers?

I do see what you mean.

[Scribbler]

@TightHairnet

I’m concerned that the new footing in our arena is wearing down my horse’s hind hooves too quickly, and I would like to hear the thoughts of the collective.

My barn owners recently added new footing to our outdoor arena. Previously it was a mix of blue stone and sand, and they topped it off with more blue stone. My horse is on a 5-week farrier schedule, shod in the front and barefoot in the back - the picture is three weeks out from her last appointment. We don’t work hard and stick to 20-30 minute rides 3-4 days a week.

So tell me, do you think this looks like excessive wear, or am I overthinking? If it’s excessive wear, would immediate next steps be hind shoes, or is there a hoof dressing I can put on to help keep her feet from wearing away?

1. Really need to see a sole view to know if wear is excessive

2. Hoof growth can speed up to compensate for increased wear

3. Natural wear is in general a good thing. Feral horses in the desert wear their feet down to rock hard nubbins and never get trimmed. If a riding horse is sound on abrasive footing, doesn’t need shoes or boots, they can keep their hooves self trimmed and need only slight rebalancing and maybe heel trims from the farrier

4. Self trimming horses will show up any inherent imbalance in the hooves, if they drag their toes or land on the outside or pigeon toe or whatever. Wear patterns are really useful feedbsck

[sascha]

Yup! It certainly can. When I had access to a 1/2 mile stone dust track for conditioning, my horse ended up in shoes all round. Feet wore beautifully, just a little too much.

FWIW, walking around a bit at leisure on abrasive footing (run-in sheds, dry lots, etc.) doesn’t do much. Working on it, on the other hand, can make a huge impact to foot wear. If the horse doesn’t wear their feet in a super balanced manner, the problem becomes bigger.

[luvmyhackney]

It totally can. When my pony was on bluestone I used hoof armor and boots to help wear. He was working fairly hard and would come up sore if I didn’t use the hoof armor to slow down the wear. His hoof growth couldn’t keep up.

[Scribbler]

I was going to say no hoof dressing does much for wear, but forgot about hoof armor which is I think a bit like crazy glue and makes a protective surface. Also of course Keratex hoof hardener or Durasole which are forms of formaldehyde can make hooves harder. I’d also suggest making sure horse is getting plenty of copper, zinc and biotin to grown the best possible hooves. But I’d also like to see the soles because you could be worrying over nothing.

Here’s a link to photos of desert Mustang hooves.

https://www.hoofrehab.com/Article/Wildhorses/Sub%20page/WildHorsePictures.htm

[Demerara_Stables]

What amazing photos, thank you for sharing!

[beowulf]

@sascha

When I had access to a 1/2 mile stone dust track for conditioning, my horse ended up in shoes all round. Feet wore beautifully, just a little too much.

Interesting! I wonder if climate plays a factor or some horses are more susceptible, maybe OP’s is one of them? I ride year round on a gravel / stone dust driveway and don’t notice a difference except if we have a spell of wet weather the mare would prefer to walk on the shoulders. I have the opposite problem as OP - this year all of my horses have grown way more hoof than normal. I think maybe the record dryness and record early high temps (we got 90s+ a month early, unprecedented for this area) are a contributing factor. Their feet are rock hard this summer and not wearing much, even though they’re out 24/7 and gallop around like they pay their own vet bills.

I’d love to see sole photos, but I think OP’s onto something. It would make sense to see some sort of hoof wear if the footing is abrasive. I remember riding in this one sand arena in VT that just wore hooves into nubs if they weren’t shod. My boy was already in fronts but I had to stop riding in that ring extensively as his hinds wore down fast.

[luvmyhackney]

My pony was ridden about 1.5 hours - 6 days a week in a bluestone ring and trail riding on gravel roads. Plus dry lot time as he can’t be on grass.

Then in the summer, my daughter was riding him in horse camp and trail riding in the evenings. He was in great shape.

[pony_baloney]

My pony drags his right hind toe a bit and wears it down in our outdoor arena with similar footing to yours. It gets squared off and blunt. He’s barefoot on all fours and has great strong hooves, but the footing is abrasive enough to wear down that one hoof.

[sascha]

@beowulf

I wonder if climate plays a factor or some horses are more susceptible

Maybe? That said, my horse’s feet have been described by my farrier as mustang feet, “Walks across gravel like she’s got 4 shoes on” so I’m not sure. We definitely have plenty of moisture (often alternating with drought), but not Pacific North West moisture.

[Obsidian_Fire]

Had one that I rode in an outdoor sand arena, this has been years ago so I can’t get much more specific about footing, ended up putting shoes on. She got so sore, so abraded from the sand, she refused to go in there one day. I couldn’t understand why, got to looking hard, figured it out. Put shoes back on, she was fine, altho they wore out pretty quick.
That said… I’m in the PNW, so I think in hindsight climate does matter. All the moisture we get makes hooves soft, which makes it harder to toughen them up.

[quietann]

I get it on the hoof growth in Massachusetts. Feronia has shoes and pads up front; she was starting to get to saddleseat length in 4 weeks! Nuts.

[Scribbler]

Wear patterns are very individual.

There is genetics about hoof thickness but also historical and current hoof trimming and care.

How the horse moves, wear patterns, like uneven wear or snubbing off toes. Does horse drag his feet?

How much horse has adapted to the terrain

Any pathologies like laminitis

How fast the horse grows hoof to make up worn hoof, which is nutrition but also seasonal and genetic

Climate, wear patterns can change between hot dry weather and damp weather and cold weather

Finally not all sand arenas are the same. Some sand has round grains and some has angular sharp abrasive grains.

You just have to look at each horse individually

[blue_heron]

I would say yes, my footing is very abrasive and can get hard if we dont drag regularly. My young horse was getting extra wear on the toes and wearing down her hind shoes very quickly early this year. She’s gotten stronger and my farrier adjusted the angles and her toes aren’t wearing as fast now. But I know my footing is part of it. IMO if the footing is otherwise good and you like the care and atmosphere at the barn, I’d ask your farrier if your horse could do with hind shoes if it’s too much wear. But I probably wouldn’t move my horse over something like this.

[Scribbler]

The bluestone looks like what we call “crusher” out here and is used for park paths/parking lots and for horse dry lots in our very wet climate. I wouldn’t like it in an arena. We have sand in our indoor and hog fuel or sand outside.