You said “If hoof supplements are like the joint supplements, then they won’t work,not enough of any thing in it to make a difference.” which, to me, is comparing them.
Joint supplements as feed-through products are indeed highly suspect. Pretty much anything that’s in a joint supplement that is ingested, and therefore digested, becomes useless as far as the joints go, when we’re talking about typical joint supplement ingredients - glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and more. A few things might have some value, if given in a large enough quantity, but pretty much all the research on those ingredients are either not in horses, or in such large quantities as to make it all but impossible to actually feed.
In contrast, we know a great deal about the vitamins and minerals - things the body already knows how to use - that are responsible for hoof quality. Studies HAVE been done proving that for some horses, supplementing straight biotin makes a difference, for example. We know that being deficient in certain amino acids detrimentally affect hoof quality, so therefore, supplementing them improves hoof quality.
Used double strength farriers formula for 5 months did nothing.
The failure of 1 product, on a few horses, does not equate to all hoof supplements being useless.
Management as in trimming or management as in feeding???
Both. Poor trimming can create feet that struggle in the quality department, as feet trimmed for long toes and underrun heels are much more likely to be more regularly chipping and cracking, with thinner soles.
Feeding such that nutrients are deficient - even if horses are in good weight - can absolutely degrade hoof quality
Can’t trim what’s not there.
No, you can’t, but studies HAVE proven that for some horses, biotin increases the rate of growth, so…
Supplement i asked about has 150 mg copper & 350 mg zinc.
There’s more to affecting hoof quality than those 2 things. And even then, you will have feet that are not genetically good feet, and you can’t change that.
