My farrier says no.
What say you, COTH people?
My goal is to not have to put shoes back on my new-to-me retired lesson horse. She will be in very light work with me come spring versus her prior life.
My vet recommended FootWise for my horse who had thin soles and low heels. His hooves were soft and shelly before. Now (1 yr later) he has good sole depth, and has grown enough toe fast enough to allow us to correct his heel depth/hoof angles. To be fair, he definitely has also benefited from correct shoeing, but the healthy sole and hoof growth has made that possible.
I was also a supplement skeptic before, but after I saw the difference in my horse, I started taking a nail/hair supplement for my own peeling/flaking fingernails, and saw an almost immediate difference. So yes, I think they can work!
4 Likes
Unless your horse has a biotin deficiency, no.
But be ready to read a lot of anecdotes swearing that biotin supplements worked for someone’s horse, usually without bothering to get a baseline blood biotin analysis.
But biotin is very safe and horses can handle large doses over and above what is needed.
IMO biotin supplements without a documented deficiency fall into the category of “couldn’t hurt, might help, and always a crowd pleaser.”
8 Likes
Copper and zinc, particularly if she is on an all-forage diet. Cal Trace and Vermont Blend are good sources. You can see the denser horn grow down the hoof. Takes about a year to get the new, stronger horn to grow all the way out. Biotin is worth a try. I like Horsetech’s BioFlax.
15 Likes
X2!
So many boarding barns feed to maintain weight with no regard to minimum dietary requirements. Your horse needs the proper vitamins and minerals to build proper hoof wall, as well as to maintain tendons, ligaments etc.!
In our area, we are very high in iron. So additional copper and zinc are key, meaning that supplements like Arizona copper complete or madbarn amino trace balance our hay well with the added bonus of having extra biotin for hoof growth. Mine are competing beautifully barefoot, but that is not solely a genetic blessing but also proper nutrition and farrier work!
5 Likes
In a word: no.
I’m not a nutritionist or vet, but here is what I have learned:
Hoof growth is tied to genetics and nutrition. A lot of things marketed as hoof supplements have so little of anything of value it’s basically just expensive pee. You have to check the label.
However, just like with magnesium “calming” supplements, a horse that is deficient in XYZ will show improvement if they suddenly get more XYZ.
It takes a year or so to grow a new hoof. A lot of people get a horse in with bad feet and start feeding him appropriately day 1. The horse still has crap feet a month or two later, so they add a hoof supplement. Six months to a year later they have a much better quality foot! Depending on the diet, it is unlikely to be the addition of Farrier’s Formula that did it; it was the overall improvement in nutrition.
Cu/Zn is cheap and “load bearing”. Those + some “might as well” biotin are my DIY hoof supplements.
Trim/shoeing quality, presence of thrush, and the horse’s environment can also contribute, but you can’t out-trim a poorly balanced diet.
4 Likes
Dial in your nutrition. Cu/Zn, plus the limiting amino acids like methionine & lysine, along with Biotin.
My favorite product is Nu-Hoof Accelerator, which has decent enough amounts of those key ingredients.
So, do they work? It depends. Maybe you have a deficiency corrected with proper nutrition. Maybe your horse is genetically blessed no matter what you do. Or UN-blessed no matter what you do…
@JB, tagging you here.
5 Likes
As with a lot of things Horse - It Depends! 
If the supplement contains enough of a nutrient your specific horse needs to grow his genetic foot, that he’s not quite getting out of the rest of his diet then yes, it will help to some degree.
If it contains 5mg biotin (which horses make on their own, but when they need help it’s typically at least 20mg) 15mg copper (an average horse needs 100), and 20mg zinc (average horse needs 400) then no, don’t waste your time
What are the reasons your horse currently has shoes? We really need at least a good side and solar view of the feet to see if, like most hoof issues, the issue is (likely) the trim
Good Hoof Photos - How to take Good Hoof Photos
I had to look that up, and nearly choked on the cost 
$103 for a 44 day supply? That’s $2.34/day 
It does have 20mg biotin, which you can get on its own for pennies a serving. The 60/200mg cu/zn isn’t terrible, but you can supply those together for far, far less. The 3gm and 1gm lysine/methionine aren’t terribly useful
Hay Harmony has the same biotin, and much more cu/zn, for about $1/day. But even then, you can DIY your own B7/cu/zn for a lot less than that
It’s not always, or even often, about biotin. A lot of soil in the US, and maybe commonly around the world, has excess iron, which limits uptake of copper and zinc by forage. A whole lot of forage analyses I’ve seen from all over the US doesn’t even meet the bare bones requirements for an 1100lb horse in no work, and while even a decent ration balancer usually at least makes that meet the min, those NRC requirements are really basic minimums to not cause diseases, rather than what it takes for optimal health. I know of far, far too many horses now who didn’t get their feet really straightened out until they were getting an addition 300/900mg cu/zn, give or take, and that’s on top of what’s in a minimum serving of a ration balancer or regular feed
Sometimes it’s the amino acids, especially lysine and methionine (any biotin the horse makes needs enough methionine to be used), but IME that seems to be less common than the cu/zn deal
You can’t determine a deficiency, there’s no test for it 
Horses with healthy digestive systems almost always make all they need, and that applies to B vitamins in general. Any long-term GI issues, or a generally “faulty” genetic GI tract, likely needs help, and that would generally apply to all the B vites.
13 Likes
IME supplements specifically targeting hooves do squat. I have tried oh so very many, including some recommended by different vets in my journey with my coffin bone infection horse.
However, hoof quality can absolutely be effected by nutrition. Zinc and copper seem to be some of the “big hitters” and are very cheap. Feeding a poor diet can lead to poor hoof quality as well. Lifestyle of the horse is a big piece too - not enough movement, a dirt environment, wet environment with no chance to dry out, etc.
1 Like
Here’ a webinar w Dr. Deb Taylor of Auburn. It’s about preventing and treating laminitis but she
specifically talks about supplements just after the 56 minute mark and supporting what is said about about the huge importance of zinc, copper and testing for iron.
1 Like
Great information, thank you all! Giving me lots to think about. I need to learn more about nutrition. She’s a 20 y/o mare and I think she received good care where she lived before. But looks like I need to make a study of the Poulin senior grain I’m giving her. I think my hay is pretty good but have not tested it. I just really prefer barefoot, and her workload will be a fraction of what it was. Thanks again!
I think just making sure the horse’s diet is balanced and tends towards higher levels of Cu and Zn with good levels of amino acids (lysine, methionine, threonine) and some biotin because why not?
I also find that keeping my own horse completely forage-based and soy-free helps him.
4 Likes
I don’t know where you are seeing that price? I buy the 10-lb / 160-day supply online - it’s often on sale and so I pay about $100 including tax/shipping, so that’s about 63 cents/day. Worth it to me to just buy one item and have it work!
You can always throw hoof boots on her. I use Renegades for my horses that don’t work hard. I’ve trotted and even cantered a bit down the trail and they stay on and don’t rub. The horses really like them on gravel etc. Better than they like the shoes.
2 Likes
Ok, I don’t know what I saw, but I was on the KPP site and saw (I swear!) $106 and 44 servings. But now I see the $103 is 160 servings so WAY better. Sorry!
1 Like
Excellent idea. Actually the farrier mentioned that too.
I had to hunt for the site that always has it on sale - entirelypets is not a website I was familiar with, but has lots of horse supplements and sales! I have had great experiences ordering from them over the past year.
But honestly, at this point I would just feed my horse paper money if that’s what it took to keep him sound and happy! 
4 Likes
I used hoof supplements, as directed by a nutritionist, when transitioning my horse off of a racetrack diet.
In my (purely anecdotal) experience, topical treatments and the footing conditions the horse is continuously standing on, will make or break their ability to transition to bare.
Ultimately, I think it depends what “issue” you are trying to fix.
So my first question would be is why does your horse need shoes in the first place?
Second question is if there are modifications you can make to lessen the need for shoes? (Example, if you said they are ouchy on hard surfaces, can you then not ride on hard surfaces)
If the horse’s need for shoes is not a nutritional one (lacking in a vitamin or mineral) then obviously a supplement isn’t going to help.
2 Likes
^^ OP said she wants to take shoes OFF her new horse. 
(And probably just wants her horse to be comfortable during the transition.)
1 Like
