Hooves chipping/crumbling

[eallan21]

My horse has been shod in the front all her life and has been fed mostly grain and hay (with grass only available in the summer). We recently moved to a place with plenty of grass so her diet now consists of 98% grass. She’s also gained a lot of weight. We also changed farriers (3 times). Her hooves started to deteriorate (in condition), cracking, crumbling, etc. at the nails and she started loosing shoes. She didn’t have enough hoof wall to re-shoe after loosing shoes repeatedly and I wanted to go barefoot in the fall anyway so we had the farrier pull her shoes about a month ago. Her hooves continue to chip and crumble so that they are uneven (one front foot is shorter than the other and is really too short in general). The back hooves which were always barefoot are starting to look bad too. I also notice bruising in the hoof walls (although that isn’t too abnormal for her) and noticed that there are small horizontal ridges on her hoofs about an inch from the coronet band (suggesting stress…and the move of course was very stressful). Her back hooves are flattening out because she’s putting more weight on them due to the sensitive front hooves.

The other horses also have awful hooves. I’m wondering if the diet change from mostly hay and grain to green grass is playing a role in the hoof problems. I’ve ordered biotin and keratex hoof hardener. I’m also going to start putting barefoot hoof boots on for parts of the day.

Anyone have any experience with this problem? Any suggestions?

[Mosey_2003]

It’s “shod” - not “shawed” in case you want to do more searching on that subject.

I would say add something like a ration balancer to make sure she is getting the proper vitamins and minerals.

But, if she’s chipping and bruising that much, her hooves are too long, I’d bet. I’d be looking for someone else to trim her.

[alibi_18]

“grass” might not be enough.

If all the horses there have bad hooves…you’ll either need to move or find the reason why all of them have crappy hooves (food related, bad farrier/trimmer) but something is clearly wrong at that barn.

[JB]

Hoof boots are just going to trap moisture, so be careful with those.

Some horses cannot have all that grass. They are at least lightly insulin resistant, and the higher sugar diet really screws up their feet among other things. I would get her off the grass asap, or at least muzzle her, especially since she’s also gained a lot of weight.

It sounds like this horse in particular is heading for trouble. It sounds like chronic laminitis which is causing the feet to splat and deteriorate.

[Flash44]

Wet grass will really do a number on hooves with shoes. Moisture will cause the hoof to expand, and then it contracts when it dries out. So the horse is stuck in a continuing wet/dry cycle which causes the problems with cracking and crumbling.

When I have a horse with bad feet come in for turnout, I usually pull all the shoes.

Also, you might need a ration balancer or vit/min supplement if the pasture is not meeting all the horse’s nutritional needs.

[pj1]

[QUOTE=JB;8282474]
Hoof boots are just going to trap moisture, so be careful with those.

Some horses cannot have all that grass. They are at least lightly insulin resistant, and the higher sugar diet really screws up their feet among other things. I would get her off the grass asap, or at least muzzle her, especially since she’s also gained a lot of weight.

It sounds like this horse in particular is heading for trouble. It sounds like chronic laminitis which is causing the feet to splat and deteriorate.[/QUOTE]
THIS. Been there, done that.