Hey there. So tonight when I went ride my horse, I noticed a ridge on the sides of both of his hooves (the ridges didn’t go all the way around the front of his hooves). I know that ridges on hooves typically indicates laminitis but besides the ridges, he doesn’t present any other signs. I hacked him lightly and he felt willing to go forward and didn’t seem ouchy at all. I also had to walk him over some gravel and he didn’t seem to mind that at all. He eats 1 lb of soaked beet pulp, 1 pound of equine senior and 1/2 lb of omolene 300 twice a day. He’s also on pasture for about 7 hrs a day. He’s had no diet changes in the past two months. The only thing I can think of that could have caused the ridges is the weather we’ve had lately. It’s been hot and dry all summer but then we had a two week spell where it would rain a lot every day and now it’s back to hot and dry. Could this cause ridges in a hoof? I’m going to keep an eye on it and if he shows any more symptoms, I will obviously call my vet.
If you could post a picture it would help. Ridges can come from anything from diet change, or poorly balanced feet to stress and yes, laminitis. It’s the rare horse that won’t give you some sign with laminitis. Laminitis is very painful and I’ve never seen a horse that wanted to walk, much less be ridden with laminitis. if the ridges are further down the hoof wall, it’s not something that is just happening, it’s from a past event. Pictures would really help the people who are good with hooves point you in the right direction.
Horses will get rings around their hooves from changes in diet, like spring grass. The rings need to grow a bit below the coronet band before they are visible. If the ring is halfway down his foot it records something that happened 5 or 6 months ago.
I have seen pasture horses with multiple rings on their hooves that never the less were totally sound, never had symptoms of laminitis, and never foundered. When they moved into a more stable feeding regimen the rings grew out and didn’t reappear.
So despite looking like a founder ring these growth rings seem benign.
I have seen some online forums where people say they are laminitis but that hasn’t been my experience.
Lines may be from:
–Toe-first landing concussion up thru the hoof wall
–A change in diet (and while I’m there: Omolene is CRACK! too much sugar/starch)
–A temperature (may have had a minor bug the body fought off)
–Any major change (i.e., relocation)
–Laminitis (low grade or obvious)
Laminitis will first present as an unwillingness to go forward, or a shorter choppier stride than normal.
I’m questioning his diet - most senior feeds should be fed at a minimum of 5-6 lbs a day, and you are feeding 2 lbs. Omolene 300 is a growth formula and meant to be fed to young growing horses and lactating mares, so not sure why you are feeding 1 lb a day. Read the labels on your bags - if you are not feeding per instructions, you may want to consider a feed that better fits your horse.
I’d feed a horse that is prone to laminitis Triple Crown Lite, muzzle while on pasture, and low NSC hay.
Those ridges you see are fever rings - chocomare pretty much covered why they form. With fever rings I pretty much follow “occam’s razor” as a rule - the simplest answer being it is almost always caused by inflammation in the hoof, ergo, laminitis in its simplest form.
I will add that my gelding has always been predisposed to them and I had him x-rayed a few years back to make sure it wasn’t laminitis… he had subclinical, very low-grade inflammation in the hoof from too thin soles - which is basically laminitis. While my vet was tentative in the use ‘laminitis’, he did have inflammation as a byproduct of concussion… I put pads on him to buffer his sole and they stopped propagating until he sustained a freak paddock injury and fractured his pelvis & ribs with multiple puncture sites. He had a fever for almost two weeks and the fever rings came back with a vengeance… you can look at his hooves and see very clearly the timeline of the last year on his feet.
Just my experience but fever rings are very rarely benign - but once you see them, you can be sure the event happened at least a month or so ago…
As mentioned, ridges are from a distruption of some sort in the growth. That disruption could be lots of things - change in diet, ground going from soft for a while to suddenly baked and hard, stress, illness, injury, change in type and duration of turning, change in how the foot is trimmed, and more. And at a growth rate of about 1/4" per month, by the time you see a ridge, it happened a while ago.
I hacked him lightly and he felt willing to go forward and didn’t seem ouchy at all. I also had to walk him over some gravel and he didn’t seem to mind that at all.
Because the ridge happened a while ago 
He eats 1 lb of soaked beet pulp, 1 pound of equine senior and 1/2 lb of omolene 300 twice a day.
Is there a reason he’s on these amounts of these feeds? I assume Purina Equine Sr. How big is he? If he’s 1000lb-ish or more, that’s under-feeding from a nutrition perspective. Omelene 300 is a VERY high sugar feed (38%), and while 1/2lb twice a day is unlikely to be doing any harm, with this combination, there are much better options. But it will help to know why you’ve settled on these feeds and amounts. Do you have access to Triple Crown?
He’s also on pasture for about 7 hrs a day. He’s had no diet changes in the past two months. The only thing I can think of that could have caused the ridges is the weather we’ve had lately. It’s been hot and dry all summer but then we had a two week spell where it would rain a lot every day and now it’s back to hot and dry. Could this cause ridges in a hoof? I’m going to keep an eye on it and if he shows any more symptoms, I will obviously call my vet.
How far down from the top are the ridges Did his diet change 2 months ago? How about the ground conditions?
How long ago was the dry-wet-dry change? But yes, that could cause ridges, but depending on how far down the foot they are, not necessarily the cause.
Your’d be surprised how many horses have chronic, sub-clinical laminitis who are out there being ridden, evens showing 
What you describe is acute laminitis that presents with that traditional rocked back stance.
The OP says ridges are only on the sides of hoof don’t go all the way around. Horse is sound probably a balance issue. Rings ridges don’t equal laminitis there are other causes. My horses have rings on all four feet nothing wrong with either horse.
I should clarify what I meant by benign. I meant that a growth ring or fever ring doesn’t indicate permanent damage to the foot like you’d see with a true case of founder. But I agree they are an indication of an event that impacted the health of the horse, including an actual serious disease. If the horse got the rings recovering from a bad fever obviously the fever is not benign! But the ring growing out visibly 3 months later isn’t a problem.
Although I see rings on pasture horses who seem totally sound and have no long term damage, I have to say I don’t like to see them.
Reading a little more carefully, and assuming this all means the ridges are more or less from the quarters back, give or take, then I would much more suspect this is a trimming issue. Heels are not down and back where they belong, so are exerting inappropriate pressure in the back of the foot, which compresses hoof material which causes ridges.
Just to further confuse the issue, laminitis does not always cause rings. My gelding had low-grade laminitis, confirmed by x-ray (no rotation, but an increase in the distance between the coffin bone and the hoof wall). His feet looked normal the whole time and grew out normally afterwards.
I"m not sure I understand 
The increase in distance comes from downward rotation of the coffin bone unless my foundered horses have been unique. Can they sink without rotation?
They can definitely sink without rotation, and that pretty much means either very acute laminitis in which all lamina are more or less compromised enough that they all start letting go at the same time, or chronic low-grade laminitis in which they all are slowly losing their grip over time.
The only measurement I can find reference to right now is the dorsal horn-lamellar zone width. This was 5 years ago and the abbreviation for the measurement my vet used isn’t coming back to me right now. It was four letters, that’s all I can recall. I was under the impression at the time that there can be measurable inflammation on the x-ray before rotation or sinking but I could have been mistaken on the latter. There was definitely no rotation and he was sound for riding the following spring (laminitis was caused by Cushing’s). There are standard measurements for different breeds of horses but in my case we had baseline x-rays.
Found it HDPD, hoof distal phalanx distance. It was going to drive me insane until I found it.
I have never seen a case so severe that it just sank without rotation first but I was able to find xrays through google and yikes and knock on wood that I never do see a case that severe.
But as far as increased hoof distal phalanx distance, I’m trying to picture how that could occur without rotation or sinking. I suppose a sufficient amount of edema could cause a temporary increase in measurement without actually tearing the lamina then resume to normal fairly quickly. Could the hoof wall bulge enough to increase the measurement?
Ive never heard of the hdpd increasing without rotation and I’m trying to assimilate as much info as possible because of all of Dexter’s issues. Thanks.
At the time I was under the impression that a very small increase in the distance (like my gelding’s) was just from inflammation, but I could be wrong. My vet told me there was no rotation. But ridges can be from lots of things, and my gelding never got rings or ridges. His feet looked great then and they look great now.
So when you say increase - in relation to what, a previous measurement? Against some average for horses?
There’s a range for a given horse’s weight, but if, say, the distance was 17mm and that’s the only measure you have, you don’t know if that’s normal for him, or up from, say, 15mm 2 months ago. So I guess we need more context
