Bonnie - thank you for this advice. I’m going to take it and get to the bottom of these cracks (literally!). This is my first horse to get them in 30 years of horse ownership, so I dont have much experience with them. I was told they weren’t painful unless bleeding, but actually it makes a lot of sense that they hurt. This gives me some hope that it’s not a soft tissue injury at all, although I understand getting quarter cracks under control can be a battle too.
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My vet has done the “shim flexions” for my horse and jogged on concrete. He used actual little shims like you see people use to shim window frames, etc. He likes doing that before blocking the heel because the block can flood into the whole foot some.
Quarter cracks on both feet make me think it’s a trimming or shoeing issue. The same horse as above had a quarter crack on the LF that was a lot of trouble to get healed completely and required a trip to the vet school with my farrier to set him up.
I think my horse’s quarter crack was ultimately caused by uneven loading from arthritis developing in his knee. We did not find the knee until it was quite advanced because it was pretty subtle lameness that I could ride him out of until I couldn’t. My advice on blocking is unless the horse is magically perfectly sound to hoof blocks, keep going up the limb(s) just to make sure you find the whole issue.
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Amberley - wow thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely order a pair to try. The second part is harder, but I’m working on it.
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It may be possible for BoT boots to encourage a little faster growth rate, but that still only helps if the trim is corrected. It only means you might get it grown out a bit more quickly. Without the trim being fixed, nothing else will help.
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^^This. If things are out of whack and not being dealt with, more rapid hoof growth is just going to send them further out of whack faster.
Though all the BoT bell boots did for my horse was rub him. And I wasn’t leaving them on 24/7.
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Hi! This thread seems to be very informed about hoof related issues… if anyone on here is still active, I’m very anxious about what’s going on with my big guy.
Here’s a link to his case/thread:
TIA 
