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Winter Hoofcare and Shoes

By christina November 6, 2014 November 6, 2014 Uncategorized

The Horse.com http://www.thehorse.com/articles/34819/top-winter-hoof-care-tips?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=lameness&utm_campaign=11-05-2014
discusses winter hoofcare and advises that there is little circulation in the lower leg in winter. Obviously they’re imaging shod legs. But why would less circulation result in greater concussion? They only say harder ground can lead to sole bruising. Would be nice for a technical article like this to support their assertions.

“Beware of foot concussion Turner advises owners to take caution when riding in the cold. “Using thermal imaging in winter, we frequently can’t find horses’ legs,” he says. “There’s not a lot of peripheral circulation there. So, if you’re going on a trail ride, use common sense about pounding your horse down the trail; foot concussion prevention may be compromised during winter.”

Fleming adds, “In areas where it gets really cold and the ground frozen, horses that are fine during summer may get sole bruising. Keep that in mind, whether you need to put them in soft-ride boots or, if you’re doing conventional shoeing, putting pads in.””

Top Winter Hoof Care Tips

Remember these tips when planning and preparing your horse’s winter hoof care regimen.

THEHORSE.COM

I once removed the shoes from an Arabian horse, in the dead of winter. As I was handling his feet to remove the shoes I noticed his front legs were ice cold. Once the shoes were off, the legs warmed up noticeably in a matter of minutes. The owner was shocked. The hoof is a highly developed insulating mechanism. If it doesn’t have metal nails conducting cold directly into it and the ciruclatory elements (capillaries), the temperature will not be lowered, and will travel up the leg to keep the leg warm.

Will Removing My Horse’s Shoes For More Than a Few Cycles Help?

By christina September 29, 2014 September 29, 2014 Conditions & Treatment, Hoof Boots, Hoof Health, Uncategorized

People often ask this question, so I thought I would copy a question/comment from one of the case studies which is typical of owners trying to decide whether to go barefoot – temporarily or longer:

Hello!
I have an Appendix gelding (15 y/o) who has terrible feet. They can go from too dry and hard to soft and mushy just within a shoeing period. His walls are very thin, and I had a farrier once tell me it “was like nailing through kitty litter” If we are careful, he can keep his shoes on a full shoeing period, but he often looses a LOT of wall around the nails/holes. I have decided to pull his shoes for a few months and let him wear Cavallo boots to protect his foot while in turn out. Do you think that letting him go barefoot for longer than a few trims (before I move barns) will be beneficial. If he gets lame without shoes, we might have to put them back on. I also heard that there is a difference in concussion absorption in aluminum vs. steel shoes. is this true? We are currently actively training for the 2’9 – 3′ hunters.

Select comment christina
barefoothoofcare@verizon.net
74.108.160.34
Submitted on 2014/09/29 at 9:04 pm | In reply to Kristen.
Hi Kristen!
So glad to hear you are going to give your horse a chance to improve his feet by removing his shoes, at least for a while. There are several reasons that horses have poor hoof horn quality like yours does, and ironically the main reason for this is the presence of shoes. The other main reasons are stalling and exposure to wet/dry cycles – but these are all mitigated by removing shoes!

The reason shoeing causes poor hoof horn quality is that it reduces blood flow to the hoof (for a variety of reasons) which negatively affects the quality of the wall. As soon as you remove shoes you will see an improvement in the quality of the wall. There will be a ring that grows down the foot where it will be very apparent where the shod growth ends and the barefoot growth begins. It will look different and feel different and have more ‘life’ to it. It is ironic indeed that a horse has to be barefoot in order to grow wall thick enough to be able to hold shoes – LOL! In my own horse’s case (typical TB) his wall thickness went from about 1/16″ thick to more than 1/4″ thick! Continue reading

What is A Healthy Hoof?

By christina August 12, 2014 August 12, 2014 Uncategorized

Everyone talks about healthy hooves, but what truly makes a hoof healthy? There are some aspects of hoof form that can be considered healthy whereas others that can be considered hoof distortions, usually from growing too long/incorrectly combined with improper trimming (more so than improper shoeing, per se).

Let’s talk about a few examples.

Do You Have a Metabolic Horse?

By christina November 21, 2013 November 21, 2013 Conditions & Treatment, Metabolic Syndrome, Uncategorized

Low starch meals are forage based

There are multiple avenues for approaching the ever-growing problem of metabolic horses. Most of the attention has focused on the diet and limiting intake of grass and in the case of obese horses, hay as well. This is a self-perpetuating cycle as it puts the horse in starvation mode which releases the hormones that contribute to obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Copra (coconut meal)

Low starch foods only work so far in helping to solve the problem (and one of the newer choices available to horse owners is copra (cococut meal) a low sugar foodstuff.

It is no secret (or shouldn’t be) that regular consistent exercise is one of the best ways to manage, reduce and even eliminate metabolic syndrome (and accompanying problems of laminitis). But recent research has shed a little more light on why. There is a white fat cell (which stores fat) and a brown fat cell (which generates heat and burns fat). Exercise will convert white fat cells to brown ones which in turn will result in weight loss.

Snow is no problem for barefoot horses

In people, researchers have found that:

• Slender people have more brown fat than obese people do
• Younger people have more brown fat than elderly people, and
• People with normal blood sugar levels have more brown fat than those with high blood sugar

So it is not much of a stretch to think that this could also be the case in horses. So, saddle up and get working. If your horse’s feet are tender because of metabolic induced mild laminitis, start out with padded boots. Eventually you will be able to ride completely barefoot.

Cross Section Through Shod Hoof

By christina February 8, 2013 September 22, 2013 Anatomy, Uncategorized

This is an image of a cross section through a hoof with the shoe still attached and showing how the nail goes through the foot into the white line. It appeared originally in The Hoof Blog, in a post discussing the use of MRI’s for diagnostic purposes and the proper removal of shoes

http://hoofcare.blogspot.com/2011/02/no-farrier-no-mri-diagnostic-imaging.html

This is a fascinating, rarely seen view of the shoe and nails penetrating the hoof. It is remarkable how close the nail is to the edge of the coffin bone. Click on the image for a larger view.

Hoof Cross Section With Shoe and Nails Attached

White Line Tightens Up After Shoes Are Removed

By christina January 21, 2013 September 27, 2013 Bull Nose Shaped Hoof, Trimming Results, Uncategorized, White Line

The transition from shod to barefoot almost always results in the white line growing in more tightly as a result of the absence of leverage of the wall away from the coffin bone due to the presence of the shoe. While the shod part of the wall is growing down, there is a ‘ridge’ visible where the white line has started to grow in more tightly.

The hoof is shod.

The Farrier and Natural Hoof Care

By christina February 19, 2012 September 22, 2013 Uncategorized

There are approximately 300 different horse breeds and an estimated 6.9 million horses in the United States alone. Horses are used for everything from racing to simple trail rides. Their environments range from the black asphalt and concrete of large cities to the rugged mountain trails of Montana. My point is that there are thousands upon thousands of different uses and environments for horses, but some people advocate that there is only one approach to hoof care. On one side, natural hoof care advocates state that there is absolutely no use for shoeing a horse. A select few might go as far as saying that shoeing a horse is abuse. On the other side, others zealously argue that natural hoof care is nothing more than a scam. The passionate debate between natural hoof care advocates and traditional farriers often drives a wedge between the two sides and makes it difficult to accept the merits on both sides.

Description of the Horse’s Hoof & Corium

By christina January 16, 2007 January 16, 2007 Anatomy, Uncategorized

Laminae, Laminar Corium, Coffin Bone Corium

Written By Odette Suter, DVM

Laminae are composed of a sensitive and insensitive part. The sensitive part is also known as the laminar corium and the insensitive laminae is also called laminar horn and is produced by the laminar corium. The corium is a form of epithelium. Epithelial tissue is composed of one or more layers of cells that line surfaces of organs (skin, GI tract, lungs, etc.), blood vessels, lymph vessels, etc. The functions of epithelial tissue are
protection, absorption, diffusion as well as excretion of waste products. In the case of the hoof this ‘waste’ is horn (protein).

Dr. Odette Suter
www.odettesuter.com

animal communication
equine hoof rehab
spiritual consulting

All photos courtesy Kentucky Horsehoeing School

Relationship of Hoof Form to Metabolism, Cresty Necks & Founder

By christina December 31, 2006 December 31, 2006 Founder & Laminitis, Uncategorized

”Insulin Resistance” is a trendy diagnosis made by lay people with regards to their own horses, based on information they glean from the internet. It is suspected as a cause in laminitis and founder, and horses are removed from most or all pasture, depriving them of their natural grazing needs in an attempt to remove sugars from the diet. I believe it is possible that this actually can cause the horse to experience even more stress and thus puts in motion a vicious cycle.Below are some excerpts from an article in The Horse, in which Tia Nelson DVM, discusses her experience in reducing signs of insulin resistance (such as cresty necks) in some horses, simply by improving their hoof form.

As she says, it is important to manage horses’ diets, especially easy keepers, but it can be very helpful to eliminate poor hoof form as a contributing factor. There is more on Insulin Resistance in a study posted on this blog, linked on this page here

Read the whole article here

Holiday Greetings

By christina December 27, 2006 December 27, 2006 Uncategorized

from our rescue case (right) and his barefoot companion, who appears to be thriving in his new digs in Nevada. He moved there with his owner after we helped rehab him (as you read in his case history in a previous thread). At the time he was reclaimed by his owner, it was questionable whether he would live; today – he is modelling a silly reindeer antler and Santa hat. Life is good!

Best wishes to all in 2007.

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