Hoof condition is normally a reflection of the
quality of nutrition that a horse is receiving. See mineral/vitamin deficiency
section.
Each horse is an individual and has its own
special requirements of minerals, vitamins etc. In addition some horses digest
food better than others and so need a different proportion of minerals and other
nutrients like biotin in the diet.
Some horses only produce thin hoof wall and sole
and the rate of growth is slower than normal. This is what causes hoof problems.
The buzz word for hooves is always biotin, which
is a vitamin like compound important to proper horn growth. However feeding
straight biotin does not normally give good results because a lot more is needed
for good horn growth and pure biotin is not well absorbed. Hooves need an all
round good level of nutrition and particularly compounds like biotin in as near
to a natural state (food like – see bone&hoof supplement) as possible.
Amino acids like methionine and sulphur supplements like MSM can also be
helpful. If you use an effective supplement like Bone & Hoof supplement you
should see new horn start to grow down in 4-6 weeks. It may take 9 months for
your horse to get a completely new hoof and you should remember that unless you
change the feeding as in the story below you need to keep on feeding a
supplement indefinitely in order to maintain good hoof quality.
A STORY: A friend of ours from S Africa recently
commented how his racehorses always used to have good hooves and his neighbours
could never understand this as many people in S Africa have hoof problems with poor
hoof condition. The different with my friends horses was that they were let out
every day on the veld (wild countryside) and were able to graze where they
liked. In so doing my friend was ensureing that his horses could select for
themselves all the different plant material that they needed for good hoof
growth.
Water. Loss of water from the hoof also makes for
dry brittle hooves. If a horse has less than 25% water in its hooves they start
to loose much of their strength and flexibility. Some beddings can tend to dry
hooves out and in dry weather daily rinses can help a lot.
You can encourage horn growth by normal types of
exercise on even soft ground and by stimulating the coronary band with
preparations like cornucrescin.
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