Preventing Hoof Flares In Horses
Over the years I have come across a large amount of horses suffering from the consequences of hoof flares. Hoof flares particularly affect unshod horses. It’s not an accident that the prevalence of this condition has shot up acutely with the recent trend for keeping horses shoeless. I have seen an increase in the amount of horses with badly trimmed hooves accompanied by grim side effects. I’ve lost count of the quantity of times I have attended to performance horses with health issues directly related to hoof flares. That is the reason why I have written this article: to tell my readers of the reasons for the frequency of hoof flares and the preventive measures that may be taken up.
When the bond formed between the laminae of the hoof wall and the coffin bone within the foot weakens, this may cause hoof flares. Hoof flares do not afflict wild horses much because the opening at the lower part of the wall permits that part of the wall to break off, preventing the hooves from growing too long in soft footing. Wild horses traverse rough terrain, which keeps their hoofs constantly worn to the right length. This is why wild horses are almost never beset with hoof flares. Of course, tamed horses don’t live on hard terrain , but for all that, proper trimming and regular care can simply stop occurrence of hoof flares in even unshod tame horses.
You can easily confirm hoof flares in your horse by moving a straight edge through the coronary band to the base of the foot and taking the edge entirely round the hoof. You should not come across any spaces between the edge and the hoof wall. If your horse does appear to have hoof flares, you take immediate curative action, but you also get yourself very conversant with the conditions that bring about hoof flares. These conditions can be consistant with mechanical causes and nutritive causes:
Mechanical Causes
Obesity
Overweight horses or horses with little feet that carry big bodies may be very much susceptible to hoof flares as the excess weight bears down on a small surface area. This lead to stress in the laminae of barefooted horses, which in turn can cause flares. While the most obvious long term solution for the overweight horse is to reduce excess weight with proper diet control and heavy exercise, long term remedy for the small-footed pony might be a more involved matter. You should very scrupulously watch the diet of any small-footed horses and make sure that any hoof flares that show up are trimmed continually.
Late Trims
In a way, nature works with flares to prevent accumulation of excess hoof wall in wild horses. In such horses, the hoof wall is weaker at the point of flare and disintegrates as the pony traverses rough ground. This natural defence mechanism impedes wild horses from developing excessively lengthy flares, which would make them unable to outrun predators. Wild horses cover plenty of ground each day, and this obviously helps them a lot by preventing flares. Sadly, trained horses do not have this natural sort of protection. Most domestic horses move around on soft ground and don’t get round to the same extent as wild horses. So, they aren't able to grind down excess growth on their hooves each day. Insufficient running means the trained horse’s hooves can develop flares that grow into big bites before breaking off. This asymmetrical damage makes it hard to shoe the horse or keep the hoof balanced so weight can be carried uniformly. Avoid flares caused by unwarranted hoof growth by trimming your pony regularly. Maintain a roll on the hoof wall edge to permit easy break off.
Nutrition
Inadequacies or Imbalances
The absence of some minerals in requisite quantities can inflict damage on the health of the hooves of horses. One of the critical minerals is sulfur; the hoof laminae is tied to the coffin bone by a disulphide bond. Inferior hoof quality means it’s time to investigate the nutritive value of the hay you are feeding your pony before you add any pricey supplements. If you're unable to analyze your hay for any reason, you should give your pony food-based supplements like blue-green algae. This algae contain a large range of a well-balanced mixture of trace minerals your horse can absorb easily. While biotin is another vital nutrient that supports hoof health, your pony will be manufacturing enough biotin himself if he has lots of favorable bacteria in his stomach. Some of these bacteria produce biotin. As a general practice, you should prefer giving your pony courses of probiotics rather than feeds including items like biotin The healthy bacteria in probiotics are miles more favorable for your horse. Their benefits include the maintenance of a strong immunological system for the horse.
Overfeeding.
Extra poundage gain in horses is not the only result of too much high-starch feed. Such feed brings about unwanted changes in the population of bacteria in your horse’s hindgut (or cecum). The cecum is basically intended to digest fiber, but when undigested starch gets past the small intestines into the hindgut, fiber-digesting bacteria in the cecum die, allowing starch-digesting bacteria to take over. Your pony can find this phenomenon to be devastating, as it ends in poison release into the bloodstream; this in turn triggers off an enzyme that breaks down the laminae in the hoof wall. Peter Ramey, legendary expert on pony hoofs, seems to hold the opinion that this is how nature gets unacceptably disproportionate hoof walls to splinter easily when the pony gets into an elevated sugar content forage grazing scenario. This is a non permanent phenomenon with the wild horse, but with unshod domestic horses long-term assimilation of high starch or sugar diets can create laminitis that emerges out in continual hoof issues.
Hoof Wall Infections
I have often heard fungus and bacteria getting held responsible for hoof wall separation or “white line” disease. The truth is that the position is likely entirely different: the fungus and bacteria aren’t the causes, but the effects. They are present because they’re exploiting the environment already prevailing in the foot as a result of the weakness of the hoof wall attachments. Once a pathogen has attacked nonetheless , you have to treat your horse’s hooves even after the root cause has been eliminated so that healthy hoof growth can be initiated and maintained.
An oz. of tea tree oil in 16 ounces of apple cider vinegar is a useful remedy for most minor hoof wall illnesses. Stronger infections require more assertive treatments. In all my years, I’ve seen no better solution for persistent white line infections than White Lightning. When White Lightning is applied inside a wrap or an airtight soaking boot, it releases a chlorine gas that suffuses deep into the tissue of the hoof. There isn’t any effect on healthy tissue. This regimen should be repeated each week till the hoof shows healthy attachments from top to bottom and the white line shows no separation or stretch. A different treatment regime must be adopted for horses that fail to respond to hoof infection treatments and careful management. The immune defenses in such horses could be weak, and this problem therefore would represent the 1st target for treatment.
Trimming Hoof Flares
Trim hoof flares aggressively if they appear on your shoeless pony. The best way to do that is to file from the front of the hoof wall till there’s no more space showing when a straight edge is run around the hoof. If this removes so much wall that shoeing becomes not possible, use boots or pea gravel footing. I know that some trimmers don’t like to do that, but I believe it's the quickest way to bring back a healthy hoof, as any flare remaining will generally pull new hoof growth away from the bone. The easiest way out is preventive: stop hoof flares altogether. When the hoof, the diet and the immune system are managed properly hoof flares should never reappear.
Horses are Heather Toms’ passion and she enjoys sharing her extensive knowledge through her 100’s of articles with other horse lovers… like all things about horse blanket
