Preventing Hoof Flares In Unshod Ponies

Over the years I have come across plenty of horses suffering from the results of hoof flares. Hoof flares especially affect unshod horses. It’s not an accident that the predominance of this condition has shot up acutely with the latest trend for keeping horses shoeless. I have seen a rise in the quantity of horses with badly trimmed hooves accompanied by dreadful side-effects. I have lost count of the quantity of times I have attended to performance horses with health issues directly due to hoof flares. That’s why I’ve written this article: to tell my readers of the explanations 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 inside the foot weakens, this may cause hoof flares. Hoof flares do not afflict wild horses much because the gap at the lower part of the wall allows that part of the wall to break off, stopping 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 explains why wild horses are nearly never beset with hoof flares. Of course, domesticated horses don’t live on hard terrain but for all that, proper trimming and regular care can easily stop occurrence of hoof flares in even unshod tame horses.

You can easily confirm hoof flares in your pony by moving a straight edge through the coronary band to the base of the foot and taking the edge entirely around the hoof. You should not come across any spaces between the edge and the hoof wall. If your horse does seem to have hoof flares, you take immediate curative action, but you also get yourself really conversant with the conditions that cause hoof flares. These conditions can be consistant with mechanical causes and nutritive causes:

Mechanical Causes

Obesity

Oversized horses or horses with tiny feet that carry enormous bodies can be very much subject to hoof flares because the excess weight bears down on a small surface area. This lead to stress in the laminae of barefoot horses, which in its turn can end up in flares. While the most obvious long term solution for the large horse is to reduce excess weight with proper diet control and heavy exercise, long-term remedy for the small-footed horse may be a more involved matter. You should very thoroughly watch the diet of any small-footed horses and ensure that any hoof flares that show up are trimmed regularly.

Late Trims

In a way, nature works alongside 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 horse traverses rough ground. This natural defence mechanism impedes wild horses from developing unduly lengthy flares, which would make them unable to outrun predators. Wild horses cover a large amount of ground each day, and this obviously helps them a lot by preventing flares. Unfortunately, tamed horses don’t have this natural type of protection. Most domestic horses move around on soft ground and don’t get round to the same extent as wild horses. Thus, they are not able to grind down excess growth on their hooves each day. Insufficient running means the tamed horse’s hooves can develop flares that grow into big hunks before breaking off. This asymmetrical wear and tear makes it tricky to shoe the pony or keep the hoof balanced so weight can be carried uniformly. Avoid flares due to unwarranted hoof growth by trimming your horse frequently. Maintain a roll on the hoof wall edge to permit easy break off.

Nutrition

Inadequacies or Imbalances

The lack of some minerals in requisite quantities can damage the health of the hooves of horses. One of the important minerals is sulfur; the hoof laminae is tied to the coffin bone by a disulphide bond. Inferior hoof quality means it’s time to analyze the nutritive value of the hay you are feeding your horse before you add any pricey supplements. If you're unable to investigate your hay for whatever reason, you should give your horse food-based supplements like blue-green algae. This algae contain a wide range of a well-balanced mix of trace minerals your pony can absorb easily. While biotin is another important nutrient that supports hoof health, your pony will be making sufficient biotin himself if he has a lot of favorable bacteria in his stomach. Some of these bacteria produce biotin. As a general practice, you should like giving your horse courses of probiotics rather than feeds including items like biotin The healthy bacteria in probiotics are way more favorable for your horse. Their benefits include the maintenance of a robust immune system for the horse.

Overfeeding.

Extra poundage gain in horses isn’t the only result of too much high-starch feed. Such feed brings about undesired changes in the population of bacteria in your horse’s hindgut (or cecum). The cecum is basically meant to digest fiber, but when undigested starch gets past the small intestines into the hindgut, fiber-digesting bacteria in the cecum die, permitting starch-digesting bacteria to take over. Your horse can find this phenomenon to be devastating, as it ends in poison release into the blood vessels; this in turn triggers off an enzyme that breaks down the laminae in the hoof wall. Peter Ramey, famed expert on pony hoofs, appears to hold the opinion that this is how nature gets intolerably inappropriate hoof walls to chip easily when the pony gets into a raised sugar content forage grazing scenario. This is a temporary phenomenon with the wild horse, but with unshod domestic horses long term absorption of high starch or sugar diets can cause laminitis that emerges out in continual hoof issues.

Hoof Wall Infections

I have frequently heard fungus and bacteria getting held accountable for hoof wall separation or “white line” illness. The reality is that the position is potentially entirely different: the fungus and bacteria are not the causes, but the effects. They’re present because they’re exploiting the environment already prevailing in the foot as a consequence of the weakness of the hoof wall attachments. Once a pathogen has invaded nevertheless , you must 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 oz of apple cider vinegar is a good cure for most minor hoof wall diseases. Stronger infections require more aggressive treatments. In all my years, I have seen no better solution for persistent white line illnesses than White Lightning. When White Lightning is applied within a wrap or an airtight soaking boot, it releases a chlorine gas that permeates deeply into the tissue of the hoof. There isn’t any effect on healthy tissue. This program should be repeated every week until 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 systems in such horses might be feeble, and that problem therefore would represent the 1st target for treatment.

Trimming Hoof Flares

Trim hoof flares aggressively if they appear on your shoeless pony. The right 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. My opinion is that some trimmers hate to do that, but I believe it's the swiftest way to bring back a healthy hoof, as any flare remaining will generally pull new hoof growth away from the bone. The best way out is preventive: stop hoof flares altogether. When the hoof, the diet and the immune system are managed properly hoof flares should never recur.

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