How to care for your horse's hooves

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Your horse's hooves require optimum care. When the weather is sunny and warm, the hooves become dry and brittle. When it rains a lot and the pastures/paddocks are wet, your horse's hooves may absorb too much water. If this happens, your horse's hooves will become soft.

With soft hooves, it helps to grease them regularly. You can do this with for example NAF Profeet Farrier Solution, Effol Hoof-Oiland Leovet Hoof Lab Hoof Oil/Grease. If the hoof is in a healthy condition, greasing should be avoided. Hoof oil and hoof grease close the pores in the hoof horn and therefore inhibit moisture exchange. This can be a benefit for horses that spend all day in ammonia-soaked hay or on muddy ground. For other horses, regular greasing can prevent the horse from getting dry hooves. For hooves that are very dry, moisturising products such as hoof oil or grease can really make a difference.

It is very important to check and scrape out your horse's hooves daily with a hoof scraper. This way you can remove stones and dirt from the hoof and check for possible infections. By scraping out the hoof, air can enter the hoof every day, making it a less attractive place for bacteria and fungi to live.

Do not scrape the hooves too roughly, because that way you will remove some of the horn from the sole each time, making the sole more and more sensitive. So don't be too hard with the iron part of the hoof scraper, but use the brush instead. If you pierce the sole grooves too much with the iron, you weaken the transition between the hard and soft parts.

What does a healthy hoof look like?
A healthy hoof is distinguished by the fact that the rays, sole and wall are intact. In other words, it should not be crumbly or ridged. The hoof should not have any loose flaps on the sole or the wall. If this is not the case, the structure of your horse's hoof is intact. A hoof must look even and have a normal smell.

Supplements for healthy hooves
If you want to give your horse (extra) support for healthy hooves. Then we have an extensive range of supplements for healthy and stronger hooves. One of the conditions for good hoof support is sufficient biotin in the feed ration. Especially for horses with a bad hoof quality or a damaged hoof, long-term support is really important.

Supplements that contain a lot of biotin are: Pavo BiotinForte, Cavalor Hoof Aid Special, NAF Biotin Plus and Sectolin Biotin.

What is Biotin?
Biotin is an essential vitamin B for every horse. This substance dissolves easily in water, making it a supplement that can easily be given along with the horse's feed. Any accidental oversupply will be eliminated through the urine.

Biotin has a positive influence on the development of a protein called keratin. Keratin is the basis of many things in the horse's body, including skin, hair and hooves. Horses that suffer from dry hooves, crumbling hoofs or skin and coat problems often benefit from a better development of keratin. Biotin helps with this.

Where can a horse get biotin from
In principle, a healthy horse gets enough biotin from its grass or roughage. Specific micro-organisms in the rear part of the horse's intestines also produce some extra biotin. These amounts of biotin normally ensure that all sorts of bodily processes, such as the growth of hooves, coat and skin, run smoothly.

What can be a cause of biotin deficiency

A shortage of grass and roughage
Changing levels of biotin in roughage
A non-optimal functioning of the bowel

A possible biotin deficiency can be recognised by various skin problems. For example, a dull coat or an allergy such as summer eczema. It can also be seen in dry or crumbling hooves.

What is thrush?
Thrush is a common bacterial infection that effects the frog. Horses with deep grooves and narrow heels are at higher risk of developing thrush. Even when the surroundings of your horse are kept as clean as possible, bacteria are still present. A wet, muddy or dirty environment is the perfect place for bacteria to survive and cause damage to the hooves. The damaged tissue can even reach the sensitive structures of the hoof below the frog and cause lameness.

How to recognise thrush
A hoof with thrush usually has " muck " coming out of the frog and smells bad. Because the bacteria attack the frog, literally eating away at it, the frog becomes increasingly sick. As a result, the frog is less and less able to do its job. This can lead to increasing discomfort and injuries. If the frog has been infected by the bacteria, you can often see several effects on the frog itself:

1. The frog no longer looks and feels like a strong and elastic piece of rubber.
2. The frog has a somewhat dirty and bare appearance and has many "flaps".
3. The frog is often small and sunk into the hoof.
4. Also, the small dimple in the middle of the frog has often become a deep and narrow groove. The bacteria have eaten their way into the frog tissue. If you look at the hoof from the back, there is a line that should not be there.
5. Usually the whole hoof is out of balance as well: the toe is long, the heels are undershot, the supporting tendons are overgrown.

The possible causes of thrush and what you can do about it
Lack of movement

Movement influences the health of the hoof and therefore of the frog. More movement means more blood flow and therefore a healthier hoof and frog. The frog is stimulated by the contact with the ground and thus remains (more) healthy.

Poor hygiene
In the stable or in the paddock, horses stand in their own manure and urine more often than when they have plenty of space. The ammonia from the urine and manure affects the frog. Removing the manure every day and making sure the urine can drain away properly contributes to healthier hooves. Standing on wet ground too often is not conducive to a healthy frog. That is why you should always provide a dry place for your horse to stand when it is outside. When it is not possible to offer your horse a dry place because of a lot of rain, you can use Cavolor Dry Feet. This product repels the bad bacteria that try to enter the hoof. When using tar products such as the Bense & Eicke Hoof Tar with brush or Hoof Tar Spray, the hoof must be cleaned well beforehand. Tar closes off the frog, so dirt and bacteria can become trapped in the frog groove and make the problem worse. Besides using Cavalor Dry Feet, you can also use Leovet FrogMedic. This will deeply affect the deepest grooves and finest cracks. FrogMedic ensures that the frog dries out so that the underlying healthy tissue can grow again.

Feeding
The feed has an impact on the overall health of your horse. The quality of your ration therefore also influences hoof growth as well as the quality of the hoof horn and all kinds of (repair) processes in your horse's body. Cavalor Hoof Aid is a supplement that improves the condition of the hooves and keeps them in good condition. Suitable for horses that are sensitive to thrush.

Too many weeks between trims
Depending on whether your horse is on shoes or not, most horses are trimmed/re-shoed between 6-9 weeks. The growth rate of the hoofs varies from horse to horse, so adjust your timing accordingly. The farrier can for example tell whether 8 weeks is too late for your horse or too early. So be sure to consult if you are not sure yourself.