The adage “no foot no horse” is very familiar to horse owners. Loving your horse’s hooves is worth persisting with to ensure they stay sound and healthy. Here are some top tips to help you care for your horse’s hooves all year around.
No foot no horse is an age-old adage but is still as relevant today as ever. Keeping your horse sound and their hooves in good condition involves year-round hoof care. Hooves grow slowly so constant, consistent care is crucial to achieve health. Loving your horse’s hooves will lead to long term health and benefits for your horse – here are our top tips:
Hoof Health Essentials
Shoeing – throughout the year, it is vital to maintain a regular shoeing schedule to ensure hoof health – a farrier visit at least every four to six weeks is ideal for most horses. If one of your horse’s shoes comes loose or their hooves need attention, contact your farrier straight away to address the problem. When it comes to hooves, acting sooner rather than later is advised.
Picking out – picking out your horse’s hooves every day is the easiest way monitor hoof health. Make sure to clean either side of the frog to prevent nasty stone bruises and thrush.
Hoof conditioner – during the spring/summer season, using a hoof conditioner can be beneficial. Hoof conditioners help promote the correct moisture balance of the hoof to prevent cracking etc.
Nutritional Support for Hooves
Good nutrition is the cornerstone of horse health and this directly impacts your horse’s hooves. Your horse’s nutritional plan should be based on high-quality forage and adding concentrates as required to meet the energy demands of a busy riding/competition schedule. The nutrients needed for hoof growth are predominantly biotin, zinc, methionine and are often contained in a horse’s normal diet. However, including a high-quality hoof supplement ensures that your horse has sufficient material to maximize development of strong hoof tissue. As hooves grow slowly, for best results use a hoof supplement continuously all year round.
Farriers Choice Hoof Supplement
Farriers Choice is nutritional powder supplement containing biotin, the seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum plus essential microminerals. Farriers Choice maintains hoof quality by supporting good growth and contributing towards strong, resilient hard hoof horn through it’s unique ingredient combination:
- Biotin is included at a high concentration, as there are a number of clinical studies showing an improvement in hoof quality, condition and growth rate from long-term feeding of biotin to horses with hoof horn problems.
- Zinc & Copper are essential microminerals that are key for healthy hoof horn and are deficient in forages.
- Seaweed is a traditional supplement for healthy hooves. Seaweed is rich in iodine, which counteracts the natural deficiencies in forage.
- MSM& Methionine are rich sources of sulphur which is an integral part of the hoof protein keratin, so supplementation can improve intrinsic tensile strength of hoof horn.
The unique formulation of Farriers Choice promotes hoof growth, improves bonding within the hoof wall and contributes towards resilience and hardness of the hoof horn. It is ideal for horses prone to cracks, splitting and crumbling of the hoof horn, where slow growth is a problem and for those with brittle or soft hoof walls.
For more information or advice on supplementation, please contact us here.
