Posted by Katy on July 02, 2003 at 18:50:29:
Hi all. I've had my mare for just over a year now and both summers I've owned her, I've had the same problem -- a problem I don't experience with my gelding... Last summer, my mare's hooves were cracking, flaring, chipping, etc. to no end. I was willing to except it as growing out her hoof (as I had recently acquired her and we were working on getting a better foot on her) but we did wind up putting shoes on her-- front only. She had gotten to the point were she was dead lame and I was trying to get her started under saddle and we kept having to stop with her... Anyway, the shoes were only on for two visits before they came off for the winter and she had no further problems. Until recently. She was just trimmed about two weeks ago, same as she always is, and I started to notice flares and chips in her hooves. She now has a crack in each front hoof-- nearly to the sole on the left, and is off-- not noticably like before but off. The thing with her cracks are they crack at a flare point so the wall is actually being "pulled" from the laminae, obviously causing the soreness... The only thing we've been able to come up with is that the ground is so hard in the summer time and she stomps flies and bugs to no end that her walls can't take it. We originally thought to try to toughen her feet with turpentine but now I'm wondering if I don't want to soften her feet so they have a bit more give. Her hooves are currently rock solid (including the frog, which I'm working on softening). My question is then if anyone has any advice on this matter and if I should be softening her entire foot, what is the best product you've found? If I soak her feet every day will that help? Should I be packing them with a mud product? Will a general hoof moistener get the job done? Thanks for any and all help! And I don't know if this info is relavent but my farrier trims her "the natural-- four-point-- way" and she is a Friesian/TB-- all Friesian except her sensitive TB skin; Friesian size, bone, and feet- dinner plate size, a racing plate size 4 or 5, I can't remember, fit completely inside (outside rim to inside rim) the shoes I put on her last year! Thanks again for your help!