As I mentioned in an earlier post, I pulled Freedom’s glue-on shoes a few weeks ago because access to my farrier will be limited until the shelter-at-home restrictions are banned.
So far, the weather has been good for tender hooves (rainy) and not so great for riding. What’s important now is to give Freedom the best chance to grow enough hoof to recover once he can have shoes again.
Hoof quality is the result of a number of factors:
- Genetics – (let’s face it, Thoroughbreds are bred for speed, not for great feet)
- Environment – conditions that are extremely dry will cause a hoof to shrink and harden; wet conditions will cause the hoof to weaken and spread
- Movement – walking stimulates blood flow within the hooves, which brings in nutrients and increases metabolic activity in the foot
- Farrier care – An unbalanced hoof can start to distort and create separation of the wall from the sole and allow for bacterial / fungal invasion.
- Diet – proper nutrition and micronutrients can support better or faster hoof growth.
By managing the factors you can control, you can help your horse develop the best hooves they can, although you have to remember that any changes will take many months to take effect: a mature horse’s hooves grow only 0.25″ to 0.5″ per month.
Nutrition for Hoof Growth
A balanced diet is a good start for healthy hooves. But there are certain minerals and micronutrients that also have been shown to have benefit:
- Zinc can be important to the keratinization of the hoof. A study done by Harrington, Walsh & White showed that insufficient hoof horn strength and had less zinc in the hoof horn and plasma than horses with no hoof horn damage.
- Calcium and phosphorus, and the ratio of one to the other, also has an impact on hoof development. Calcium is needed for cell-to-cell attachment in the hoof horn and in the metabolism of the intercellular lipids. Calcium deficiency is often a result of diets high in bran and results in weak, crumbly hoof horn. Excess phosphorus can block the absorption of calcium from the small intestine, which ultimately can cause weak bones and affect cell-to-cell attachment.
- Selenium is important as an antioxidant for the protection of cellular membranes. Too much selenium in the diet can lead to the substitution of sulfur in the keratin fibers with selenium, which causes poor structural integrity. Chronic selenium toxicity can result in hair loss, coronitis, and bleeding of the coronary band as well as sloughing of the hoof and even laminitis.
- Sulfur: While sulfur can help hoof growth (think methionine) excess sulfur interferes with copper metabolism and can lead to weak connective tissue structure and poor hoof quality.
- Vitamin A deficiency can cause fragile hoof walls.
- Biotin is probably the most investigated and well-known vitamin related to hoof growth that increases tensile strength, hardness and growth rate. It is usually fed in conjunction with methionine and lysine.
What has worked for you?