Heads up: Checked a barn in Lexington last week and found 3 horses with cracked hooves from bad winter shoeing

3 comments

3 Comments

Had a similar issue a few winters back with my gelding after the farrier left the shoes on a bit too long. Switched to a hoof supplement with biotin and kept him on softer footing until the cracks grew out, took a few months. Definitely worth checking if moisture was trapped under the shoes too, that can make things worse fast.

anthony_campbell881mo ago

My farrier charges less than the others around here so I used to let little things slide too, but after a bad crack two winters ago I learned the hard way that saving twenty bucks isn't worth a lame horse for months. What gets me is how easy it is to ignore small problems until they turn into big ones, kind of like how I put off checking my truck's tire pressure until I got a flat on the highway last fall. It's the same pattern everywhere, you skip one maintenance thing and then you're dealing with a mess that takes way longer to fix than it would have to just stay on top of it. I've started marking my calendar for farrier visits six months out now, same as I do for oil changes, seems like the only way to keep from forgetting.

faith_thomas1mo ago

Left the shoes on a bit too long" yeah that's exactly what happened with my mare a couple years ago. My farrier got backed up and I didn't notice until her front hooves started splitting near the nail holes. I ended up pulling the shoes myself and just kept her barefoot for like 4 months while I waited for new growth. The biotin supplements definitely helped but honestly just giving them time off from shoes seemed to do the most good. Now I'm paranoid about checking dates on my farrier's schedule way ahead of winter.