Hoof Boot Advice

Jenny Edwards at www.all-natural-horse-care.com has some really great barefoot and natural hoof care information. There are pictures and diagrams to help you with knowing all the different parts of a hoof. Knowing about your horses hooves and how they should look (which is usually very different to the hooves we are used to seeing shod!) is very important for any horse owner, as the horses hooves are your responsibility. As with anything, just becasue you are paying someone for a professional service does not mean you should not question it if you are unsure or unhappy about their work. The more you know about your horses hooves, the better you will be able to help your horse and your farrier or trimmer by understanding what they tell you about maintainence or special treatments you need to do between professional trims. Once of the wonderful (and scary at first!) things about taking your horse barefoot is the sense of responsibility you feel for your horses hooves. In reality this shoudl be felt by every horse owner, but we tend to be brough up around horses accepting that a 'farrier looks after the hooves' yet how can someone who is only paid to visit once evrery 6 weeks really be held responsible if the hoof deteriorates (unless it is due to the shoeing method of course!)? Bare hooves allow you to see exactly what is happening to the hoof, no shoe to cover up white line disease or grit in the white line for example. Well kept bare hooves are not only a joy to look at, but very low mainainence, no worries about wet and dry hooves cracking around nail holes, lost shoes or lameness due to thrush or white line issues so a little knowledge is a valuable thing!


Barefoot HoofBelow are some barefoot hoof diagrams to give you an idea of what the shape of the "ideal" hoof should look like. The parts of the hoof are labeled for reference.
Note: Healthy hooves can vary depending on the environment the horse is living in and the terrain they regularly encounter.

Sole View of a Front Hoof

Note the following points

• Wide, fat frog.
• Tight white line.
• Strong, thick hoof walls - with the inner wall being thicker.
• Bars end approximately halfway down the frog.
• The heel buttresses are back towards the rear of the frog.
• The hoof ratio is 65:35 (from the rear of the hoof to the widest point; and from the widest point to the break over).

Sole View of Rear Hoof

The rear hoof is more oblong in shape and has a slightly pointed toe compared to the front hoof. This is because the rear hooves are used to propel the horse forward and so the point helps the hoof dig into the ground to provide more push.

Side View of the Hoof

Weightbearing - The True Role of the Wall And SoleContrary to popular belief, the hoof wall should not be the only structure to bear the weight of the horse. This is called peripheral loading and it puts way too much stress on the laminar connection and has a dramatic effect on the blood supply to the hoof. Dr Robert Bowker VMD, PhD recently did research on this and found that on a:

• Correctly trimmed Bare foot: blood flow continues between heartbeats
• Shod foot: blood stops between heartbeats and blood does not reach small blood vessels.
• Laminitic foot: blood stops and backs up between heartbeats

The diagrams below show how the hoof should be trimmed (images on right hand side of box) so that both the wall and the sole bear weight.



 
The use of EasyCare Comfort Pads in your EasyCare boots will ensure that the hooves are not being peripheral loaded. Easycare hoof pads come in three densities...soft (green), medium (black) and firm (red). The thicknesses are 12mm (1/2") or 6mm (1/4"). The Easyboot Glove boots will only accomodate the 6mm pads so the close fit is not compromised. Medium is the usual density recommended, soft are good for sore horses and hard for hooves that need lifting in the boots.