Here at Sound Advice we are obsessed with hoof health and have spent almost 20 years making products to help horse owners take control of their horses' hoof condition.
Beat Seedy Toe with Easy Squeezy Go Easy Seedy toe is opportunistic fungal or bacterial infection forming in the white line of the hoof, inside the hoof wall, causing the hoof to crack and crumble. One theory is that seedy toe is a method for wild horses to detach excess hoof wall in wet or swampy situations where there are no rocks allowing the wall to chip away. In most relatively healthy hooves, the infection will remain in the 'dead' part of the wall, and not progress up inside healthy tissue. However, in unhealthy hooves, a portion may need to be resected by your farrier. You can help to avoid seedy toe with regular trims, a diet that supports healthy hoof growth and frequent cleaning of your horse's hooves. Farriers have long used bluestone to combat seedy toe. We have made this easier for horse owners to administer themselves with our 'Go Easy' topical treatment in an easy squeeze bottle, meaning you can apply it exactly where it needs to go without getting copper sulfate on your hands. Simply scrape out the cavity with your hoof pick and apply Go Easy into the space. Go Easy also includes tea tree oil - a mix we find stays in place much better than preparations made with bees wax that tend to fall out.
Manage Sand Cracks with Cooking Oil
Something you might already have at home can help you combat sand cracks - coconut oil or other cooking oils. If your horse has sand cracks, we would encourage you to regularly apply a conditioner to your horse's hooves.
You can get oils in a spray can in the cooking oil aisle of the supermarket. We prefer coconut oil, but other oils can help too. We have found even infrequent application of a conditioner can significantly help to reduce sand cracks.
In the picture below we have made a number of changes to this filly's husbandry (regular trims, diet - as well as applying a conditioner to the hooves), but you can see that the quality of a horse's hooves is in your control - even crappy thoroughbred hooves!
Supplementing Biotin The best way to improve hoof quality is to provide your horse with the building blocks of hoof growth through nutrition. Biotin plays a crucial role in the production of keratin, a protein that forms the primary structural component of the hoof. Sound Advice Biotin Trace Mix is the most palatable of our Trace Mixes, making it best suited to fussy eaters. This supplement is still $30/kg. See the coupon code at the below for a discount on Biotin Trace. You can read more about biotin for hoof growth here.
Battling Thrush the Easy Way Hoof thrush is no joke. Over the years we have worked with many horses that were diagnosed with 'navicular syndrome' that actually had thrush deep inside the frog, causing chronic lameness. Good to Go Hoof Powder is a product we designed almost fifteen years ago in consultation with our hoof care clients. We were looking for a treatment that our clients would actually administer between visits, which was easy to use, and not messy or dangerous to apply. We made four different 'recipes' for this product, which we marked 1, 2, 3, 4, and we asked horse owners to apply these to each of their horse's hooves and record their results. The winning formula is our Good to Go Powder, which we make by hand here in the Hunter Valley. Good to Go is an easy and quick way for horse owners to battle thrush. You simply clean out your horse's hooves and sprinkle Good to Go around the frog. You can work the powder into the crevices with the brush part of your hoof pick. It's also great to use with hoof boots. A little bit goes a long way and one bottle may last you for a year or more, making it very cost effective.
Looking for other treatments? One of Our Most Popular Blog Posts is: 5 Ways to Combat Hoof Thrush with Household Products
Equine Science - Club Feet Many, many horse have uneven hooves to various degrees. This is usually most noticeable in the front, and usually the right hoof is more upright than the left. This is rarely a hoof problem, and usually much more to do with uneven stride-length coming from somewhere else in the body. One consideration is birth trauma. Most horses are born as per the picture below with the widest part - wither-to-girth - having to squeeze between the mare's pelvis. According to Dr Ian Bidstrup (visit his website thespinalvet.com.au) Birth trauma occurs because of the enormous pressure exerted upon the foal as it passes through the birth canal. While the skeletal frame of an unborn foal is supple and designed to withstand the journey of birth, it is well- recognised that virtually all foals undergo some damage during transit through the birth canal. This means most foals have uneven strides from day one. An article below by Pete Ramey will give you more information on other culprits of uneven strides. The important take-home is that when we're trimming a horse with club feet, we're not trying to make them look the same, but considering the mechanics of each individual hoof, meanwhile working with your osteopath, dentist or other equine professional to address the cause.