Splits in Barefoot Hoof Walls
I receive many, many questions via email. This is a recent question I received and I have included it here along with my answers. It is a dilemma I think many of us would feel in the early stage of keeping and riding a horse barefoot.
The Question
My horse has been barefoot for about 2 and half years. His hooves grow very slowly.
He seems to have developed a split between the outer cuticle and the inner plate on one side of one hoof. He had his feet trimmed a week ago. The split is very narrow, but goes up about 1 cm between the layers. (I hope you can understand where I mean)
Not sure if it is a problem or not.
Obviously I need to make sure stones and things are not stuck in it. Not sure whether we should continue to ride him or leave it until it grows out. (Unfortunately most of our riding involves tarmac roads as we do not have much in the way of off road available).
My Answer
Yes I understand fully your concerns and your dilemma.
The best thing for your horse is movement. It is movement which will stimulate the hoof and increase the growth. This movement is fundamental to the health of the hoof so it would be a pity if you had to stop exercising him altogether. So although you may be protecting the hoof from further splitting by not exercising, you are then also not stimulating the growth of the hoof. Hence your dilemma.
What I suggest you do is keep a careful eye on it, keep exercising normally, but keep the mustang roll on the hoof. By this I mean don’t let the outside wall get long and weight bear, as if you do, this is what will then increase the split. This is very important.
A comparison which is similar to this is if you have a split nail if you keep it filed, trimmed and short it will heal quickly, if you were to leave it long the split would get worse.
If you rely on a barefoot trimmer to do this the problem will be that they are unlikely to be seeing you every 1-2 weeks and with this type of barefoot hoof wall split, one is better to continually smooth the outer wall and maintain the mustang roll very frequently. In other words little and often trimming.
This will be the best way to help prevent the split from getting worse.
Are you able to do this? In other words are you able to use a rasp and keep the toe wall trimmed short with a mustang roll on the edge?
To do this the minimum kit you you will need will be a rasp and a good pair of gloves. If you have a hoof stand as well this will make it much easier for you.
How to Prevent Hoof Wall Splits
The other thing to note is that one gets splits in the outside hoof wall if the hoof is not trimmed frequently enough and kept tight and short. If the outside hoof wall is left too long it becomes weight bearing and starts to split and tear away from the hoof capsule.
How often are the hooves trimmed? Most hooves need to be trimmed little and often. I am lazy as I trim every 2 weeks not every week. You can leave then for 3 weeks but anything longer than this is going to make it very difficult for you to maintain a healthy hoof.
This is not something even barefoot trimmers will tell you if they are trimming for you regularly as they will be doing themselves out of work if you get too good!
And the Tarmac Problem
“Unfortunately most of our riding involves tarmac roads as we do not have much in the way of off road available.”
My Reply here is:-
Riding on tarmac is one of the easiest and best ways to stimulate a hoof.
A barefoot horse has a very much better footing on tarmac than a shod horse and the tarmac roads will stimulate the hoof which is what is so desperately needed but it is unlikely to wear the hoof down enough to cause any problem.
Hacking out on roads has really helped us develop our horses hooves.
But if you are concerned just monitor, watch and assess the hooves. We have found if we hack them out on roads there is less for me to trim!
Let me know if this makes sense, if it does not and you need more help as to how to go about this get back to me.
PS
I am still frantically writing and editing our barefoot trimming eBook whch will be ready for you all soon…!
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Thanks for making my morning a little bit better with this great article!!
This blog has so much good information in it that i could spend all week reading it.
Thank you for your lovely comments. It is comments like yours that inspire me to carry on sharing on this site all that we have learnt .
Thank you Carpet Beetle – so pleased you found us. If we can be of any help you know where we are!