Horse Hoof Health: A Necessity For Your Horse

Posted on 14. Dec, 2008 by in Horse Hoof Health

The most neglected part of the horse body is its hooves. Healthy hooves help in maintaining the strength and flexibility of your horse. Horse hoof health needs to be maintained by taking good care of the hooves, which is important for the horses as it helps them to give better performance and superb stability. Proper care of the hooves should be made a regular practice in your horse management. Proper maintenance of horse hoof health can reduce exhaustion, discomfort, lameness and a bunch of other diseases.

Horse hoof health can be assured by taking care of the hooves with the various procedures that should be applied from time to time. The different procedures are cleaning, trimming, hooves angling and treatment.

Cleaning

It is very important to clean the hooves regularly because some stone particles and small objects can be wedged in the hoof of the horse and can result in some disease. Thrush is a situation where some bacterial organism infiltrates into the frog. These organisms start some diseased reactions and this leads to lameness which tends to be a serious disease. So it is necessary to clean the hooves regularly using hoof pick or fine bristle brushes. Proper cleaning is an absolute necessity for ensuring proper horse hoof health in horses.

Trimming

Trimming is one of the important procedures that help to take proper care of horse hoof health. Trimming is not needed as repeatedly as cleaning, but it is equally important as cleaning. Hooves are like our nail which keeps on regenerating of its own, so trimming them can keep them in shape and proper length. Equal length should be maintained between inside and outside of the hoof walls. Nippers and rasper help in trimming. Trimming should be done carefully so that the hoofs can be prevented from developing cracks and suffering bad horse hoof health. Fragmenting and peeling of hooves can be prevented by rounding the hoof rim. The frog portions should also be trimmed to remove the dead and flaked skin.

Hooves angling

There is a particular angle that should be maintained between the hooves and ground and the process of doing this is known as hoof angling. Normally the hoof wall overlaps the shoe as the hoof grows bigger, so it is necessary to maintain their appropriate angle. Angling also prevents cracks and wear and tear of the hooves and thus ensures good horse hoof health.

Treatment

This is obvious that during nailing and some of these procedures, some severe injuries can take place, you have to treat these injuries medically to maintain fine horse hoof health. Usually during nailing attention is required or you can prick the nail too deep into the hooves, which can cause lameness. You should give suitable medical attention to your horse.

These are some of the procedures that can help in maintaining proper horse hoof health.

Horse Feet: Importance Of Taking Good Care Of Them

Posted on 14. Dec, 2008 by in Horse Hoof Health

One of the toughest jobs for the horse owner is to take care of the overall health of the horse. Supervision of horses does not just constitute their health problems, as you also have to pay attention to the overall body of the horse. Horse feet are one of the important parts which have to be maintained by the horse owners. Lack of proper care of the horse feet can lead to lameness.

Horse feet care is an absolute necessity as it helps the horse in ensuring proper performance and better career. For proper care of the feet of the horses, you have to know and learn the basic formation and function of horse foot and all its parts. Normally horse feet are divided into external and internal foot structure. The external foot structure consists of four parts namely, coronet, hoof wall, frog and sole. And the internal foot structure also consists of four parts namely, plantar cushion, coffin bone, sensitive laminae and navicular bone.

Horse feet care consists of some of the important processes that have to be performed on a regular basis.

Routine care is a process where you have to maintain clean and clear feet in your horses. Normally some unwanted organisms capable of spreading diseases concentrate in the horse feet. The diseased bacteria accumulate in the frog region and produces stinking odor and this gradually results in lameness. In such cases hoof picks or fine wired brush is used to clean the area.

Moisture should be maintained in horse feet as it leads to sustain flexibility and avoid cracks in the hoof. Intense wet circumstances can lead to dryness and the natural oils and protective films present in the lower foot region can corrode from regular contact with exterior moisture. So you should dress the hoof applying animal fat or lanolin in the base.

Trimming is very important technique to hold proper shape and size of horse feet. It should be done frequently on regular intervals. Nippers and rasp are basically used for trimming. Trimming is done to keep the pressure on the hoof wall and to remove dead tissue from the sole.

You should also maintain proper angle between the hoof wall and the ground in order to prevent lameness of the horse feet.

When you are nailing the horse shoe be attentive and take care that the nail should not prick the horse feet as this will cause severe injuries and can result in lameness.

Cleanliness, promptness, frequency and utilize of correct remedial measures are some of the most important features of high-quality horse feet care