Maple Mountain Miniatures Star News

One of the most important jobs you have as a horse owner is keeping your horses feet picked out. It is recommended that this be done daily but in all reality that probably won’t happen unless you only have one horse and/or you are a very conscientious horse owner. As long as you keep a close eye on your horses, for any indications of lameness or faulty gaits, picking them out once a week or so will suffice. When you do pick out your horse’s feet do a thorough job of it. This is a good opportunity for you to inspect their feet for signs of trouble but, unless you do a thorough job, you won’t be able to see much. Insert the hoofpick into the clefts of the frog and pick from heel to toe. Don’t be afraid to use a little force, their feet are pretty tough. You can use the hoofpick to scrape off any loose dead sole or frog as seen in the photo on the right.

How often should your horse’s feet be trimmed? The average mature horse kept stalled for all or part of the day should have his feet trimmed approximately every 6 to 8 weeks depending on rate of growth and amount of exercise. If it is a show animal you will likely want him trimmed within the week before your show to ensure he will stand his best. Don’t leave it to the day before the show because sure as heck that will be the time the farrier nips him a bit short and makes him tender.  Give him at least a couple of days to recuperate should that happen.

Foals need frequent trimming as often as monthly in their first year. This is extremely important as this is a time of rapid growth when he is forming the conformation that will last him his lifetime. A Miniature Horse foals’ light weight seems to, in my opinion, predispose him to certain conditions such as contracted heels and steep angles. Left to self trim, they don’t. If you don’t keep them properly balanced during the first year their legs won’t develop correctly. Just for example: too long heels can cause them to be over at the knee and too long toes can put them down on their fetlocks or make them coonfooted.

Broodmares with good conformation and left out on pasture with good ground can often be trimmed twice yearly and be fine. You do need to keep an eye on them though.

Things to watch for are cracks, chips, bad angles and uneven wear which can often be seen from a distance in faulty gaits or an unusual stance. Get in the habit of really looking at your horses.

This is an example of a horse with very balanced hoof conformation that is self trimming. Notice that both quarters (indicated by the black arrows) have chunked out evenly and the toe, if left, will soon follow. Unfortunately this horse was left with too long a toe and not enough heel, as seen by the bulge at the red arrow, approximately 6 to 8 months ago according to the amount of growth seen above the bulge. This is an area of laminae separation due to the pressure on the hoof by the overly long toe. The flare immediately below the bulge will be trimmed off at this time and the hoof will have  pretty much repaired itself putting him back on a correct angle.

These are 2 examples of bad angles – too long in the toe. Both of these horses are in need of a trim and could, if left, develop the same bulge you saw on the last slide. They are both also becoming underrun in the heel which will be corrected once the toe in front of the green lines is removed.

This is the condition I see most often in Minis - a high heel and steep hoof angle. Some people say it is because their farrier trims them like ponies. I don’t like to see this in ponies either. It is my opinion that this is the result of lack of proper trimming as foals for both Minis and ponies. The light weight of the foals contributes to this.

The long heel causes the cushion of the sole to draw up and the frog to lose contact with the ground which creates a lack of circulation which causes the heel to contract, the frog to shrivel, the sides to flare and the clefts to become deep.

The lack of shock absorption causes the horse pain in his heels so he walks on the toe which allows the heel to grow even more.

The coffin bone may rotate slightly to compensate for the angle and once that happens it can’t go back.

This condition can take years to repair if it has been left for any length of time. This is not an easy fix but it is easily prevented by sustaining correctly balanced feet with proper farrier care.

Although horses may occasionally be born with a club foot it is often caused by poor or infrequent trimming as a foal.  A grazing horse often assumes a position with one foot out in front and the other back. The foot out front tends to flare forward in growth and the foot held back tends towards a stubby toe and long heel. Just like us they are left or right handed and tend to use the same foot each time. Routine trimming will prevent the foot from becoming unbalanced. If left unbalanced the tendons and ligaments will be permanently formed in that position creating the club foot. The foot on the right has had the flares on the quarters rasped away already and now needs to be trimmed for correct length and angle which will likely take several trims to achieve.

This is not a particularly good example of a bad crack. This horse is just in the midst of preparing to self trim the quarters. However looking at the bottom of the foot we can see that the hoof is slightly unbalanced which has caused the heel to collapse (pink arrow on the right photo) and is causing the hoof to flare slightly below the pink arrow on the left photo. You can see the frog is just starting to collapse and this horse needs trimmed now or it could become a bad crack. Cracks are a bad thing if they extend up into the sensitive tissues. I don’t see a lot of bad cracks on Miniature hooves as they just don’t seem to have the weight to cause them a problem that way. On the other hand bad cracks are often seen on draft horses.

The hoof in the left hand photo shows a very unbalanced condition. The frog is sliding to the right. The heels are contracted and have sheared or slid sideways with the frog – see how they are not even with each other. The bars have grown overly long as seen by the pink arrow. The main artery that feeds blood to the frog is at the base of the bars. Overgrown bars pinch off the artery and constrict the flow of blood to the frog causing it to become small and dry instead of wide and leathery tough. This is when the frog quite often drops out in one chunk. The heel has collapsed on one side indicated by the blue arrow. This hoof is in bad shape and needs farrier care desperately to prevent this horse from becoming lame if he isn’t already.

The hoof in the photo on the right is the same well balanced hoof you saw earlier. Notice the wide spread heels giving good support to the foot and the nice round shape compared to the oval shape of the foot to the left. Even this much healthier looking frog is starting to slide over as it has overgrown and not been worn down. Caught now it can easily be repaired – I scraped off the excess with my hoofpick. This foot should have been trimmed perhaps a week or two ago to keep it in perfect balance but has not likely been damaged by waiting as it is so well balanced.

Founder has many causes – overwork, overfeeding, foaling, etc. Laminitis is inflammation or separation of the sensitive laminae which can be caused by hoof imbalance or flaring. Left untreated it can result in founder or rotation of the coffin bone and perhaps separation of the sole from the hoof wall. This is a serious and sometimes chronic condition that requires frequent and good farrier care. This horse has not had good care although it has been seen by a farrier regularly. Horses with founder tend to put their weight on their heels which causes a massive flare in the toe as can be seen by the amount of toe in front of the green line.  This is a very difficult trim as the foot becomes quite thick and tough to cut through. When you look at the sole of a foundered foot it quite often resembles a block of wood. As a matter of fact, I used a hack saw to remove the toe you can see has been removed here. There is still quite a bit of toe left to remove. A lot of farriers just can’t be bothered – you need to make them bother.

Flares in the hoof wall create stress which causes the laminae to stretch and tear away from the hoof wall allowing bacteria to penetrate the inner structures quite possibly resulting in conditions such as seedy toe or white line disease.

Once the laminae have separated they cannot be repaired and must re-grow from the coronet band.

Flares can be caused by excessive growth, lack of farrier care, unbalanced hooves, or a laminitic attack caused by an injury or other troubles as I mentioned earlier.

Flares must be removed ASAP by rasping or the laminae cannot repair themselves and the damage will continue. You don’t need to be overly concerned about damaging the periople, or thin varnish-like coating which protects the hoof from moisture damage, as most flares are towards the bottom of the hoof where the periople is almost non-existent anyway.

This is the same horse you saw earlier after his second trim. Each time more of the flare has been removed by trimming and rasping the hoof wall. There is only about half of the flare left in front of the green line and that will be trimmed off the next time he is seen by the farrier. You can see the new hoof growing in is on a much better angle above the pink arrow. This horse will have a relatively normal looking hoof after his next trim and is already much more sound and comfortable than he was.

This diagram shows you how the hoof is put under stress by an overly long toe which, rather than allowing the horse to easily breakover in his stride, is pushed up against by the ground creating a flare and causing the laminae to tear away from the wall. If you run your fingers over the hoof wall you can feel a flare wherever it occurs. These flares must be rasped away to correct the angle and allow the hoof to re-grow at the correct angle which will be seen coming from the coronet band.

If you can do this with your horse’s foot after your farrier leaves you should be happy! A line drawn down the center of the cannon from the front should intersect the middle of the hoof. Lines drawn down the sides of the fetlock should match the angle of the side walls of the hoof and should be equal distance apart. A line drawn down the middle of the cannon bone from the side should at least meet or intersect the back of the heel. A line matching the angle of the fetlock from the side should match or be slightly less steep than the angle of the hoof wall – somewhere in the 45 to 55 degree range for a front foot and a little steeper for the back feet.

We have taken the horse out of his natural environment and prevented him from taking care of his own feet. As we have chosen to do this it is up to us to look after his feet for him.  A horse left to his own devices travels up to 30 miles over hard ground daily keeping his feet in good condition with plenty of circulation. You are responsible for your horse’s feet – don’t let him down and don’t allow your farrier to fail him!

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