Horse Hoof Health

Content

Intro

1. Hooves are dynamic, living, changing structures
2. So what actually builds a hoof?
3. Hooves need nutrients – but forage doesn't come with a fixed nutrition label
4. Maisie's hooves told the story perfectly
5. And what about biotin?
6. And what about B6, P5P, and KPU?
7. And then there are abscesses
8. Diet still matters enormously
9. Where EquiNatural fits
10. So what do healthy hooves really need?

Sub-Chapters

1. Barefoot
2. Laminitis
   

This was one of the big lessons from my own horses.

Grass isn't nutritionally identical from one field to another, and hay isn't simply “dried grass with all the same numbers”. Forage nutrient content varies with soil, plant species, maturity, season, harvesting and storage. That's why forage analysis is so useful when a ration needs balancing properly.

Some nutrients also change considerably between fresh growing forage and stored hay. Vitamin E, for example, is abundant in fresh green forage but declines during storage.

Then we have the horse. A growing youngster, a working horse, a metabolic native on restricted grazing and an elderly retiree don't necessarily have identical nutritional requirements. So while I've become less soap-boxy over the years and moved a long way from trying to declare that every UK horse is deficient in precisely the same things, I haven't moved from this:

~ If the forage-based diet isn't supplying what the horse needs, the gaps need filling appropriately.

For many horses, that's where a well-formulated vitamin/mineral or forage balancer earns its keep. And it's why EquiVita and VitaComplete have always sat right at the foundations of the EquiNatural range rather than being glamorous optional extras.

Maisie's hooves told the story perfectly

Maisie was an adorable little pony who came into a new home after serious neglect during the winter of 2017/18. We were involved in supporting her nutritional recovery, and her owner kindly allowed us to document what happened. Her hooves were one of the most visible parts of that recovery.

In the photograph above, you can see a very distinct change in the hoof growing down from the coronet – a tighter, stronger-looking new capsule above the older damaged horn. And as that new hoof grew down, the hoof:pastern angle changed and the toe became shorter, giving the foot a very different shape.

Her whole situation changed – nutrition, care, management and everything else that comes with recovering a neglected pony - and her hoof gave us a wonderful visual record of that change. And that's one of the things I still love about feet - you can literally watch a healthier hoof being grown. Not painted on or patched over - grown.

And what about biotin?

We can't talk about hoof nutrition without mentioning biotin, because it's probably the best-known ingredient in traditional hoof supplements.

Biotin is a B vitamin involved in normal cell function and keratin formation, and there is some equine research showing that long-term supplementation can improve hoof horn quality in horses that already have poor-quality feet.

But that doesn't mean poor hoof = biotin deficiency.

Horses obtain biotin from the diet and microbial synthesis within the hindgut, and a specific dietary biotin requirement hasn't been established for the horse. Nor do we have evidence that every horse with brittle, cracked or slow-growing feet needs additional biotin.

The supplementation studies are interesting rather than irrelevant – some horses with poor-quality horn clearly appeared to respond – but improvements took many months, and the studies don't establish biotin as the missing piece behind poor hooves generally.

So I always start with the Carol principle: What does the whole diet look like? Is there enough quality protein? Are the essential amino acids covered? Are copper and zinc appropriately balanced? What about essential fatty acids and the wider vitamin and mineral picture? And importantly, is there something metabolic, mechanical or environmental going on that nutrition alone isn't going to fix?

Because a hoof isn't made from biotin - far from it. It's an enormously complex living structure built from the whole nutritional picture – and that's still where I'd rather start, because we're growing a hoof. And we can't feed something on Monday and expect a new foot by Friday.

What about B6, P5P and KPU?

Those who've read our KPU page will know why this found its way onto the original Hoof page.

Through my studies with Dr Christina Fritz, I became interested in a proposed pattern connecting hindgut disruption, altered B-vitamin metabolism – particularly B6/P5P – and a much wider collection of apparently unrelated signs, including poor hoof quality and repeated abscessing.

I still find the pattern interesting. But five years after studing with Dr Fritz, KPU is still not a validated veterinary diagnosis in horses, and the proposed chain from hindgut dysbiosis → impaired P5P → wider metabolic problems → poor feet hasn't been demonstrated in horses as established fact.

So these days I wouldn't look at a crumbling hoof and declare KPU. Again I'd look at the horse - what are they eating? Are their nutritional requirements being met? Any metabolic concerns? How's the gut? Any skin, coat, immune or digestive patterns elsewhere? Is the hoof problem one isolated issue, or one part of a horse who seems to have several things going on at once?

If it's the latter, our updated KPU page explains why we still consider that wider pattern – without pretending that the name itself is a diagnosis.

And then there are abscesses

Anyone who's had a horse suddenly become dramatically non-weight-bearing will know the awful what on earth have they done? feeling.

A hoof abscess is a pocket of infection inside the hoof capsule. And because the hard capsule doesn't give much room for swelling, pressure builds inside sensitive tissues – hence the sometimes spectacular level of pain.

A hot hoof, stronger digital pulse and sudden severe lameness can point towards an abscess, but they aren't enough to diagnose one safely - because laminitis and injuries to deeper structures can produce serious lameness too. So particularly with a first episode, severe lameness or anything that doesn't behave as expected, get your vet/farrier/trimmer involved rather than assuming it's only an abscess.

Most straightforward hoof abscesses begin when bacteria gain access through a defect or injury in the hoof capsule – perhaps a small crack or white-line separation, a puncture, bruising or another area where the barrier has been compromised. Wet conditions and large wet-to-dry changes can also affect the horn and create opportunities for bacterial entry.

But why repeat abscessing?

Now this is a much more interesting question. Repeated abscesses don't automatically mean a weak immune system until I've looked at the foot itself - hoof capsule, soles, WLD, previous laminitis, repeated bruising, persistent wet conditions - and if the same area of the same foot is repeatedly involved.

If all clear then I'd widen my approach to immunity, with repeat abscessing also linked to the KPU spectrum. But sometimes a hole in the hoof really is a hole in the hoof - and sometimes repeated holes are telling us to look further.

Diet still matters enormously

If you've just arrived here from our Feed Your Horse Like a Horse page, you'll already know where I've landed after twenty years of feeding soapboxes. I'm not here to formulate everybody's ration anymore, nor have I reached the conclusion that anything goes - far from it. The hoof is being built from nutrients supplied by the diet.

So I still start with forage and fibre, then ask whether the whole feed programme actually meets the horse's needs - adequate quality protein, are the essential amino acids covered, vitamins and minerals appropriately balanced, access to salt, restricted grazing or stored forage - and if there's a metabolic horse attached to those feet, are we managing the metabolic picture too?

And if the diet needs properly balancing rather than guessing at it, that's when forage analysis and a good equine nutritionist become rather more useful than another tub labelled Hoof Miracle Something-or-Other.

Where EquiNatural fits

For us, hoof support starts with the foundations. EquiVita and VitaComplete are our forage-based nutritional foundation balancers, designed to provide the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that may need topping up alongside the horse's forage diet. And where additional protein support is needed, EssentialAminos supplies the nine essential amino acids.

And where poor hoof quality is appearing alongside a much broader pattern of gut, skin, immune or metabolic oddities, that's where I'd stop staring solely at the foot and start looking at the whole horse. Not because every bad hoof needs another supplement - quite the opposite - because sometimes the hoof is simply the bit we can see.

So, what do healthy hooves really need?

No single powder grows a perfect foot. Healthy hooves sit at the meeting point of:

• appropriate nutrition – enough protein, amino acids, vitamins and correctly balanced minerals;
• metabolic health – particularly important where grass sensitivity, insulin dysregulation or laminitis are part of the picture;
• movement and circulation – the hoof is designed to load, flex and move;
• good hoof care – whether that's trimming, shoeing or a combination that suits the individual horse;
• environment – footing, moisture and repeated wet/dry cycles all affect the hoof capsule;
• and, inevitably, the horse standing above the feet.

That's the bit my barefoot rabbit hole taught me all those years ago. I went looking for a better hoof for Kelso - but ended up learning to look at the whole horse. And whether they're shod, barefoot, booted or wearing the equine equivalent of Jimmy Choos, I still come back to the same thing - grow the best hoof you can from the inside, manage it well from the outside, and listen to what your horse is telling you. 

A hoof doesn't have to be barefoot to tell a story. 😉

Finally ...

There's a brilliant video on FB which shows just how awesome hooves are - I don't know how long this link will be available, but here it is for now: https://www.facebook.com/alHHHC/videos/846776945485820/ 

It's only 20-minutes long-ish, but within just the first 5-minutes you'll be amazed - it's almost painful to see the immense force on the hoof and pastern area in a galloping horse!