Calling all hoof experts!

[DixyDoodle]

Putting a horizontal nick above a hoof crack. Ever heard of it?

My QH mare had a minor vertical crack in the very front of her front toe. The farrier trimmed her as usual and then used his rasp (he said, "let's try this")to indent a horizontal line (maybe a 1/4 " deep) above the crack. I assume he did this thinking it would stop the crack from elongating.

NOW I come out to the barn today and from what it appears, the crack did reach the horizontal indent, and caused a big chunk of her toe to break off, leaving this squared-off, upside down U shape. Said chunk being about an inch or more square.

I am of course livid. I can actually see the inner hoof behind where the chunk was initially covering. It looks horrible! So now instead of a little outer crack, I have this huge ugly chunk to look at. It will likely take a good 4 months or more to grow it out.

What do you think? Has he affected the integrity of her hoof? I am afraid that maybe the corners of the bottom of this hoof area will also now break off. I'm worried it will make her lame.

Is this a typical thing that farriers do? Or was he "experimenting" with my horse?

He is due to come out in a week, but I'm not sure I'm going to use him again. I have only used him a few times, but after this....uhhh, don't know. Not only that, almost ALL the horses hooves are rough and ragged looking at 6 weeks after a trim (I hate to blame him for that BUT the other farrier's trims never ended up doing that----it could also maybe be the weather?), and last time, I noticed a few of my horse's hooves were not all trimmed evenly, with a few hooves being left too long in the toe, and some seemed shorter than others. Not that I'm an expert, but it didn't look that great, either.

Opinions?

I will try to get a pic of it for tomorrow.

[fetch33]

I have heard of that being done. I have also heard of embedding a chunk of metal above the crack instead of filing a line in the hoof. Here is a great website for cracks...http://www.quartercrack.com/

[SFM in KY]

Pretty common thing on ranch horses, especially those that are not used enough to need to be shod. I can remember my Dad doing that with one of the horses we used to have that didn't have great feet but we weren't doing enough riding by that time to keep shoes on him.

I've done it myself on a couple of my broodmares over the years as well.

[DixyDoodle]

What do you think, though, when the hoof chunk breaks off like that? I have no doubt it is because of this line he put there. Will it cause lameness? It looks dreadful! I would rather see the minor crack as it's just an outer layer thing, not in depth. And of course there is the concern the corners of this chunk will also now break off.

[onthespot]

I would think that there already was separation of the hoof wall before he scored the hoof sideways. Your horse might already have had a fungus infection up in there, and if he started digging away all the loose wall, you might be surprised that more than half the hoof wall may come away. It can take up to a year to come back to normal and require filler (bondo) and special shoes. Hope that is not the case.

[haypoint]

He used a common treatment to get a crack to stop running. It is done in cast iron cracks, too.
There was a lot more wrong with that hoof if it was able to break away like that. Sounds like dirt, stone, sand was getting in under the hoof, working its way to the coronet, hair line. Keep an eye out for an abcess above that break, right at the hair line.

But for it to break off, it would have had to be filed down half the thickness of the hoof.

Some horses get a tender foot if trimmed to close, others need short trimmed to prevent cracking. Trimming long in the toe, short in the heals will effect gait. Too hard to judge from here if you are correct or the farrier is right.

With a bad crack (what you had) or a chunk missing(what you've got now), I recommend a shoe with three clips. One on each side and a toe clip, to hold the hoof from opening up more crack. Keep reshoeing until the hoof has grown out.

[malinda]

It's not uncommon for farriers to make a horizontal notch in the hoof to attempt to stop a crack, but it hardly ever works - as you've witnessed.

Cracks are generally caused by either hoof imbalances, excessive hoof length, or rot/fungus in the white line. To remove a crack, you must remove the cause of the crack.

I don't like to make horizontal notches in hooves and try to explain my reasons when clients ask for them. It seems they would rather have a quick fix (which usually doesn't work) than to actually take care of the problem by treating the fungus or just getting the horse on a shorter trim/shoe schedule.

[2horses]

I've seen it used lots of times too, but like others have said, usually not successfully.

[olivehill]

Pretty is as pretty does. The lamina (what connects the outer hoof wall to the hoof) was already compromised for it to fall off the way it did. The good news is because the hoof wall is no longer under stress in that area it will not continue to separate (barring disease). The bad news is flaring, the separation of the lamina, doesn't just spring up out of no where. There is and has been hoof form issues for this to have happened that the farrier may or may not be addressing appropriately. If he's not you'll just have this issue on your hands again when that portion of the hoof wall grows out (just a few months from now). Plus the imbalances and poor form could be causing further damage inside the hoof that you will not "see" until it's too late.

Pictures really would be helpful however in giving any kind of definitive answer. If you're never taken pictures of hooves before here are a few tips to make them useful:

-- The horse should have clean hooves, be standing on a hard level surface. If you do not have concrete or packed gravel put a sheet of plywood down for him to stand on.
-- Take one picture of each angle of the hoof, from the side, from the front, from the back and from the bottom.
-- Each of these with the exception of the solar should be at ground level with the camera at a 90 degree angle to the side of the hoof you are trying to photograph
-- Do not crop the lower leg out of the photo. It's important to be able to see most of the canon, the fetlock and the pastern.

[tinknal]

Look at it this way, if he had NOT made the notch the damage could have been much worse. If you have a flapping fingernail you cut it to the point of the tear, even if it hurts, because you know that if you don't cut it off it will tear further and become worse.

He may have prevented much worse damage.

[southerngurl]

Yea, doesn't work in my experience.

What is the horse eating? Excess sugar can cause weak lamina connection, flaring and fungal issues in the white line.

[DixyDoodle]

No, her feet were fine before that. I had been using the same farrier for years before this one.

The last two trims were done by this guy. I thought the heels looked a bit short and the toes too long with this guy's work, but I am certainly no expert, they just didn't look like the other farrier did them. Every 8 weeks as always, BTW.

Anyhow, all the horses hooves seem cracked and just.....too long for 8 weeks. I don't think he's trimming them short enough. To add this chunk out of the other horse's foot is just the icing on the cake.

So.....likely looking at a new farrier. I was not overly happy with his work the last time. It just looks.....rushed.

[offthegrid]

Well...doesn't sound necessarily that the farrier did anything wrong. Why not call him?

I will say that at this time of year if I waited 8 weeks between trims I'd have long toes and chipped feet for sure. My paint mare totally overgrew her shoes at 5 weeks so the farrier pulled them (he was here to shoe my TB but my paint wasn't due for another week). He was surprised that she had grown that much in 5 weeks but 8 weeks is really long for any of my horses this time of year (actually, any time really, but definitely not in the summer months when they are on pasture).

I wouldn't assume that your farrier was bad without asking him for an explanation. Maybe there was trauma to the hoof, etc.

[Jay27]

All your horses feet should be trimmed differently as they are all built differently. Feet should be trimmed according to their build/angles and needs.

Sounds like you have already made up you mind on this farrier. No one here can tell you what to do since they haven't seen his work.

[TRAILRIDER]

We do it all the time. Nothing works 100 % of the time though. Remember every horse is different. I have a TB gelding who has perfect feet, all year long. we only trim him. Then there's my mustang mare, in addition to her being flat footed with dropped soles due to founder, her walls are so hard they become brittle. The walls eventually chip back higher than her soles. Ouch! Two entirely different horses with different feet.

[malinda]

Did you get any pics of the feet?