For the Health of It
Hoof Flares in the Barefoot Horse How to Prevent Them
In my practice I see many horses suffering from the ill
effects of hoof flares, especially the barefoot horse. In fact, with
the barefoot movement becoming so popular, I see more horses than ever who have improperly trimmed hooves, sometimes
with serious side effects. I’ve seen many performance horses
with health and soundness issues directly relating to hoof
flares. That’s why this article focuses on both the causes of hoof
flares and the ways to prevent them.
Hoof flares are caused by a weakening of the attachments
(laminae) of the hoof wall to the coffin bone inside the foot. In
wild horses the separation that occurs at the lower part of the
wall allows that portion of wall to break off so that their hooves
don’t grow too long in soft footing. Horses in the wild live on
rocky soil and rarely have hoof flares because constant travel
over rough ground (up to 25 miles a day) keeps the hoof worn
off at the correct length. Most domesticated horses don’t live
on such rocky soil but, even so, there is no reason that, with
proper trimming and management, the barefoot horse should
suffer from hoof flares.
To determine if your horse has hoof flares run a straight
edge from the coronary band to the ground surface of the
foot and move this edge all the way around the hoof. There
should never be any space between the straight edge and the
hoof wall. Does your barefoot horse have hoof flares? If so, you
might want to consider the conditions that allow them to form,
including both mechanical causes, nutritional causes, and hoof
wall infections.
Mechanical Causes
Obesity: An overweight horse or a horse with a large body
but small feet will tend to have trouble with hoof flares because
of the excess weight that has to be carried over such a small
area. In a barefoot horse, the overtaxed laminae weaken and
stretch, causing flares. Dieting and increased exercise are the
obvious answers for the overweight horse but the small-footed
horse will have to be managed with greater care. If you have
a small-footed horse you will need to pay close attention to
his diet and be sure that hoof flares are trimmed off at each
trimming.
Too Long Between Trims: In the wild hoof flares are nature’s way of breaking off excessive hoof wall. In other words,
the hoof wall is weaker where the hoof flares and tends to
break off as the horse travels over hard, rocky soil. Without
this mechanism the wild horse would end up extremely long
flared hooves and would not be able to run from predators.
Fortunately, wild horses constantly wear their hooves down
with lengthy daily travel. The domestic barefoot horse is not as
12 • Walking On
fortunate. Since most domestic horses live on soft ground and
don’t travel as much as wild horses, they don’t have a chance
to wear their hooves down daily, a little at a time. Instead, the
domesticated horse’s hooves grow flares, which then break off
in large chunks. This uneven wear makes it hard to shoe the
horse or balance the hoof for even weight-bearing. The best
way to avoid flares caused by hoof overgrowth is to trim your
horse at regular intervals and be sure to keep a roll on the edge
of the hoof wall to allow for easy breakover.
Nutritional Causes
Deficiencies or Imbalances: Horses need adequate minerals
in the correct balance to have healthy hooves. Sulfur is especially important because it is a disulfide bond that holds the
hoof laminae to the coffin bone. If your barefoot horse suffers
from poor hoof quality it is important to analyze the nutritional content of your hay before adding expensive supplements. If
analyzing your hay is not an option then consider giving your
horse a food-based supplement such as Simplexity Health’s
blue-green algae, which provides a very broad range of trace
minerals in a balanced form that your horse can easily assimilate. Biotin is another nutrient that is important for hoof health
but if your horse has plenty of beneficial bacteria in his gut,
these bacteria produce will produce sufficient biotin. It is better
to support your horse’s good gut bacteria by feeding probiotics
than feeding biotin because the healthy bacteria does so much
more for your horse, including keeping his immune system
strong. Simplexity Health also offers high potency probiotics.
Overfeeding: Besides making your horse fat, giving your
horse too much feed that is high in starch will cause a shift in
the bacterial population in your horse’s hindgut (or cecum).
Normally the cecum is designed to digest only fiber but if
undigested starch makes it past the small intestine into the
hindgut, the fiber-digesting bacteria that live in the cecum
die off and the starch-digesting bacteria take over. This shift
can be devastating to your horse because it causes toxins to be
released into his bloodstream that, in turn, cause an enzyme
to be released that breaks down the laminae in the hoof wall.
Well-known hoof expert Pete Ramey believes that this is
nature’s way of allowing excessively long hoof walls to break
off easily if the wild horse happens to move into a grazing
situation with high sugar content forage. In the wild horse this
bounty would be a temporary situation but with the barefoot
domestic horse long-term high starch or sugar diets can cause
chronic hoof problems that may eventually progress to laminitis.
Hoof Wall Infections
Many types of fungus and bacteria have been blamed for