Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Please Reply to: Diane Day fourdays@xxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
==========================================

I wanted to share a learning experience I've had from a long battle with a hoof 
crack on a 4 yr QH.  When I got her, she had a tiny little center line nick 
that the owner said came from a student farrier.  My farrier worked with it - 
trimmed it off and it seemed to be less of an issue for awhile but then came 
back.  This summer it got worse; it started to go all the way up the hoof. He 
hammered a wedge in the hoof to stop the "flow" and put her in a shoe. No 
improvement. I got some good suggestions here on RC (thankyou very much btw)  
and he came and trimmed her in a "mustang roll" ( afer reading about it, I have 
all of my barefoot horses trimmed in a natural balance method) Then one day she 
went lame, and I noticed that the crack was coming in above the wedge. But 
there wasnt anythig else going - no sign of abscess. I called a vet but was 
referred back to my farrier. He came right out and said he needed to cut out 
the hoof wall.  He used a little drill/ sander and carved all around the crack 
exposing the layer of mud and gunk that had made home in her hoof wall as it 
all entered in from the crack.  No pus, no sign of yucky infection - just 
muddiness.  So now she had this sculpted look -a mini, winding gorge, so to 
speak, effect on the top of her hoof.  I am dressing it out with gentian violet 
and anything else I can use to clean it out of the likely yeast that is in 
there. ( I asked him about putting her in a boot to keep it dressed, but he 
said the boot would just keep in moisture and make things worse. Anyone with 
experience treating a hoof using a boot, please comment)
But the point of this is to share this incident so that if anyone has a crack 
that won't heal - it is good to be thinking of it as a direct entry site for 
stuff to get up inside the hoof. I asked him why we didnt attack it sooner and 
he said owners don't usually like their horses to be cut up and layed off work 
for awhile.  I encouraged him to not be so considerate of owners in future!
Now instead of thinking I had a crabby, marey kind of horse, I am realizing how 
well she actually coped with it -what an irritation it must have been for her.
DianeD


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-