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This ten year old mare has a full-thickness toe crack that goes from
the coronary band to the ground which has been there since she was a foal.
when properly trimmed and shod on a regular basis the hoof crack begins
to grow out.
As you can see, the area from the coronary band down is growing in smoothly with no crack. Anytime these hooves are allowed to grow long again...the crack will return.
This horse is the two-year-old daughter of the mare in
pictures one and two. An identical crack began to form on her right front
foot at about the age of one and one-half years old. These horses live
in a field with 3 other horses of different breeding. They all live in
the same environment and eat the same diet, yet this mare and her foal
are the only ones with these cracks. It is reasonable to assume then,
that this is a genetic defect passed down from parent to foal. Nutrition
alone is not enough to restore these hooves to soundness. Proper balancing
and regular shoeing is imperative - otherwise the crack will keep reappearing. "shoes
are not neccessarily bad for horses but BAD SHOEING IS!
