[marie]

hi has anyone had experience with horses with low heels and have to have remedial shoeing as i have a 15.2hh cob x warmblood on permanent loan who has it. He came with this problem and it was being sorted and then a few problems arose over the winter as he lost them and we couldnt get to the vets. But he is on his last set of shoes now does anyone know whether he should be ridden gently yet and he has very soft feet as they keep cracking so i put hoof oil on them but now on his front left foot his frog and base of foot is dry what do you recomend i use. And also how do you get bit rings off a bridle it confuses me lol
thanks
samantha

[AengusOg]

Right...the bit rings...if you mean the rubber discs which fit against either side of the horse's mouth...you take two [pieces of baler tow and loop them through the centre hole of the rubber disc. Then, taking one piece of string in each hand, you pull them away from each other so that they change the shape of the disc's centre hole from circular to oblong...then you work the outer piece of the bit through the resultant space.

On the subject of the horse's feet...it is difficult to give any advice without knowing more about, or seeing the feet, but I would say this...it sounds as if the remedial shoeing was mainly to support the heels and, perhaps, to help take the stress off the tendons. In the long term, the foot will have to be re-balanced and trimmed frequently, so that the heels can accumulate depth, This necessitates gradually shortening the toes and adjusting the hoof/pastern angle as the heels grow down.

[marie]

thankyou about the bit rings very useful as cant have them for showing and seeing as they are bright green not very suitable lol

yeah he has wedges and striaght bars to accompany them at the moment

[lachlanandmarcus]

Hoof oil is decorative only so wont keep moisture in the hoof or anything like that, tho they will look pretty.

Maybe look at feeding a biotin rich feed like Healthy Hooves (Dengie) or Happy Hoof (Spillers) or even biotin powder in feed if he has any? That will strengthen the hooves from within. Ive also found NAF Pink powder is very good for manes, tails, and hooves as it helps them make better use of whats in whatever else they are eating and you need very little of it. Regular trimming will also help to prevent the cracks, as well as rebalancing the foot gradually.

[Fi]

Hi Marie,   

Our wee Irish sport pony suffers a bit from what you describe. His feet are also quite soft and we found that cracking was a problem. However I believe this was largely down to the fact our farrier was a bit unreliable and his feet were getting too long between trims. I now have a bare foot trimmer and she has worked hard to reshape and rebalance him. He is getting along great. We will just have to keep an eye on growth now that the grass is through.

[marie]

he has had his back shoes now taken off as he isnt in work and we have two farriers one for front one for back both very reliable and come on same day if emergency. Yes i will try and get something for his feed i have some happy hoof spare so will throw that it with his feed
thanksyou
its much appreciated
samantha