What Does a Healthy Hoof Look like

Hi, I'm Danvers, the Hoof Health Consultant for SmartPak, and today we're going to talk briefly about overall hoof assessment and some of the things you'll look for to determine if your horse's hoof is healthy or not. This is obviously a cursory examination. There are a lot of detailed aspects, so we're going to hit the high points. One of the first things you want to do is to look at the horn. You can see on this model where we have half trimmed, half un-trimmed. And you can see this huge distortion and flare out here, and that's not a good sign. That's a sign that this horse has not gotten maintenance as regularly as he probably should have. If he had been maintained regularly, you'd have a much tighter, truer hoof wall that matched up fairly closely to the origin on growth in the coronary band. This side's trimmed neat, tidy, reasonably well-balanced. This side is broken as if he's pulled a shoe off -- there's still a clench in here. That shoe probably pulled because it should have been pulled by his hoof care provider. One of the things that you want to look for, also, is your growth lines. You can see the growth line here, and he's growing just a slight more heel than he is toe. They're not as regular as they should be, but they're not horribly distorted. You can see that there is a bit of irregularity in the growth rate from this line. If you track it around to the toe, he's growing a little bit more heel than he is toe. So, patience is a key element in hoof care. This is old. It takes time to regrow and replenish. So, if I start a supplement program or an exercise program, I'm going to see it in stages, as this hoof wall comes down. We have to wait, be patient, allow this hoof to regenerate. We're not going to recover the old horn -- we can dress it, we can manage it, we're not going to recover it. If we feed through, work on supplements, do our nutrition program properly, do our activity and exercise programs properly, we're going to regenerate with new growth. That is going to come down, and be tidy and nice. So on a basic visual inspection, you'll notice things like the growth ring, like the new hoof wall coming down. You'll also notice things like these little stryations here, superficial checking and cracking. They're environment related and that will vary radically from one season to another. The more you can regulate moisture, the more you'll see those diminish, and at certain times of the year, they're just going to be there. A visual inspection from the bottom is similar. You want to see a good, healthy, prominent frog. You want to see some exfoliating sole. The sole is like our skin -- it's going to naturally exfoliate and shed. You don't want it to slough out all at once, and you want some to be there. Chipping and flaking is normal. Ideally, you don't have too much of a trap area that will trap rocks and debris in here, so cleaning that out regularly is good. I hope this helps. Again, it's an overview. You'll want to stay with us for more specific information about hoof care from SmartPak.