Understanding and overcoming 7 common equine foot issues

Sometimes a severe, career-altering injury or pathology, such as a deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT) tear or coffin joint arthritis, causes your horse’s foot lameness. In other instances, usually less serious, the outer hoof structures themselves create the gimpy gait. Learning to recognize, treat, and prevent these (mostly) avoidable conditions not only spares your horse unnecessary discomfort but also helps you avoid lost riding time and incurring veterinary expenses. After all, you’d be the one footing the bill for your horse’s hoof problems.

To get some answers about seven common hoof capsule conditions, we’ve recruited two experts from the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, in Blacksburg, Virginia: Lauren Trager, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVSMR, clinical assistant professor of equine sports medicine and rehabilitation, and Travis Burns, MSc, CJF, TE, EE, FWCF, associate professor of practice and the chief of farrier services at the veterinary school.

Promoting Healthy Hooves

As an owner, you must work with the cards you are dealt—the feet that came with your horse. But unlike a conformation fault that’s set in stone, there’s a lot you can do with nutrition, management, and farriery to protect less-than-perfect hooves from the myriad issues we’ll discuss in this article. With all 1,200-plus pounds of your horse resting on the size equivalent of four upside-down saucers, it’s only natural you’d want to take the absolute best care of his hooves.

Starting with the basics, a balanced diet with adequate protein plays a crucial role in hoof growth and quality because the hoof wall consists mainly of a protein called keratin. Feeding enough biotin (vitamin B7)—the single most important vitamin for hoof health—also remains a top priority. Be patient with dietary adjustments and stick to the plan you have devised with your equine nutritionist or veterinarian, keeping in mind it can take up to a year for a horse to grow a whole new hoof.

Proper hygiene pays dividends in keeping hooves healthy and intact. Bed your horse’s stall well (a minimum of 4 inches in depth) and clean it at least daily, limit mud exposure, and pick his feet regularly—especially if he wears shoes, which can trap moisture and debris. Last, but certainly not least, regular hoof care by a skilled farrier can help prevent unbalanced, overgrown, or cracked hooves that open the door—or rather, the wall—to abscesses and other issues.

The Recipe for Hoof Problems

Despite the hoof’s tough, impermeable appearance, it functions as a living, breathing organ that responds and adapts to its environment. Unfavorable genetics, nutritional deficiencies, unsanitary living conditions, and lack of quality hoof care all contribute as risk factors for poor hoof health.

Specifically, prolonged exposure to water—such as standing in deep mud all day—or, on the contrary, excessive dryness—both weaken the horse’s hoof horn¹. “Research² shows that contact with manure and urine-soaked bedding also weakens the hoof wall and introduces bacteria and fungi into the frog and white line, compromising the health and integrity of the hoof capsule,” Burns says.

We’ve categorized hoof capsule ailments into seven distinct conditions: subsolar abscess, hoof bruise, hoof crack, white line disease, thrush, canker, and supporting-limb laminitis