Hi Tonya! I have been absent for awhile but just decided to check on things. We do need to get this thing up and going again! I used to own Easyboots but I now own Renegades (renegadehoofboots.com). With my bad back they are much easier to put on and off and stay on the hoof great! I've been through mud, water, and sand with them and had no problems and they come in great colors!

Debra the best thing for a crack is to take the pressure off of it and make sure the hoof wall is even all the way arond. Also make sure to add a mustang roll (I would make it a little larger than normal. This will equalize the pressure around the wall.

my mom has been to ferrier school and i have been aroud vet clinics and ferriers all my life and absorbe knowledge like a sponge when the horse puts pressure on the foot expands to help circulate the blood if i were you i would put just a regular shoe on her to keep the crack from expanding more and give it time to grow out i might also suggest have your ferrier check for white line diesies

Hello again! I changed our group name from 'Florida Horse Lovers!' to 'Southern Horse Lovers!' for anyone living in the south who lives for the love of horses!

What is natural Hoof Care?

Hi John :)
Welcome to a whole new way to look at your horse's feet.
Check out the following and you will start to see that there is a lot going on "behind the wall"

If there is anything you can do to familiarize yourself with what a healthy hoof looks like, you will begin to "see" that there are a lot of unhealthy hooves out there.....especially in shoes (think this....the horse was not designed to stand on just the hoof wall alone :)

Pete Ramey (studied with this guy.....really awesome/easy to understand....tons of pics on web site)
www.hoofrehab.com

He has a links page that will keep you surfing for days.
Enjoy!

PS: If you have a horse and would like us to check out his/her hooves, send some pics.

OOps, missed the basic question.

Natural hoof care is treating, trimming, managing the horse's hoof with out applying (nailing) a shoe onto it. You can have a farrier pull the shoes and do a maintenance or pasture trim, and still not be getting a proper barefoot trim. Balance, maximizing circulation, growing out distortions (like flares, cracks, folded over bars, run under heels, lowering high heels and redeveloping the inner workings of the horse's hoof-digital cushioning+frog area) needs to be done by someone dedicated to bare foot health. They also need to help you design a proper feeding program (pull out the sugar) and management (as much turnout as possible....think out of the stall!) to keep everything working properly. An A+ trim will only get your horse so far if he's stuck in a stall for 15 hrs a day and on a high sugared feed. Add to that wet bedding and rubber mats and the potential for real development will be a lot harder to come by.
HOpe that helps :)