Hoof Care MAINTENANCE for Life

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Proper hoof care begins the day a horse is born and continues on a regular basis for the life of the horse.  Sometimes proper hoof care includes horseshoes. Sometimes it just involves a trim.  There is nothing NATURAL about humans providing anything for horses.  ALL hoofcare provided to domestic horses by humans is ARTIFICIAL by definition.

The average rate of hoof growth in healthy horses varies between 1/4" (6.35mm) and 1/2" (12.7mm) per month. Domestic horses seldom wear their feet down as fast as they grow. They do not travel far enough over the right kind of terrain often enough to maintain equilibrium between hoof growth and hoof wear. Feral horses (often mistakenly referred to as "wild horses") that live in a an ideal natural environment tend to wear their feet about as fast as they grow and grow their feet about as fast as they wear.

In order for domestic horses to maintain their feet in equilibrium with the environment, they require ARTIFICIAL hoof care provided by qualified human hoof care practitioners. Domestic horses do not benefit from natural selection. They are the product of selective breeding. Often the criteria for breeding a horse is based on completely subjective aesthetics and does not consider the fact that hoof quality is largely dependent on DNA.  Horses with conformation and feet that are genetically predisposed to lameness problems present a serious challenge to even the most skilled and educated hoof care professionals.  Thus we often find ourselves fighting against nature in order to maintain soundness in horses that could not survive at all in the "ideal natural environment" of the "mustang."

Artificial hoof care for domestic horses involves regular hoof trimming and for some horses regular shoeing. Regular means that horses have their feet trimmed/shod often enough to maintain equilibrium with growth. Depending on the hoof quality, rate of growth, environment, use factors, or performance requirements, a horse may need hoof care service on a schedule that varies between 4-weeks and 6-weeks.

When the weather turns very cold, a horse may slow down their rate of hoof growth because their body is using the food energy to keep warm and to grow a thicker hair coat. However, if your horse wears a blanket or is kept in a sheltered stall during extremely cold weather, the rate of hoof growth will continue about the same as it does in warmer weather.   With the exception of extreme cold periods that last for several weeks/months, unless your horse is suffering from a health problem that is preventing it from growing new hoof horn, it is physically impossible for a domestic horses foot to maintain equilibrium beyond 6 weeks.

Allowing a domestic horse to go without hoof care service for more than 6 weeks is NEGLECT.

If a horse's feet have been NEGLECTED, then there has been DAMAGE. You might not be able to see the damage, but it is there just the same. Sometimes the damage is obvious and sometimes it does not show up for weeks, months, or even years. Sometimes a horse can recover from this damage with assistance from a competent hoof care provider. However, more often the recovery is never complete and thus that horse may require specialized ongoing therapeutic hoof care for the rest of its life.

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