Ask The Equine Nutritionist

I have a 6 year old QH/Welsh cross gelding. He has very dry, cracking hooves. I have a terrible time keeping shoes on him, they keep getting pulled off. His feet always seem to have lots of cracks, and they don't seem to grow very fast. I soak the ground around his water trough so that he has a wet area that he has to stand in at times when the weather has been very dry, and I have tried applying hoof conditioners to them. Nothing seems to make much difference. Someone suggested that he may be lacking something, nutritionally. He's a very easy keeper, so I don't feed any grain. Only a cup or so of oats, and sometimes a small amount of beet pulp in the winter. He is on grass pasture in the summer and grass (timothy/orchard) in the winter. Is there something that he could be lacking? Is there something that can be fed that will help with hoof quality? I don't see anything really wrong with his skin or coat, just that maybe he's not quite as shiny as some of my friend's horses, but I do not think it is bad.

It sounds as if your guy is a bit low in protein. The best way to address this would be to add to his cup of oats a cup of whole flax seed, around 4 oz daily will provide the high quality protein and fatty acids that will help his feet grow better and his coat to be more shiny. Feed whole flax seed, you don't need to cook it or grind it just add it whole.

Dr. Melyni Worth Ph.D. - 2004 (c)

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