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The Right Trim & The Right Diet
Make the Connection!
FORM, FUNCTION AND NUTRITION
What does healthy hoof form and function have to do with sound, balanced nutrition?
Everything!
You can provide a horse with the best, natural hoofcare in the world -- but if you don't provide that same horse with adequate nutrition to "feed" his feet, there is a good chance you will never achieve the kind of high performance barefoot horse you desire.
Why?
Without the appropriate nutrients your horse's feet can not grow strong, thick, healthy hoof wall, let alone form strong connective tissue. These wonderful attributes require abundant nutrition -- nutrients such as Omega 3 Fatty acids (found in abundance in flax seed or fresh grasses), zinc (a trace mineral severely deficient in many United States soils and therefore hays), copper (another trace mineral often lacking in many grass hays) and biotin (part of the B complex of vitamins for which supplementation helps many horses). Feeding your horse "good grass hay" doesn't necessarily supply your horse with what his feet need. Please click here to read about "The Right Diet" for your horse.
You have probably heard -- or perhaps even made these statements yourself:
"My horse has thin soles."
"My horse has flat soles."
"My horse has bad feet because he is old."
These are all realities that may be created by inadequate nutrition as well as poor trimming and/or shoeing -- for example, excess heel, toe. Or a coffin bone that is not very close to ground parallel. So linked are the two fundamentals of trimming and nutrition that achieving positive results with many horses requires an unequivocal, all-out commitment on both fronts.
For Insulin Resistant horses whose hooves are attempting to heal from laminitis or founder, the cycle of chronic inflammation and suffering is clear: Horses whose diets are addressed but whose feet are not, may not have laminitis (inflammation of the hoof) triggered by the food they eat. But if there is an imbalance in the hoof, say overgrown hoof wall (flares), then there is leverage pulling at the laminae inside the hoof and the horse will suffer from the inflammation of that leverage (mechanical laminitis). And the domino effect doesn't stop there:
Says Abby Bloxsom, professional farrier and trimming "guru" for the Official Equine Cushings and Insulin Resistant site:
"Because the horse moves less, he burns fewer calories, and
burns carbohydrate inefficiently, and his Insulin Resistance worsens.
"Because the I.R. gets worse, the inflammation throughout the horse's
entire body will increase. **
"Inflammatory chemicals make him more sensitive to pain, so he moves
less, so his IR becomes worse. It's a vicious cycle. Thus, the
sore-footed horse."
The opposite problem -- perfect hoofcare and the wrong diet -- results in the same dilemma. Explains Bloxsom:
"The horse's IR horse is triggered by an inappropriate or imbalanced diet. Inflammation inside the feet will occur for metabolic reasons, and the downward cycle proceeds anyway. It takes not only the right nutrients but a healthy
circulatory system in the hoof to deliver them to the tissues to produce
healthy horn. Insulin Resistance interferes with that."
You get the connection.
But, perhaps you or your trimmer/farrier may say: "If the horse moves a lot, isn't that enough to combat the Insulin Resistance?"
It all depends on the horse.
If your horse is as sound walking barefoot over gravel as he is over grass, can run comfortably over different types of terrain (sand, dirt, rock, etc), and is 100 percent sound with you on his back in all gaits, then you likely don't need to worry.
But if all of the above is not true, it is important to face your horse's reality. After all, he has to. Click here to read about signs of inflammation and pain in your horse's body and feet.
So take honest stock of your horse's diet and trim and seek professional help as you learn. An increasing number of veterinarians and hoof care professionals around the world are making the connection between the right diet and the right trim. Search until you find one.
THE RIGHT TRIMThere is only one truth about hoofcare that holds true for every horse in every situation: What is on the outside of the foot should support what is inside the hoof.
Yet some people have made the concept of trimming overly complex -- a realm of knowledge reserved only for "those in the know." It doesn't have to be. Once you know what is inside the hoof, why it is there, and what its function is, it is not difficult to understand how to trim the outside of the hoof in a way that supports the horse.
That doesn't mean that experienced trimmers aren't worth their weight in diamonds. They are. The axiom "No Hoof -- No Horse" is truer than we probably want to realize (given the poor state of most horse's hooves). It just means that natural hoofcare is not an impossible concept to grasp. Any horse owner who wants to can understand enough to judge whether his or her trimmer is doing a good job. Sadly, many people do not do this because they have been told they can't. This is complete nonsense.
Four years ago I had laminitic horses who were receiving improper hoof care. I had no idea how to help them. Now I confidently trim my horses whenever they need to be trimmed (every 2-4 weeks) and I occasionally help friends and neighbors with their horses as well.
I try to explain the landmarks of the foot to horse care providers before doing anything else -- i.e, the white line, the live sole plane, the heel butresses. When that is understood, it is not hard for people to see when a heel or toe is too long, or the bars are overgrown. Here are before and after trimming photographs of a neighbor's horse I trimmed:
To many people, these before and after pictures look very similar. But to the horse, the trim made a world of difference -- and his behavior before and after the trim proved it!
Read The Sound Hoof: Horse Health from the Ground Up, by Lisa Simmons Lancaster. It's a wonderful book that explains hoof anatomy in an interesting and logical way. After that, read "Making Natural Hoofcare Work for You" by Pete Ramey.
Study with as many qualified trimmers and farriers as you can. Click here to read my article on Finding a Good Trimmer -- And Avoiding a Bad One. Also know that learning to trim is an art that takes time, patience and an open mind. Good trimmers will tell you they are constantly learning from the horses with whom they work. Bad trimmers tend to display a lot of attitude and ego.
Two trimmers I admire and know personally are Abby, who can be reached for email consultations at www.advantedgeconsulting.com and Miranda, a California trimmer whose website is www.all4barefoot.com. Both are very knowledgeable in the fields of nutrition for Insulin Resistant and Cushings horses.
NATURAL SUPPORT OF THE HOOFWhatever the condition of your horse's feet, there are always ways in which you can support their strength. Invariably, these steps will mimic the horse's natural environment and living conditions that continually come back to the paradigm of natural movement. (Remember, horses in the wild travel up to 25 miles each day in search of food.)
Some suggestions:* Provide as much movement as you possibly can, preferably within a herdenvironment that stimulates your horse to horse to move, play and restnaturally.* If you board your horse, try to find a situation in which your horseis confined to a stall only in sickness or inclement weather.* If you keep your horse at home, don't let the tasks of tendingto your ranch keep you from exercising your horse on a regular basis.* Offer to the best of your ability different terrains upon which yourhorse's feet can travel. Even if it's only a few feet of gravel or pea rockby a favored water trough. This will help mimic the abrasion that continually trims a horse's hooves in Nature.
BEFORE Right Front -- Very long toes and a flared hoofwall that were causing pain -- evident when the horse stumbled as he walked. Owners labeled him "lame because he is old."
AFTER Left Front-- Much shorter toes and a straighter hoofwall stop the pain of unnecessary leverage against the internal structures of the foot. This horse can now run and play with ease. Owners realize 30-year-old horse can go on trail rides!
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Skode's Horse Treats Inc, is registered with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. In addition, each treat is carefully formulated and rigorously tested for its Non Structural Carbohydrate Sugar and Starch (NSC) levels at
Equi-analytical Laboratories in Ithaca, New York.
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