Hoofcare in the wet environment.

There are a few things you can do to help keep your horse’s feet stay drier. First, and foremost, you can keep your pastures and paddocks mowed down to about 3 inches. The taller your grass is, the more moisture it is going to hold. Not only do the blades of grass hold the moisture, but when the sunlight cannot reach the ground below, the ground stays soft and wet also. Keeping your turn out areas mowed promotes faster evaporation of the residual water because the sunlight can reach the ground as can the breezes.

Second, you can modify your turn out schedule. Many barns switch to night turn out during the summer months. The

problem with this, in the southeast, is that we have dew which keeps the grass and ground soaked with water from the time the sun starts to set until somewhere around mid morning, depending on cloud cover, the following day. Night turn out may help with heat exposure, but it does not benefit their feet. Keeping the horse in the stall at night, keeps the feet dry. Turning the horse out mid-morning after the dew has evaporated also helps keep the feet dry.

The third thing that can be done is to limit the number of baths given to the horse. If you must bathe your horse, please take the time to dry the feet off afterward. Also, do not put ‘conditioners’ on their feet. If you must put anything topical on their feet, use a sealer, not a conditioner.

Fourth, is fly control. A good, lasting fly spray seems to be very difficult to find. Tri-Tec seems to work fairly well this year. Another, better option, is using fly predators. https://www.spalding-labs.com The lower you can keep your fly population, the less your horse will be stomping and damaging its feet in effort to keep flies off.

Lastly, pick your horse’s feet out daily, and monitor them for thrush. Being an anaerobic pathogen, thrush thrives during wet conditions because wet soil compacts and prevents oxygen exposure more so than dry soil. After they are picked out and clean, apply antimicrobials such as Thrush B Gone (http://www.thrushbgone.com) as needed.

This has been a year of historic rainfall in central Georgia. Whether your horse’s feet are just trimmed or shod, if they are overly wet and soft, they are more susceptible to

chipping, cracking, and peeling. The following are things you can do to help maintain the integrity of your horse’s hoof walls until it dries out.

Environmental Controlsby John Scruggs, CJF

Farrier Related Assistance

If the horse is shoeless, keeping the edges of their feet well rounded will help stave off the chipping, cracking, and peeling.

If the horse is shod, there are several options available to decrease the torque and shear forces on the shoe. First and foremost in this category is a shoe that is well shaped and fitted to the white line of the foot. In addition, reducing torque and shear on the shoe reduces the same on the foot. Some options that your farrier may utilize include shoes that are clipped, low-profile, plain stamped, glue on, those

that have full, pour-in pads, and/or some combination thereof.

Shoeless or shod, it is important to stay on a regular schedule, with a time interval best suited to meet your individual horse’s hoof growth needs.

CaveatSome horses seem more prone to softening and damage in wet environments than others. If your horse’s feet are relatively short and/or recently trimmed, yet you are still getting chips, cracks, and peels you will likely have to get used to the cosmetic blemishes. Although your hoof care

provider can do an acrylic or urethane reconstruction, it is usually not necessary or feasible. If you have damage to the hoof wall, and the feet are already reasonably short, trimming more off the bottom of the foot is not likely to be helpful to the horse. Dressing more of the foot off at the ends, and/or excess rounding of the edges of the feet just to try to blend in the missing areas is only further weakening the wall and making the situation worse.

During times when excess water is on the ground, and ultimately in the foot, hoof mass is important. Removing excess hoof to make the foot have a temporarily improved cosmetic appearance will only perpetuate the problem.