thoroughbred hoof + skin care

Let's be crystal clear here: I own a horse bc I enjoy riding horses. And not just circles inside the safety of four walls -- I want to ride everywhere. By myself and with friends. Occasionally at speed, and over obstacles. Ooh, and also at horse shows.

These are my priorities. Everything in my horse habit exists to support the pursuit of riding. That isn't necessarily true for every horse person at all times, but it's where I'm at today. So I own a horse suited to that pursuit, and put in whatever work or planning it takes to make it my reality.

bebe shetland picture!!! soak it in, guys, bc it's the only cute thing you'll see this entire post haha

Horses are funny, sensitive, fragile creatures, tho. Each and every one of them has so so so much to teach us. Including that, no matter our priorities (like mine above), none of it really matters if the horse isn't healthy happy and thriving.

Charlie is my first horse, and has, in his kind, generous, benevolent way, made it his friggin business to teach me much much MUCH more about the finer points of what it means to really truly and completely manage the care of a riding horse. The "prerequisites," let's call them haha.

hooves. apparently a prerequisite to riding! in charlieland, generally we prefer our hooves with shoes.... at least this was the day before his farrier appt, ugh

Before Charlie, leasing Isabel let me peek behind the curtain of "ownership," and at least get a start on that education. She had a few relatively tame wounds, an epic battle with skin funk, was patient zero in an infectious flu outbreak, had some gastric needs, and -- most relevant to today's post -- my lease role included managing her farrier schedule.

So ya know. In some ways, she was the perfect introduction to that degree of care, bc overall Izzy was a very sturdy little mare haha.

freshly trimmed and shod hoof. with the wall literally crumbling, ugh

Charlie is allllll Thoroughbred tho. And has thus expanded my education substantially. Particularly, in regards to hooves.

And it was clear from the very beginning with Charlie that his hooves would be ground zero for basically any and all progress we could make.

farrier left some extra surface area exposed on the shoe to help support and protect the wall

We therefore got into an early and aggressive treatment plan with the farrier at Charlie's first barn, and I jumped all aboard the supplement train -- including feed-through Farrier's Formula and Platinum Performance; and topical applications like Keratex.

Still tho, at times I feel like my knowledge about some stuff is more academic or bookish than real-world practical, if that makes sense. And especially with hoof issues, I sometimes feel caught off guard by subtle developments - like I don't notice the problem until it's almost too late.

sorry for the blur. not too much chipping here anyway tho

With Charlie (and probably many TBs in the Mid Atlantic region), hooves change really really fast in the spring, after the relative dormancy of winter.

Charlie's winter shoeing cycles can easily go 6 weeks, and in one amazing stretch this year he even went 8 (eight!!!) weeks. Each week his farrier looked at the feet like, "Yea I think we should wait tho!" Crazy haha.

ugh if i had to bet which hoof would have lost the shoe tho, this one would have been it -- not the right hind!

But it's like the cycle immediately after Charlie's most dormant phase ends up being completely and totally whip-lash-inducing different.

The ground thaws, tree sap starts flowing, the air becomes perfumed with blossoms and grass starts growing.... As do Charlie's feet haha, and fast.

go figure, his white hoof is usually the sturdiest. still pretty chipped up tho

But they grow out really weak, flaky and crumbly. I usually try to start slathering on the keratex around late February.... And at least these past two years have remembered to make his May shoeing appointment be at the 5 week mark (which, Charlie will typically stick on that 5wk cycle until Nov-Dec).

bleh. again tho - you can really see the shoe's extra surface area here for extra protection

But idk, both this year and last year I've still ended up in a bad hoof place come May / June.

Both years, at that May appt at the 5wk mark, my farrier has taken a look and said, "Hm I think we should actually go another week here." I generally like my farrier a lot and pay him for his judgement, so I go with his advice.

Last year it was nearly a disaster, tho, since we ended up at our annual Memorial Day horse trial at Loch Moy with a shoe that was jussssssst barely hanging on. So, in retrospect, knowing there was a show on the calendar last year I wish I had asked the farrier to do it at 5 anyway.

he didn't lose a ton ton of wall with the shoe.... but still lost enough

This year.... Well. Honestly it really didn't matter. And Charlie's feet didn't even look quite that bad. Tho he lost a shoe the day before the appointment anyway, and not even the one I would have guessed. Go figure.

So again, I think the lesson is..... that May appointment really should happen at 5 weeks even if the hoof looks like it could wait. Bc the hoof will not wait, it turns out. And that last week ends up doing a lot of damage to the walls with chipping and crumbling.

ugh. thoroughbred feet, why you so soft?

Obvi we were at a disadvantage this year too bc I could only visit every 2 weeks from mid March to mid May. And sure, I did what I could with the keratex but that's just not enough.

I asked my farrier what I could do differently, but he said to just keep going with the keratex. He said it works best when used often, daily if at all possible. Apparently there are polymers in the formula that accumulate and bond on the surface of the wall --- and this is part of what gives the hoof more strength and elasticity?

Idk, chemistry ain't my thing haha. But if that's what the farrier says, that's what I'll do.....

this freakin horse haha

It's frustrating, tho, going into the worst hoof months of the year -- July and August -- with hooves already cracked and compromised. The bugs are already out, the horses are stomping like crazy, and the ground itself is becoming increasingly more dry and hard between rains.

Last year we struggled badly with hoof soreness starting in June. Again, mostly bc I was too slow in realizing it. So by the time I figured it out, it was An Issue. This year... Esp considering the state of the equestrian sporting calendar, there's really no point in even pushing it.

My hope is to keep his feet from getting any worse through this cycle, so that he actually ends up with a good solid wall during his next trim -- and we'll get him back into those leather pads. Then just go from there. Hopefully haha.

the white hoof might be the healthiest, but that white sock certainly didn't want to be left out of the fun!! also -- bonus abscess?!?!? charlie -- why you keepin secrets, bro??

In a way, it's kinda convenient that Charlie has also chosen this moment to cultivate an impressively disgusting blooming bed of scratches on his lone white leg. Oh, and also blow an abscess without ever telling a SOUL about it. Normally even Stevie Wonder can see when this horse has a sore foot, go figure.

And I SWEAR, these came out of fricken nowhere. The whole red puffy scabby nasty catastrophe erupted basically overnight after I was allowed to start visiting again. Which ya know. At least that was convenient haha.

ugh gross :( these sores always seem so painful, poor guy

And actually, I think I do know how the infection was introduced. Charlie had a very small graze on his pastern from interfering (clumsy oaf) and that's probably how the bacteria or fungus or whatever the fuck it is got in. Then BOOM, gross disgusting scabby outbreak.

i've learned my lesson about celebrating prematurely with skin fungus.... but we are sooooo close now!

My treatment method is based on what finally cleared up Izzy's months-long epic scratches battle. First I clean the area carefully -- for Izzy I had a betadine scrub but right now I only have chlorhex in my locker. Not sure it makes a difference, just gotta get it clean.

Then I pat it dry, and apply a layer of animax/dermalone/panalog ointment. And actually, my bottle of this stuff is legit left over from treating Isabel haha -- it's that old.

animax / dermalone / panalog ointment is worth its weight in literal gold. my bottle is ancient but i will use every single last drop from it

With Isabel, we would keep her in her stall for up to an hour after applying the ointment to ensure it really dried and absorbed, but obviously that's not always feasible during tightly scheduled quarantine visits with Charlie.

It's worked out tho. The fungus is healing, and knowing I want to wait to let that stuff dry as much as possible really gives me no excuse for not also taking care of his hooves at the same time.

anything for this elegant majestical beastie!

So ya know. Never a dull moment in Charlie land.

One of my goals for the year was to stop needing to learn things the hard way, so it's obnoxious to be repeating the same hoof pattern we had last year when maybe I should have been more prepared. At least the whole "global pandemic" situation is a pretty forgivable excuse... (lol? too soon? ugh...)

That's just how it goes with horses tho haha. We do our best and make all our plans and goals and what have you.... And then the horse is always there to humble us and keep things in perspective lol.

Does your horse have similar hoof growth patterns throughout the year? Have you had to deal with playing catching up on some issue or another like that? Or maybe you've figured out the secret formula for getting in front of these sort of things before they ever even crop up??? If so, do tell LOL.