The large, deep, unbalanced, rings in this horses feet tells me that there is something off.

“There is no such thing as ‘all of a sudden’, unless it is a trauma.” - Ida Hammer

Over the last twenty-thirty years the hoof care industry has gone through a massive period of evolution.

We’ve also begun to recognize that the hooves are capable of displaying ‘warning signs’.

Just like humans can see horizontal & vertical lines, dips, bulges, and bruises on our fingernails - hooves also display similar things.

Unfortunately it seems that not enough owners or professionals including experienced farriers and veterinarians acknowledge these signs, what they mean, and what to do about them.

Addressing warning signs in your horses hooves might save you a lot of headache in the long run as hoof based lameness is often times something that develops over time rather than right away (though this is certainly not always the case).

Let’s dive in.

Toe First Landings

Toe first landings, while used to navigate certain terrains, are not appropriate for a horses default movement as it can atrophy the soft tissues in the back of the hoof. Flat and/or heel first landings support soft tissue development in the hoof and proper biomechanics throughout the limb and beyond.

To assess if your horse is landing toe first, take a slow motion video from the side.

If your horse is landing toe first, address thrush, diet, and comfort. To address comfort, you need to address the trim. Use hoof boots or composites instead of metal shoes to encourage heel first landings. If you continue to work the horse while landing toe first, rehabilitation is not taking place.

Thrush

If your horse suffers from chronic thrush it’s important to treat it aggressively with non-caustic ingredients. If you are using harsh products or chemicals on the hoof, you may be harming healthy tissue, or creating new fissures which can create more pathways for bacteria to invade.

Horses struggling with chronic thrush may need nutritional support to aid the body in restoring microbial balance to the area. Ensure that you are eliminating excess iron intake, balancing minerals, balancing copper and zinc levels, and getting your horses gut in-check.

Thrush has the potential to wreck havoc on your horses hooves and therefore their soundness.

When thrush festers in the collateral grooves or frog, it is eating away at the small barrier designed to protect incredibly sensitive tissues, that are crucial to maintaining a horses soundness.

Your horse may simply be uncomfortable barefoot, because they’re dealing with chronic thrush.

When thrush settles deep into the frog split (central sulcus), a deep crevice may form in the frog and discomfort often takes place. This can cause a horse to land toe first.

If this is the case with your horses hoof, chances are, they are suffering from a thrush infection. Thrush is often overlooked and thought of as a minor inconvenience when in fast, thrush can be incredibly painful.

Contracted Heels

There is often a chicken-egg scenario that takes place with central sulcus thrush and contracted heels. It doesn’t matter whether the thrush led to contraction in the heels, or contracted heels led to thrush, they both need to be addressed. Often times with a bad thrush infection in the central sulcus, the horse will avoid loading or landing on the heels.

Contracted heels happen often in club feet as the heels tend to grow taller than ‘normal’. The toe is often loading more than the heel and sometimes it is simply thrush causing the avoidance of heel loading or landing.

This lack of stimulation makes it harder for the thrush to heal and can create a contraction of the heels causing them to shift out of balance, upwards and towards one another. An opposite situation may occur, where the horses heels are contracted due to their standard form (clubby) and because of this, they may avoid landing heel first, the frog may be contracting already and once thrush arrives, it makes it that much easier for it to take over and settle into the deep cracks. We’ve seen central sulcus infections that start in the back of the frog and run all the way up above the hairline in between the heels. These are incredibly painful and should be aggressively treated with topicals and possibly trim changes.

Frequent or Chronic Abscessing

Chronic or frequent abscessing is a sign that something is awry. Abscessing can happen due to moisture, nutrition, inflammation, health issues or even the trim. Be your horses advocate if this is happening and don’t just accept that they will always be prone to abscessing! Get your diet in check and explore hoof balancing to ensure that mechanical forces aren’t the cause of abscessing.

Bruising

White hooves sometimes get a bad rap because of the outdated notion that they are softer, and therefore weaker, than black hooves. The good thing about white hooves is that bruising is much easier to see in the hoof wall. With a darker pigmented hoof, we may not see a bruise in the hoof wall until trimming. At that point, we are seeing a sign of inflammation, far past the point where it occurred (unless that inflammation is ongoing).

The hoof wall that is currently hitting the ground is old. New hoof is growing down from the coronary band.

When you see bruising in the hoof wall whether it is recent or grown out, take note of it. If your horse has consistent bruising or that bruise appears as a “ring”, this could indicate that some form of systemic inflammation has or is taking place.

Bruising on the sole of the hoof can indicate something ‘minor’ such as a stone bruise, or you may find one underneath some bars that have been laid over and pressing into the sole. You may also see larger areas of bruising, which could indicate serious compression taking place.

Rings in Hoof Wall

One of the first warning signs to look out for would be lack of a smooth hoof wall. When you run your hands over the hoof capsule, it should feel smooth overall, there shouldn’t be numerous dips and bulges. Cracks are another thing to look out for (horizontal and vertical). When these are present, a variety of things could be happening such as systemic reactions, dietary issues, stressful events, or even trim and shoeing issues.

A hoof or hooves that shows an excessive number of dramatic event lines or rings, indicate repeated events are occurring and disrupting the integrity of the hoof. This is especially important to take note of, if they are in the form of a visible bruise ring typically seen best on a white hoof. If you notice this on your horse, please seek out veterinary assistance right away.

Chronic cracks and chips fall into this category too and often times we see these happening due to an improper trim or lengthy trim cycle. These should be gently relieved and paid special attention to, so that the hoof wall can regenerate properly in that area. If they continue to occur, I would first suggest shortening your trim cycle or learning how to properly and softly file the hoof to prevent them from reoccurring.

Pancake, Splayed Out, Flat or Flared Feet

Other warning signs are feet that splay out wide all the way around, essentially this is flaring of the entire hoof wall. Reasons this could happen are the trim method and/or nutritional imbalance. These feet may also be flat and should be checked for lack of concavity or the natural ‘cupping’ that you should be able to see when viewing the underside of the hoof. When the entire hoof capsule is showing this flared distortion (rather than just one side or section having a flare), it might indicate an issue with the connection of the hoof capsule.

Stretching in the White Line

Something else to look out for is stretching or widening of the white line - this is impossible to see on a shod horse so you should take a peek when your horse is getting a trim. A tight and uniform white line connection gives us the indication that the hoof capsule is in good standing. When the white line is widened and/or showing squiggly patterns, this tells us that something is disrupting the hoof wall connection - could be minor - could be major (warning of laminitic signs).

Without a tight hoof capsule, bacteria can invade small cracks and crevices and eat away at the connection points between the hoof wall and the white line. Many farriers and trimmers will ‘resect’ portions of the hoof wall to create an aerobic environment and kill the bacteria. Diluted bleach is also a commonly recommended topical treatment that kills all bacteria (bad and good). However, both of these treatments are becoming outdated as more people learn about the importance of a proper trim, diet balancing and non-caustic topical treatments.

What to Do

Nutrition is incredibly important to consider in all of these situations, as a mineral imbalance can affect how ‘tight’ the hoof capsule is held together, as well as the microbial environment of the tissues - internal and external. Loads of research has shown that laminitis and founder is often a result of a high sugar/high starch diet that wrecks havoc on the horses internal digestive systems, creating a systemic inflammation response in the horses body, and rears its head in the hooves. So, why would these other minor issues be any different?

I happened to overhear a Vet say “just slap a shoe on it” while staring at a horses foot that seemed to have chronic issues and quite frankly looked to be nearly in crisis. This horses hoof could hardly even hold onto a shoe due to the brittle hoof wall. Unfortunately, these issues will still ‘invisibly’ persist or morph into something else underneath that shoe. The addition of the shoe could simply be serving as a bandage that is alleviating a symptom & not solving the problem. Therefore, the horse will live in shoes the rest of their life. As soon as the shoe is removed, their bandage is removed, proper circulation begins to return & the true feeling returns to the foot - then the horse becomes lame again. So, shoes don’t always fix everything. I am not against shoeing horses - they certainly serve their purpose in many situations, but I do believe that there is lack of focus on nutrition & trim methods, and it could be a reason why so many horses need shoes!

Noticing Changes

One of the best things you can do is monitor your horses feet. This can be hard when you are just looking at and observing them all the time, so to monitor true changes, create an album on your phone and take photos of your horses feet right before each trim - and if you can, take them after the trim too! Always shoot for a level & even view so that you are taking the same picture each time, otherwise you’ll distort the hoof more than you could imagine. Take side and frontal views from the ground and one of the underside with the hoof lifted. Do this for all four feet!

I have been to facilities where various horses feet begin to look pretty similar over time. One horse might come in with near perfect feet and within 6 months, their hooves begin to match the others. Whether it’s flaring, chips, or showing reoccurring event lines. When we think about what changed in that horses life, there are several factors…
First, they are in a new place, maybe with a new routine or exercise schedule, so after some time, we may see a stress line appear in the hoof, but horses tend to adapt fairly well, so reoccurring/constant lines could give us an indication that something else is going on.
The next biggest thing that changes in their life, is often times their nutrition. They may be eating a different type of hay, and grain, and they’re also now drinking different water. This can have such an impact especially if the hay, grain and water have excessive iron content.
The environment may be different - are they stalled more or less? Where are they turned out now? Is there good manure management in both settings or are they standing in a dirty stall or run for most of the day?