The Horse Hoof

Jordan Callahan

“No hoof, no horse”

Uppermost bone of the toe

First Phalange

Second PhalangeThe second Phalange is the middle bone of the toe

The periople is the rounded protection right above a horses hoof

Periople!

The wall of the hoof has a pincer-like action The hoof wall is covered with material that prevents evaporation

of moisture. When this material is deficient, the hoof wall becomes dry and excessive flaking and cracking may occur. A good hoof paint aids in preventing excessive drying

The Wall of the Hoof

It’s the lowest bone in the toe

The Third Phalange

Side WallThe side wall is the external part of the hoof

The heel is the part behind the horses hoof

Heel

The frog is a piece of soft flexible horn under the hoof

Frog

The bulb is the swelling of the hoof wall The sesamoid is a small bone in the

metatarsus

Bulb and Sesamoid

Median Groove- Groove at the center of the hoof

Sole- Hard horny bottom of the hoof Sidewall- external part of the hoof

Median Groove, Sole, Sidewall

Extra Pics

Hoof Diseases

Navicular syndrome/disease

Example: if your horse starts pawing at the ground in his stall to try and build up the bedding under his feet, he’s trying to take pressure off of them because they hurt.

The disease appears mostly in middle aged- older show horses.

When the horse has this, it is usually short-strided, and it often leads the owners to think that the lameness is coming from the shoulder

Canker used to be seen predominantly in the hind feet of draught horses, caused by spending many hours standing on wet, dirty bedding or in filthy yards. It can, however, occur in any type of horse if the conditions are suitably unhygienic and is often initially mistaken for a non-responsive case of thrush.

It is caused by various bacteria that infect the deeper tissue of the frog and the heel. The result is the disintegration of the intertubular horn into a mass of soft vegetative strands caked in a paste of cheesy white pus, with a characteristic pungent odor and a tendency to bleed.

Poor foot care: Not regularly picking out and cleaning the feet

Canker

Horse thrush is an infection of the horse hoof. The frog portion of the horse hoof is most notable part affected by the infection. It is not a fatal disease but it can harm the tissues of the hooves. If a horse owner is unable to recognize the infection and have it treated, the tissues could become severely damaged. This could lead to lameness in an infected horse.

The organism causing horse thrush needs an environment without oxygen to thrive. This is why they generally multiply in the hoof area where oxygen supply could be impeded by dirt in the hooves.

Immediate treatment will help prevent severe lameness. What you have to do first is to ensure that your horse’s hooves are clean and appropriately trimmed. You have to regularly clean the hooves to remove dirt. Trimming should also be on a regular basis but should not be overly done. Too much trimming could also result in possible damage to the soft tissues.

Thrush

If you have a wall separation and you clean it out and put a shoe over it or use acrylics to cover it up, and you come back in 6 weeks time and the fissure is enlarged, then you probably do have white line disease.

Most horses will not show clinical lameness with white line disease even as it becomes quite advanced because white line disease does not attack the sensitive tissues. However, it is just a matter of time before the wall separation becomes so extreme that the horse will not be supported by his hoof and will no longer be usable.

White Line Disease is rare, and there is not a lot of information on it. Some experts don’t know much about it.

White Line Disease

This Happened Because… Hobo, a quarter horse yearling was standing in a mud

pit next to a metal shed. As he began to walk away, his hoof got sliced off by a piece of metal.

"Hobo sustained an injury to the lateral hoof wall on May 23, 2003. The injury removed approximately 80% of the hoof wall from the sole up to the coronary band. In the initial stages of the injury, it was unsure how much the coronary band was injured.” – Dr. Stan Brandon

"The wound was treated topically with nitrofurazone and TopicAid. The nitrofurazone was discontinued after five treatments over a 10-day period. The prescribed treatment for Hobo's injury was to drench the wound with TopicAid every other day and to keep the wound bandaged.”

As weight is placed on the hoof, pressure is transmitted through the phalanges to the wall and onto the cushion and frog.

When the foot is placed on the ground, blood is forced from the foot to the leg by the increase in pressure and by the change in shape of the cushion and the frog.

Exercise increases the blood circulation in the foot and favors good hoof growth. Lack of exercise, dryness of the horny wall, and poor hoof growth.

Normally, the hoof wall grows at the rate of about 3/8 inch per month. New layers of the hoof wall are produced continuously from just below an area called the coronet at the junction of the skin and the hoof wall.

When the Horse Walks…

Strength of foot is related to the thickness of the horn.

Horses from the hot, dry climate regions of the Middle East, where there isn’t as much grazing, have harder feet than the horses that live in more lush and grassy areas farther north.

The thicker the shell of the hoof, the more durable it is.

The pigmentation (color) of the hooves, has nothing to do with the strength of the foot.

The Foot and Breeds

http://www.lucidmedtec.com/118/sliced-hoof.html http://

extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=G2740

http://www.horsemanmagazine.com/2008/09/horse-thrush/ http://www.andalusians-for-you.com/white-line-disease.html http://

www.americanblacksmith.com/blacksmithstable/white_line_disease.htm

Sources