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RP has pretty good pony feet but between the vet wet conditions and lots of bug stomping, he does end up with some light flaring towards the end of his cycle. And I'm wondering if a hoof supplement might help give a bit extra hardness. Though, admittedly I know little about them and am not sure if they actually do much of anything.

Has anyone used any with success?

I feed all my supplements one by one so I know what works. I follow a lot of barefoot groups and read. The best thing is biotin and copper and zinc. I don't know if it will help with flaring, but the biotin is cheap, and copper and zinc will also give them amazing coats.

Thanks, Tanga, very helpful!

What about amounts? I'm trying to compare based on what he will be getting of those three in other formats. He's about to start a ration balancer that will get him 75mgs of copper, 225 mgs of zinc, and 5mgs of biotin. I will need to look up amounts for hoof support, but perhaps he only needs added biotin.

Maybe your farrier could give you some tips on rasping to keep them in shape a bit between trims?

blob wrote:Thanks, Tanga, very helpful!

What about amounts? I'm trying to compare based on what he will be getting of those three in other formats. He's about to start a ration balancer that will get him 75mgs of copper, 225 mgs of zinc, and 5mgs of biotin. I will need to look up amounts for hoof support, but perhaps he only needs added biotin.

Your copper and zinc have to balance out the iron in the feed, water, hay, and grass. This can be really challenging to figure out, so I think most people just supplement with something like Uckele Poly Copper and Poly Zinc fed according to the label instructions.

I gave up on biotin after I read somewhere that the amount you need in a supplement to actually affect growth is so high, I could never have gotten my horse to eat that much power. As long as the horse meets their daily minimum requirements in their regular feed, hay, and grass, I don't think supplementing biotin is that helpful.

You may need to shorten your trim cycle with your farrier in the summer to avoid the flaring and chipping. I have a rasp and can take off back chips if needed, but would not be able to address any flaring between trims.

I just use the amounts on the biotin, copper and zinc I buy. I get the Uckele. It can be tricky to get them to eat the copper and zinc. That amount looks low. I'm not the expert. If you want, you can go on Dave Ramey's site, and Facebook groups have a lot of people who are really good at this like Barefoot Trimmers and Oda Barhof's site--where a lot of people went when Dave Ramey stopped doing his.

I guess a big issue is that many horses get way too much iron. It's not good for the feet and it's way too much in a lot of processed feeds and things like the mineral salt blocks.

There's a fb group called "managing horses to prevent iron overload" started by a friend of mine. She's got a lot of good knowledge and presents it simply.

Iron and Manganese can both cause issues when over-supplied.

One of my trimming clients has started to address her known high iron and manganese (results from water and soil testing, and appearances/issues in the horses). She has started seeing results within weeks. I am due to see the horses in another fortnight, I could see their weight had improved, coats become less "starey", and hooves in 2/3 were in better condition than normal (the other one is aged, has melanomas, and is potentially on her last few weeks - her hooves have deteriorated recently, I suspect there are other systemic issues causing this).

With my trimmer hat on - stamping itself doesn't cause flares. Uneven loading and weightbearing through the movement patterns, uneven trimming, and too-long trim cycles are more likely to be the culprit (if you don't have dietary, lifestyle or lack-of-movement issues present).

Thanks all. Unfortunately a shorter trim cycle isn't an option as the farrier is quite busy. We're on 5 weeks cycle currently.

Silk--in terms of other issues--I'm in a very wet part of the country so I'm sure that doesn't help. As for dietary, RP has up untill just now been on basically a forage only diet. He gets only 1lb of grain a day, which is no where close to enough to meet the nutritional requirements. But larger amounts made him gassy. So, I upped the forage to meet his caloric needs, including alfalfa which gets him protein. But because this was likely not sufficient for vitamin/mineral balance I've add a forage balancer just this week. So, too soon for there to be any improvement yet.
It's possible he has uneven weight bearing, but he gets flaring towards the end of the cycle in all 4 hooves. So, I thought it might be something else

I just use farriers formula.

I have used Farriers formula And I thought I saw a good results.

blob wrote:Thanks all. Unfortunately a shorter trim cycle isn't an option as the farrier is quite busy. We're on 5 weeks cycle currently.

Silk--in terms of other issues--I'm in a very wet part of the country so I'm sure that doesn't help. As for dietary, RP has up untill just now been on basically a forage only diet. He gets only 1lb of grain a day, which is no where close to enough to meet the nutritional requirements. But larger amounts made him gassy. So, I upped the forage to meet his caloric needs, including alfalfa which gets him protein. But because this was likely not sufficient for vitamin/mineral balance I've add a forage balancer just this week. So, too soon for there to be any improvement yet.
It's possible he has uneven weight bearing, but he gets flaring towards the end of the cycle in all 4 hooves. So, I thought it might be something else

5 weeks is not bad, it's certainly better than most (6-8-10-12!).

There are some things that can be done to address flare, your hoof person needs to understand how to do it correctly so as to not do "too much" or "too much in the wrong place" and cause other issues. IE 'appropriately' thinning the wall towards the bottom, relieving or otherwise addressing physics of the wall/heel/toe angles... etc. These may help the hoof help itself.

I buy human biotin tablets on Amazon and it costs me 5c for 10mg. I haven't looked at every horse supplement in existence, but they seem to be more expensive. I also supplement with copper and zinc. I use the Uckele powders, but they smell bad and I wouldn't be surprised if a pickier horse didn't eat them. I have heard that adding fat to the diet can help the hoof because it forms a moisture barrier, and that amino acids are also very important.

Lots of good ideas on the thread. Emi (barefoot) is prone to flaring, so I usually have her trimmed every 4 weeks. I'm also a fan of seaweed type products for overall hoof health/quality. I see a difference when I don't supplement with them. I don't add biotin.