Dry hooves/cracking!

[Silverspring]

My girl is kept barefoot has been since about September 2008. Her feet have always been perfect, they split slightly as the nail holes grew out but since then she has never had a chip or s crack, she's trimmed every 5 - 6 weeks (as the other horse's are shod on this schedule) and last time she was trimmed she had a small chip but mainly on the wall of the hoof not going to the white line area.

The past week her feet have fallen apart! She has another chip in the hoof wall were it is almost pealing, like when you're nail splits into layers? And the back hoof has a huge chunk out of it. She's not foot sore but I feel itmust be to do with the weather...or could it be diet? How long does the horn take to grow from coroney band to tip?

What would everyone recommend for keeping her feet moist? I don't feet so no suppliments, I'm using Leovet Hoof Moist just now but I'm not sure how effective it is!

cookie and moist hooves for getting this far

[amymay]

Kevin Bacons foot dressing.

[Newmarket]

I use keratex on the yard for my t/b's its very good, expensive about £28 a tub but very good, it hardens hooves and helps cracks!

[Donkeymad]

A complete hoof takes from between 9 - 12 months to grow.
Stanidng the feet in water daily is good, otherwise something like Effol is good.
Not sure about this 'splitting' thing though, is the white line OK?

[carolineb]

Kevin Bacon hoof dressing again - my farrier said on Friday how impressed he was with my TB's feet and said they were amongst the best he'd seen condition wise all summer. Horse has kevin bacon on every day and it seems to work!!

[Cyberchick]

Interesting as I had the farrier this morning and he commented on how much softer my horses feet were since I started putting Kevin Bacon on as last time he said they were rock hard and had started to crack a little. This change is within 3-4 days.

[Silverspring]

Cool I'll try that.

Her white lines seem ok but I'll get the farrier to check next time he's out, the split in the hind is quite deep almost down to the white line, not sure I'm going to be able to boot behind til it grows out.

I was asking re the growth time so I could think of anything that happened in the past that could have weakened her feet...maybe going barefoot?!

[burge]

Kevin Bacon applied after washing the feet in water keeps them elastic and less likely to crack etc.

[Springs]

we have a mare whoes hoofs are always very poor cracking etc, put her on blue chip dynamic and they have improved tenfold.

[ischa]

your not the only one my mare usally has really good feet, but last time she was trimmed she had a very small crack but nothing to worry about and farrier said it would grow out ,

but then again went down this morning to find my mare hoof really cracked and i mean cracked ive been told to just stand her feet in water and not to apply any hoof oil as it drys them out more