Hello,

Just looking for a little assistance from any of the farriers out there. I have a 4 year old QH colt that has vertical toe cracks on both front feet, about 1/2 inch long. He gets trimmed +/- 8 weeks and I do my own shoeing/trimming with very good results (this is the only colt that has issues). I trim him to what appears to be a good length and roll the toes where the cracks show up.

Just looking for any suggestions as to how to stop the toe cracks from reoccurring. He gets good quality hay with some alfalfa and vitimains daily.He has had the cracks for about 6 months now. He is never sore footed or lame, I just hate to see the cracks come back. Other than the cracks his feet have nice shape and composition.

Thanks for any help.

He just might have naturally dry hooves. Try painting the hooves with mineral oil a couple of times a week.

When you trim the hoof and look at the hoof wall from the ground surface, does the crack go all the way through into the lamina? If the crack doens't go all the way through to the lamina, many times it won't be a problem. It could possibly be the white line disease. If the bacteria isn't removed from the lamina, white line disease will never go away.

Never file a horizontal line with your rasp at the top of a crack in an attempt to stop the crack from going higher up the hoof. The horizontal line will make a weak spot and with pressure, the crack will follow a path of least resistence and if the crack goes horizontal, more damage and greater damage to the hoof will occur. The best way to stop a crack is to measure the thickness of the hoofwall, heat up a steel rod that is about 1/4" in diameter. Burn a hole through the hoofwall at the top of the crack only to the depth of the hoofwall without going into the lamina. There are no weak spots in a circle and the pressure will not lengthen the crack. The hole will grow down and the crack will disappear.

Mike mentioned using mineral oil for dry hooves. I am against the use of mineral oil or other oil based hoof dressings. Water is natures hoof moisturizer. Oil based products repel water and will prevent any water from entering the hoof wall. The hoof wall is basically dead material, it cannot be brought back to life. The hoof wall needs to be kept moist at the coronary band to promote the new growth to form the way it should. It is far better to use lanoline based hoof dressings because lanoline is water soluable and doesn't repel water. Corona bag balm is a lanoline based product that does wonders for dry hooves.

Do the cracks widen when you pick the foot up? Or widen when the foot is bearing weight? Are the cracks hairline cracks or wide? When you pick up the hoof can you see if the cracks originate from the white line area? From a little blackened hole in the white line/ sole area?
If they are just hairline and do not originate from the sole they may just be cosmetic. If they are wide and move when the foot moves then you can probably do something about them. ie shoe with clips, staple them closed, etc. And if they are more than cosmetic the most important thing to do is have them trimmed to balance. Even though you do your own shoeing Maybe you could have a farrier come and trim/shoe him and hopefully the "professional" could get you a better baseline on how that particular horse needs to be set.
It is hard to say without pictures or at least some more info.
I have been shoeing for over 25 years. www.farrierfair.blogspot.com