One of the most common causes of sudden-onset lameness in a horse is an abscess of the hoof. These occur when bacteria invade a horse’s hoof, and the horse becomes lame when the infection reaches the sensitive structures of...
Read on for expert tips on how to prevent grass founder in horses.Picture this: a lush, green field with a horse peacefully grazing. This image is almost every horse owner’s ideal vision of their horse at his happiest. But...
Many horse owners have had the following experience: you put your perfectly healthy horse up for the night and the next morning, he walks out of the stall three-legged lame. A nightmare scenario, right? Whoa, there. It may not...
Post-workout leg care can be as hot-button a topic as blanketing among horse owners. Some riders cold hose, wrap, and/or poultice their horse’s legs, while others simply leave their horses alone. But is there a “right” way to care...
Plenty has been written about the prevention, causes, and treatment of founder, but less information is available on whether or not afflicted horses will “successfully” recover. The answer, despite the availability of clinical exams to guide prognosis, is not...
Information about laminitis in horses advances all the time, but the reality of this crippling and life-threatening disease remains the same: Living in pain with deformed hooves cripples the laminitic horse while stress, worry and bills cripple the owners.Don’t...
Some horses can go barefoot even while being ridden regularly, while others depend on shoes to stay sound under a heavy workload or in challenging terrain. There are also horses who are barefoot much of the time, and only...
As many owners will testify, horses can find the strangest ways to get hurt. Sometimes those injuries involve a foreign object that creates a puncture wound. Whether it’s running into a fence or structure, being struck by flying debris...
It’s summer. Just listen: tractors, songbirds, bullfrogs, and a chorus of earth-shaking hoof stomps are the sounds of summer around a farm. If there’s one sound we all recognize, it is that repetitive thud … thud … thud of...
There’s no denying some horses have lucked out in the genetic lottery with indestructible feet. But if your horse isn’t one of these and struggles to grow a good hoof in spite of regular trims, a good exercise program...
