Picking Out Hooves Yes, I know this is very basic horsecare 101. I’ve been sitting on this video for several days because it’s so basic, I feel stupid for even talking about it and I don’t want to deal with backlash.
But, I feel like it really does need to be addressed. Thrush infection in the central sulcus of the frog, in the frog commissures of the heels, around the toe of the frog, the frog itself, and the white line/waterline - this is bad. It makes the horse tender, they start compensating, it eats away at the hoof from the bottom up, it makes them lame, it’s the beginnings of all sorts of serious hoof diseases, and it triggers inflammatory responses in the hoof.
The very deep central sulcus hole you see me digging out here, that is bad. Deep holes like that going up near the sensitive, live part of the hoof is bad. Central Sulcus should just be a shallow indent, cracks up into there are bad.
Cleanliness is one of the pillars to good health. If I clean a hoof and I’m pulling out pickfulls of pure black thrush, that is bad.
A stiff body brush is great if you need to see more of the hoof.
Thrush in itself is actually not all that scary. A strong immune system, proper trim, movement, sunlight, dry, and clean is really all you need to defeat it. If you do need a product to fight it, very gentle things can do it. It is a beast to overcome when it is flourishing in the environment that your horse is standing in 24/7. That’s when it seems like it’s impossible to overcome. Then the answer is to change the environment. If you absolutely can’t do that, there are some other products that may be able to help.
Strong, healthy tissue will be impervious to the hoof pick. Dead stuff will fall away.
0 Comments