I had the pleasure of attending Pete Ramey's clinic at Scott Roger's place in Port Townsend last week, at which he emphasized the relationship between our horses' diets and their feet. I came away with a few insights to share with you possible improvements we can all make at home and here at Freedom Farm.
Before saying much about shoe removal and hoof care, Pete emphasized that that most of our horses' hoof problems come from imbalances in diet, and that most horse owners could become more 'feed aware'. The two main areas of concern are excess sugar, and mineral imbalances.
Restricting sugar in our horse's diet: He explained that if horses, like humans, eat too much sugar, it can lead to inflammation and funguses. Inflammation is generally a sign of compromised metabolism, and fungus usually manifests as chronic thrush in our horse's feet.
He recommends that we don't use feeds with added sugars, such as molasses, and also that we restrict grazing during high sugar hours (10 AM to 7 PM).
Regarding minerals: Pete recommended having hay analysis done to assure that our horses are getting the right balance of minerals. Our area's soils and water are likely to be high in iron, which suggests that we may need to supplement with copper and zinc as a counterbalance. (Also, those horses particularly sensitive to sugars might benefit from supplemental magnesium.)
Pete recommended talking to the folks at California Trace about proper supplementation. So I did just that: I talked to Sally Hugg, who in turn recommended I send a hay sample for analysis to Equi-Analytical. http://www.equi-analytical.com/default.htm
Note: If you are one of Jerry Schmidt's hay customers, I hope to have more information for you next month about the analysis, as well as any supplements recommended.
In the mean time, let's all become more feed-aware!
(Originally published August 2014)
