Horses hooves

We are still having problems with both horses feet. The lady who trims their feet almost refused to do Daisy's any more and suggested we should put shoes on her. But given the problems we had with the shoes falling off all the time we are not keen. 

We have done some reading on the internet and a lot of people have problems with their horses feet. There are so many causes and different people find different things to help - which makes it very hard to narrow down what to do.

Our latest theory is mostly related to their diet. Partly we think they got too much sugar in the spring. This can cause a condition called laminitis where the external wall of the hoof separates from the internals of the hoof. Horses can have this very mildly, in which case the white line (which is the bit holding the two together) expands creating a small gap, allowing infection in. It then seems that they need copper and zinc in the right proportions to allow them to repair this damage and just generally for healthy hooves and skin. So we have started (a few months ago) keeping them off the grass for some of the day, partially to dry out their feet and partially to limit the amount of grass that they eat. We have now also started suplimenting them with copper and zinc as well as treating their feet with a strong antifungal  (also made with copper and zinc - called derm paste and actually aimed at cows).

It will be quite a long time until we can tell whether this treatment is working, as it takes about a year for the top of the hoof to grow down to the bottom. Both horses have had absesses recently too which can be caused by lack of copper in the diet so we will hopefully see an improvement in that too. Otherwise back to the drawing board (internet).