Winter’s finally arrived…you don’t have to worry about feeding your horse!

After all, you don’t ride much, if at all during the winter. So, why waste the money on hay and feed? Sound ridiculous? Of course it does, no reasonable horse owner would agree with such a philosophy. Actually, most of us pay greater attention to our horse’s food intake to maintain a healthy winter weight.

Yet, so many horse owners put hoofcare on the back shelf during the winter. There is this popular misconception that a horse’s feet do not grow during the cold weather. As a general rule, the rate of grow does slow during the winter months, but each horse should be individually assessed. Commonly, a horse which is typically maintained every 6 weeks can be trimmed every 8 weeks during the winter months with no ill effects, assuming the hoof is free of pathologies.

It is important to remember that the goal of any hoofcare program is to be preventative, not corrective. While this is true of all horses, it is especially true of a horse that has been rehabilitated from a condition such as crushed heels or caudal heel pain. Allowing such a horse to go all winter without seeing a farrier can often put the horse back into rehabilitation mode. Remember, a farriers’ worth isn’t based upon the amount of hoof he trims off, but in recognizing subtle imbalances that need to be corrected to maintain the structural soundness of the foot. Regularly scheduled trims also make it possible to detect and treat conditions such as thrush before they become serious problems.

Year round hoofcare is also especially important for the barefoot performance horse. This can be especially frustrating for me, as a barefoot advocate and professional trimmer. Many of the failed attempts to go barefoot happen because the horse wasn’t properly maintained during the off season. At the risk of being redundant, if you wait until the beginning of the riding season, whether recreational or competitive, to have your horse trimmed to perform barefoot be prepared for inconsistent results. This also leads to an inaccurate appraisal of your horse’s ability to perform barefoot and the necessity to protect the foot with a shoe or boot. Simply put, if you want your horse to go barefoot the foot needs to be consistently maintained.

The byproducts of inconsistent trimming include flaring of the hoof wall, white line separations, cracking and improper landing because of a disproportional hoof. These conditions aren’t always accompanied by a visibly long hoof wall when viewing the underside of the hoof. This is true regardless of the season, but the erroneous belief that the hoof does not grow during the winter can taint your observation. In many cases the foot grows forward rather than upright, crushing the heels while robbing the foot of its concavity and lowering the internal structures of the foot within the hoof capsule. Again, many of these evils can be concealed with a shoe, but you still have a compromised foot that isn’t getting any healthier, rather its dependence on the shoe increases and the cycle continues.

Even after reading this I know there is still the temptation to let them go a little longer because it is the winter. Keep in mind that when a hoof is overgrown not only are the structures of the foot affected, but the entire horse is affected. Ligaments and tendons are strained, the stride is altered and the comfort of the horse is compromised. Avoiding such problems begins with regular farrier appointments, regardless the season. Until next time, God Bless you and your equine partners.