Have a look at the Ada Gates lessons, they will give you tons of info and give you and your farrier a clear pathway to follow. Is this a different horse again or the one you were talking about than ran to the float when you lost your stirrups?

No I didnt end up buying that horse as he was sold from underneath me :/ this is a absolute lovely mare with hardly any problems, shes fine with the farrier and picking up her hooves and stuff, shes a real sweetheart :) thanks I will go and have a look. Just im a bit worried about the near hind as its quite bad and im not sure if I should worry about it or not.

Get your farrier out immediately, if there is a crack caused by an overgrown hoof, infection can get in & you've no idea how far it may go up into the hoof.
Is it just the bottom of the wall that's broken away because they are too long?
If it is, then a proper trim will sort it out; if it's broken off higher up above the sole line, then it may be more serious, however, it'll probably just need time to grow out, but they must be trimmed now.

Her near hind is a thick and wide chip at the bottom and goes further towards the top, about 3/4 the way up and I went to check her today and her off side hind is alo chipped across the bottom and about 1/3 way up, her pront feet the ends are cracking and flaring and her feet are quite long, also ive noticed on the bottom the wall is raised quite higher than normal anove the sole so I ampretty sure she needs doing asap

It sounds as if you should get a good farrier to check her and trim her ASAP.

It sounds as if you should get a good farrier to check her and trim her ASAP.

Get her seen to asap! My old dragon has typical tb flat feet, when I got her as a 2yo she'd not had anything done with her. She had rain scald all over, mud fever past her knees & hocks and cracks in her front feet the near fore was 1 or 2 mm from her coronary band, literally weeks from being shot! I got her home called my Vet & farrier & arranged visits so they were there together to sort out how best to help her! I didn't know so much then! But good shoeing with toe clips either side & cubed Biotin (it was only available from the vet in 1988) eventually sorted her out. It took nearly 2 years to grow the worst one out.

yes i am searching for a good farrier :) i dont think she needs shoes though, but i will get the farrier out and see what he/she says :)

HelpILoveHorses, It all depends on how bad the cracks are, my mare was really bad. Winter that I'm working with has small cracks but has shoes on because she's now started ridden work and her feet were getting sore. Finding a good farrier can be difficult, had good farriers myself that dont turn up, hit the horse for the slightest thing but they do a brilliant job! My current farrier is slow but doesn't loose his rag and is very good & patient with the babies. He's also a mine of information as he has his BHSAI and he knows alot of the old boys remedies and is always happy to pass on his knowledge to those who ask & listen.

Hi Help, i thought you'd had foot problems before with another horse, what happened to that farrier?

Hi Lani - find a farrier who is barefoot sympathetic too. Can I suggest that you don't leap into shoeing too soon - the chips and cracks may, in the main, just be the fact that her feet are overgrown. However, if it's remedial shoeing then farrier needs to explain what benefit shoeing will have in terms of improving gait and balance (if he/she can't explain this then it's not remedial shoeing!!!) In an adult horse, attempts to correct gait from shoeing are generally not advisable as it can cause pain for the horse as the joint shape/stride is already established, but small balance corrections are possible alongside a schooling/longlining programme to help with balance. Cracks coming up from the floor to the coronoray band (grass cracks) can also be as a result of neglect/overgrown feet however cracks starting at coronary band and working down (sand cracks) need further investigation by farrier (had to check my course notes for this as I can never remember which is grass and which is sand crack lol) However, whichever they are, they need urgent treatment to prevent them moving. Another tip as she may have quite a bit of rasping/trimming to be done - this dehydrates the hoof so spray with water or rub ordinary moisturiser (a cheap WATER based human one is fine) - NOT hoof oil - hoof oil creates a waterproof barrier that makes it worse.

yes i am not going to consider putting shoes on her, shes got nice hard feet but havnt been done in a while :/ the cracks are i believe from flairs as they have grown waaaayy too long, the chip on the near hind is half chip half crack, the off hind is lower chips that are long and low, probably caused by flairs and overgrowth, this time of year in australia personally i wouldnt be trying to wet down the hoof, its begun to a very wet start to the year. and beryl i believe that was my old mare? her feet were much much better by the end of the year but i ended up having to give her back to the old owner :)

and i dont have a clue what that farriers number is, and he only services the area i used to be in :/

The mare had to go back? Is this the one that you were having cantering problems with? Sorry to hear that, what happened if you don't mind me asking. How's the Haflinger getting on?

the haflinger was ridden the first time in 2-3 years, she was amazing! cantering and trotting around in a frame! and i couldnt keep her any longer :/ i had no time to ride her and the old owner was interested in having her back :)

Lani, I'm a bit concerned about these horses coming and going - what you do with your time and money is of course no concern of mine but as you are sharing the info with us.... I'm glad the Haflinger did well, they are beautiful horses but if you didn't have time for the Haflinger how will you find time for this one? I may be completely wrong here but I sense you are looking for a particular horse and they are not fulfilling what you are looking for. Is there a vision that you have of what you want?

no some of them are leases, the buckskin was a lease and so was the haflinger, we bought this mare :) i had the buckskin for a little over a year and the owner wanted her back anyway :/ also the haflinger is not at mine anymore shes at a friend of mines and is ridden by another friend of mine who experienced int raining horses :) and this new mare is about 10 minutes away and we have her on DIY so i see her everyday anyway :)