Hoof & Horse Situations That May Point to a Nutrition Problem
- Honos Nutrition Co.
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
While hoof health is multi-factorial, nutrition can play a huge role in supporting optimal hoof growth, quality, and health.
Any physical or behavioural change could be reflective of some nutritional weakness in the diet, whether that be due to nutrient deficiencies or imbalances, or due to feeding management practices.
Here are common hoof signs of nutritional issues to look out for in your horse, as well as basic recommendations on how to manage your horse’s diet to reduce them!
Cracking hooves or poor hoof growth along with poor wound healing, recurrent thrush or skin issues: Assess current diet for trace mineral adequacy and balance, and ensure you're feeding a vitamin/mineral source in addition to forage.
Most hay is lacking key minerals for hoof health such as zinc, so a hay analysis can help you determine how much trace mineral supplementation is needed.
Depending on your geographical area, your hay may not supply enough iodine (especially if hoof cracks are accompanied by skin issues) or selenium in particular. Selenium can be toxic, so always assess the whole diet before adding more.
These should be provided by a well-matched fortified feed, such as a performance, growth, or senior feed, or by a ration balancer or vit/min premix supplement, when fed at the appropriate feeding rates for your horse.
Poor hoof growth paired with lacking topline, poor hair coat or low body condition score: Ensure adequate calories & protein in the diet.
Poor quality or mature (coarse) hay or feeding improper amounts of fortified products (not matching feed rate to body weight) may not supply sufficient digestible nutrients to fuel hoof growth.
While hay can often meet our horse's protein requirements, this will depend on the horse's needs and the hay itself - a hay test is recommended for horses with elevated protein needs (broodmares and growing horses especially), but when lower hay protein is suspected, supplementing with a source of high quality protein (soybean meal, alfalfa meal, hempseed, etc) will help cover your horse's amino acid needs.
Poor hoof quality and shifting soreness: Assess Calcium balance in the diet.
Calcium needs to be balanced with other minerals such as Phosphorus, and horses with imbalances will utilize stored Calcium from bone & hooves, weakening those structures.
Be careful if you feed unfortified bran products or 'whole food' ingredients which often have unbalanced Calcium & Phosphorus ratios.
Brittle or crumbling hooves on a horse in a dry lot or over-grazed field: Assess vitamin intake and mineral intake (see above).
Vitamin A and Vitamin E are naturally found in fresh forages, and levels in hay quickly deteriorate with storage. Horses who do not have access to pasture or supplemental vitamins may experience poor hoof quality as a result.
Oftentimes horses who are on restricted pasture receive restricted nutrition in attempt to control body condition, which leads to essential nutrients not being provided.
Some horses respond to added Biotin on top of a balanced diet as well!
Slightly foot-sore, especially in spring, times of drought or in the fall when grass tends to have higher sugars. Paired with high body condition and crest scores (great predictor for laminitis risk), consuming excessive calories and sugars/starches can contribute to laminitis flare-ups.
Control sources of excess calories and sugars/starches such as hay, pasture and cereal grains.
Uneven hoof rings (wider near heel) or ridges in the hoof wall.
This can be a sign of a whole-body issue, such as laminitis, metabolic disease, or systemic toxicity.
Control sugars and starches and excess calories (laminitis rings).
Assess diet to ensure you’re not oversupplying anything, as nutrient toxicities can compromise hoof health.
Poor hoof quality on an otherwise balanced diet: Consider digestive health, and take measures to boost both gastric and hindgut health through both diet and feeding management (minimize time without feed, multiple feed stations, etc).
Consider forage availability, quality and digestible fibers.
Manage stress and consider environmental (species-appropriate management) and physical factors (biomechanics, body comfort).
Less than ideal hoof health can often be linked to nutritional issues, so ensuring your horse is receiving a balanced diet is crucial to supporting hoof quality. Hay testing is great for identifying hay suitability & where additional supplementation is required. Need a hand? We offer on-farm hay testing + interpretation services, as well as an interpretation only service! Learn more here:
Since hoof health is multi-factorial, we also recommend that you work with a qualified hoof care practitioner, vet team and nutritionist to support animals with chronic concerns or disorders. Don’t forget the effect of environmental, mental and physical stress!
Ready to support your horse's hooves with nutrition? Check out our individualized nutrition consult options:
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