Granite Hooves

Granite Hooves Offering natural hoof care to horses, ponies, donkeys & mules in NH,ME,MA

04/20/2025

What I Feed My Horses that Don’t/Can’t Eat Grain

Most of you who follow this page know that I have a hoof rehab facility, and all the horses that come in here are on a very carefully balanced diet for hoof quality and health. And that often means NO grain.

Of course, not all the horses on my property are your typical “air ferns” or easy keepers. I think most assume that just because I don’t feed grain, I must only have super easy keepers who “don’t need the calories.” That truly isn’t the case!

I would be lying if I said it was always a cake walk to figure out every horse’s needs! Sometimes it can take some troubleshooting.

Nearly every horse that moves in here comes from a more traditional set up with a grain-based meal twice a day, varying from as little as 1lb a day of grain to 8+lbs of grain a day. Many of these horses were also stalled regularly and moved miles less a day than they do here, making their caloric needs an even bigger consideration.

But I won’t let go of the fact that I see the absolute best hooves on horses on a forage-based diet, so I start there, and adjust as needed.

MY BASE DIET for all the horses here:

HAY
⭐️EVERY horse here has 24/7 access to tested hay in slow feed hay nets. I know that most argue that not every horse can have 24/7 access to even netted hay without becoming a blimp. Fortunately, all the horses here so far over the last few years have regulated their intake once they realized the hay was never leaving. They will regularly walk the tracks, go take naps, watch whoever is in the ring, play up by the sheds (I’m looking at you, geldings), or spend hours staring at the neighbor’s “dreamy” stud muffin geldings (I’m looking at you, mares).

We DO test all our hay and look at calories, protein, sugar and starch levels, digestibility and palatability, major and minor mineral balance, and more. We feed primarily first cut hay, which is typically lower in calories and protein, but have supplemented with (TESTED) second cut hay during cold winter months in the past for some of our harder keepers with great results.

METABOLIC SAFE CARRIER FEEDS
⭐️Yes, I did say metabolic safe. No, I don’t have any “refractory” high insulin or difficult metabolic cases here. YES, I do have a handful of VERY easy keepers. But most of my horses here are not metabolic- and yet I feed them feeds that fall under the “safe” guidelines.. and their feet improve because of it. These include base feeds such as Timothy pellets, SpeediBeet, Timothy Balance Cubes, and small amounts of sanfoin pellets or StableFeed Seasons Biome blend for forage diversity. I am careful with these as they are legumes, but I haven’t noticed any hoof sensitivity (knock on wood).
-For my easy keepers, I feed as little carrier feed as possible to get them to eat their minerals. For my harder keepers, they get several pounds of carrier feed a day, and typically higher amounts of SpeediBeet beet pulp, which is good for their hind gut and more caloric while still being low sugar/starch.

MINERAL BALANCING
⭐️As I mentioned above, I test all my hay and look at the balance of ratios between the major minerals and minor minerals. I supplement based on deficiencies in the hay as well as for proper mineral ratios.
-Fortunately, right now Custom Equine Nutrition, LLC’s Vermont Blend matches my hay test VERY well, with occasionally adding extra copper and zinc from Custom Equine as well as a little added manganese from Mad Barn.

OTHER NECESSITIES
⭐️Every horse on the property also gets vitamin E in the form of Emcelle, also from Custom Equine Nutrition, as vitamin E is not available in hay and typically the horses here do not graze fresh grass. Emcelle was our choice as it’s a highly bioavailable option and very cost effective.
⭐️As horses not on pasture also need omega 3 to replace what they would normally get from grazing fresh grass, the horses here are also on either flaxseed, chia seeds, flax oil, camelina oil, or a mixture of these. We adjust this for weight as well - for example, we feed anywhere from 2oz of flax to 8 ounces of flax a day, depending on the horse’s caloric needs, and our harder keepers not sensitive to fats get 1/3c flax oil per meal, etc.

EXTRAS
⭐️Of course, every horse is an individual and some need extra help. We currently have 2 horses here that need some extra protein for muscling etc, and they get pea protein isolate (100g a day), as well as extra amino acids and BCAAs (from My Best Horse). We also have horses on a variety of herbs based on individual needs, such as raspberry leaves (hormonal), jiaogulan (soft tissue health and hoof capsule perfusion), spirulina (metabolic health and allergies), plant bioflavonoids (arthritis help) and more.

TASTE TEMPTING
⭐️Just like every barn, we have some horses who are picky eaters. For some, we may give a handful of a low sugar/starch forage-based grain to tempt them to finish every bite of their meals. And I truly mean a handful! Right now, only one rehab case here even needs any to finish her meals, and sometimes doesn’t need any added. We typically choose either Triple Crown Senior or Senior Gold, as the average starch typically falls below 4% (which is a threshold for metabolic horses), and sugar and starch tends to average below 10%, another threshold for hoof comfort. It DOES contain alfalfa, which can bother some, so we watch for that.

It is always a bit of an adjustment through the seasons and for individual horses, but overall the change in hoof health and comfort is very much worth it!

And as I always tell my rehab owners… I would absolutely prefer to see a hint of rib in movement on a rehab case, over fat pads and risk of laminitis. That being said, we do strive for a body score of 5 and properly built topline (not fat!).

If you find your horse “needs grain” or is struggling to maintain weight, I would rule out other reasons first, such as:
-not enough access to forage
-eating low protein/low calorie forage
-ulcers/gut issues
-dental issues
-undiagnosed PPID and other health concerns
-chronic pain or stress that may cause weight loss
Any and all of these can lead to a horse being a “harder keeper.”

(Side note - a huge thank you to Custom Equine Nutrition for always helping us troubleshoot diet for some of our tough cases, and for sponsoring our SOLD OUT podiatry clinic this fall!! Livestream/Video recording option still available here: https://thehumblehoof.com/product/october-25-26-2025-livestream/ )

04/20/2025

I have been asked this weekend why some trimmers leave long toes on laminitic ponies and what the methodology is behind this approach.

The truth is, i don’t do that myself, i don’t personally know anybody who does, but apparently there are trimmers out there who do. I don’t understand the logic, and can find no published research papers or studies to support or explain this methodology. Not saying it isn’t out there, but i searched for several hours today and couldn’t find anything. If this paper exists and you have a copy i’d be grateful for a link.

What i DID find, however was a plethora of university and vet studies, peer reviews, articles, lectures and books that reference the importance of bringing the breakover back on a laminitic foot. All over the planet - vets, farriers, equine podiatrists, universities, research centres, and world leading experts talk about the biomechanics of breakover, because it doesn’t just affect the toe, it can also impact bone alignment, the position of the navicular bone, and the deep digital flexor tendon etc. There is a much bigger picture surrounding breakover, whether the hoof is laminitic or not.

I was trained to study hoof biomechanics, and this is the approach that i, like most hoof care professionals understand and adopt. Therefore, rather than trying to explain a theory that makes no sense to me, i will gladly explain the science that i do understand.

Firstly, have a quick look at this link. It is a scientific study and the full document is not free, but read the intro (which IS free) and then come back: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0737080602700622?fbclid=IwAR0XMkYLI3WXah3sD2gYfVttPYY7A_-oOZ_awPZ458Psv_t25IqNOa4IMqo

So hopefully, if you read the intro you’ll see the breakover isn’t just about the toe.

To explain what breakover is: “The act of lifting the foot from the ground (heel coming up first) and rolling over the toe. The breakover point is *the portion of the hoof that is last to leave the ground*”, which would be towards the toe.

If you are interested in the bigger picture, just ask google to show you some other articles on “breakover ddft”, or “breakover navicular”, or “breakover laminitis”. There’s a ton of information from all over the world. Don’t forget to check the sources are reliable and reputable (that part is just as important as the information they provide).

Anyway, going back to the laminitis perspective, first lets talk about what is happening inside of a severely laminitic hoof. You all know that we have a hoof wall, some vascular tissue that acts a bit like velcro, and that velcro basically holds the hoof capsule in place around the pedal bone. Lets assume that in a case of laminitis where the pedal bone rotates or sinks, something happened within the body that caused the velcro to fail. So where all that velcro has torn apart, there is blood and chafing, and if the tip of the pedal bone is pointing down it is probably stabbing/damaging the blood vessels and solar corium underneath it. Excrutiatingly painful, right? All that tissue is inflamed, and the hoof wall cant expand to accommodate the inflammation, so on top of all that velcro failure and stabbing, the horse feels like its hoof capsule is a few sizes too small for everything inside it. In a low grade or less severe case, you might *only* have the inflammation (it still hurts, please dont ignore raised pulses), but for the purpose of explaining how professionals approach trimming laminitics, lets assume worst case scenario;

The hoof is catastrophically damaged on the inside. The body’s response is to try to mend the velcro. So repair horn is spewed into that gap between the wall and the bone. It seals the hoof from infection, it acts a bit like glue (the texture is much like a hot-glue-gun stick before you heat it up) and that emergency repair is what you are looking at when you see a laminar wedge.

So before long you end up with a distorted hoof wall, a wedge that is usually thickest at the toe, and mechanically, every time the hoof *breaks over*, the last part of the hoof to leave the ground is that laminar wedge/wall. There are no two ways about it, you cannot change physics, the breakover is going to be the wall at the toe, and every time that horse takes a step, mechanically that WILL apply pressure to that damaged velcro behind the wall above it. Not only is this excrutiatingly painful, it is also detrimental to the healing process. The reason you see laminitic horses leaning their weight back onto their heels, and/or moving with a short choppy action is because the toe is so sore. So it makes sense that this posture/action is because they are trying to avoid the pain of the pedal bone stabbing into solar corium, and the pain of the wall at the toe being in contact with the ground.

Standard trimming protocol, whether you are a farrier, a vet, or a barefoot trimmer is to 1) lower the heels. In doing so, you change the angle of the pedal bone so that it isnt pointing down so much. It is less painful, and it prevents further damage to the tissue/blood supply. You do not have to trim the heels OUT of the foot. Just di whatever you can within reason to change the angle of the pedal bone. 2) apply a really strong bevel to the toe. That *brings the breakover back*, and thus removes any force from being applied to the wall at the toe. Primarily, this reduces pain. It helps healing. It changes forces on the ddft and other structures within the foot. It can save lives. Again, you DO NOT need to butcher that toe, but you do need to get it off the ground, leaving the toe pillars on the ground at 10 and 2, and making sure, again, you are not dropping the horse on the sole at the toe.

Important: Don’t let anyone tell you that physics and ground force reactions do not exist.

There are many other ways in which hoof care professionals can apply additional methods to help, and that will vary depending on their skillset, but we all know the absolute essentials: lower the heels and get the dorsal wall off the ground. Make that horse as comfortable as you can and in doing so, give it a fighting chance to heal. That’s what we do, and why in a nutshell.

I will add a disclaimer at this point to say if you suspect your horse has laminitis, call your vet. You can call your HCP too if you want, thats fine but ALWAYS call the vet, not only because they are the ones who can prescribe painkillers and do xrays.

As a side note, this article isnt really about all the stuff an owner needs to do when they suspect laminitis. There are loads of other places and posts which cover that aspect, and i am forever going on and on about diet on my fb page… but I read something this morning which suggested that changing the diet is more important than the trim. I’m not here to talk about the diet aspect, but i WILL say if your horse is rotating through his soles and his life is on the line, your priority should always be to call the vet, discuss pain relief and request xrays to assess the damage. Yes, you will need to make nutritional changes, yes you need to do that FAST, but you can soak a haynet while you’re waiting for the vet and deal with the actual hoof first.

Again, there are thousands of resources out there. Credible, scientifically backed sources, studies, peer reviews and articles written by universities, veterinary schools, people who are pioneering research into their fields and have done the maths. These people are world leading experts who dedicate their 9-5 careers to research. They can’t all be wrong… Please don’t take my word for it, see for yourself: www.google.com

04/20/2025

Normal lamellae are distinct structures, they look white (epidermal lamellae) and red ( dermal lamellae). They literally lock together and there are also strong fibres running from the inside of the capsule and attaching to the coffin bone.

Healthy lamellae are shown on the first photo.

The second photo, scrutinise it.
Write down all the differences you see. Then let’s go through them together and work out what is happening. They look similar but they are very much the opposite!

Just to help you - the laminar bond is pretty flexible and it accounts for quite a large % of energy dissipation at each foot fall.

With flexibility comes stretch. Laminae can stretch and stretch far too much for too long.
This is typical in diet/insulin related laminitis.

Stretching still causes problems jn the foot. It’s the precursor to ripping so the termed stretched white line is inportant to understand. It’s one of the things we can see in the living horse.

Blood flecks in the white line are other warning signs.

Tomorrow I’ll go through the similarities and differences in these 2 photos and help you understand.

Folks, I understand that many of you are pretty well qualified to understand my posts but the folk I’m wanting to help are those new on their hoofcare journey. So let’s help them with their learning.

And also help me!

Let’s learn together.

In this case I am focussed on newish onset, diet related insulin related laminitis.

Not concussion, not supporting limb, not chronic.

Id be very grateful if you would consider sharing my post thank you. We need horse owners to be educated on laminitis

Thanks my sponsors that are listed in the comments. The slice was taken like a stack of pennies.

03/13/2025

Navicular Rehab and Hoof Adaptability

Looking at these photos, which are of the SAME FOOT by the way, you think I’d be ecstatic with the change in the back half of the foot (and corresponding progress to soundness for this horse).

But to be honest, I almost get a little angry.

I get angry that so many navicular cases like this case are given up on or told to be euthanized just because they have such a weak foot, without attempting to strengthen it or take the time to grow in a healthier hoof.

I get angry that the navicular bone damage or DDFT/collateral ligament/other soft tissue damage is blamed for lameness, without the health of the frog or hoof capsule taken into account.

I get angry that people constantly blame genetics or conformation for things like low heels, long toes, thin soles.

I get angry that people say that the digital cushion and back half of the foot “can’t improve” once it has atrophied.

I look at these photos and see this beautiful gelding trotting by soundly, rehabbed back to ridden work last year walk/trot/canter after so many gave up on him, and want to scream it from the rooftops: diet and movement can mean the difference between crummy feet and rockcrunching feet, proper hoof rehab can mean the difference between, quite literally, life and death.

That’s my drama post for the day.

Photos both show the same untrimmed foot mid-cycle (first was after shoe pull, before hoof rehab), which was the previously lame foot on a navicular case with bone damage and corresponding soft tissue damage, as well as other body-wide compensations. Apologies for the dirty mud season foot 🙃

(If you want to learn more about how we rehab navicular cases, I have an entire ebook on it here - print copy is sold out and on backorder currently) - https://thehumblehoof.com/product/navigating-navicular-disease-an-optimistic-guide-for-a-pessimistic-diagnosis-ebook/

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East Kingston, NH

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