Murphy Hoof Care

09/04/2024

A little rescue rehab this morning! This lovely lady had some serious pain and behavioral issues that led to her not being able to be trimmed for quite a while. Today was her day! She now on great a pain management plan and that allowed us to work with her, drug free, to get her feet back to a balanced state.

08/29/2024

Did you know that MANY horses can benefit from glue on shoes? Did you know that they're not just for therapeutic cases?

Check out the EasyShoe Speed on this Endurance gelding! He needs a little extra protection on rough terrain and the Speed offers him just that. With integrated frog support and added traction, he's going to be pretty happy to cruise down the trails in these.

12/31/2023

Meet Marlie! He's a sweet, off track thoroughbred gelding that was having some comfort and balance issues with his feet. His owner reached out in an effort to find someone who could help get him more comfortable after hitting a plateau with his progress. These pictures were taken roughly 12 weeks apart. The only change in Marlie's management was hoof care. Feed, turnout, work load, and everything else remained the same.

So what happened and why does he look SO different with only 1 change? Discomfort in horses causes a boatload of issues all throughout the body! Because his feet were uncomfortable his posture was poor which caused tense muscles and increased pain. That resulted in a compromised ability to move around adequately on his own and graze as much. Additionally, when horses are in pain their body doesn't utilize nutrients properly and they're unable to maintain a healthy weight. By balancing his feet and getting him shod in a package that promoted comfort, he was able to adjust his posture, relax his muscles, move and graze more, and is now a LOT more energetic. We still have a long ways to go to get him 100% comfortable, but his rapid changes were shocking to everyone involved in his care.

Since our last visit his owner has reported that he's never felt more balanced under saddle and that "this dude now thinks he's truly ready for the races"!

Happy New Year everyone! Definitely looking forward to a Balanced and Comfortable 2024!

12/25/2023

10/27/2023

As we receive our torrential downpour, this came around in the feed again. Muddy and/or wet conditions are not safe to work in. Only thing worse than a muddy leg is a freshly washed leg. If you can't keep your horse dry or allow them time to dry, please let your hoof care provider know. Sometimes it's as simple as being able to towel dry, other times, you may just need to reschedule.

09/29/2023

The 4 to 6 week hoof schedule... Why is it important?

Hoof Care plays a significant role in maintaining the overall health and well-being of our equine companions. Regular trimming and shoeing is essential to prevent a wide variety of issues and ensure proper growth. Hooves, much like our own fingernails, continually grow. If left unattended, excess length can result in compromising a horse's overall soundness and comfort.

1. Regular maintenance helps eliminate any imbalances or issues that may arise due to uneven wear or growth patterns.
2. Excessively long hooves can lead to too much leverage on the hoof wall. This can result in breakage, flaring, or even deep cracks forming, causing discomfort and potential lameness.
3. By maintaining a regular hoof care schedule, we can address any imbalance or misalignment in the horse's hooves. Correcting these issues not only improves the horse's overall soundness but also helps prevent future complications. Additionally, in foals under 9 months of age we can also help to correct incorrect alignment in the legs.

Neglecting to keep a tight hoof care schedule can have serious implications for your horse's well-being. By the time a horse's foot looks long, it has been too long for quite a while.

1. When hooves are not trimmed or shod regularly, the excess length puts pressure on the joints and tendons, leading to lameness and chronic pain. This not only affects their mobility but also their overall quality of life.
2. Long hooves are prone to breakage, flaring, and cracks. These issues not only cause discomfort but can also lead to more severe complications such as hoof infections or abscesses.
3. Unmaintained hooves can significantly impact a horse's athletic performance. Imbalanced feet or discomfort can result in a decrease in agility, balance, and overall performance, whether it's for leisure riding or competitive events.

Here are some steps you can take to help your horse maintain great hoof health!

1. Consult with your hoof care professional to determine the best trimming or shoeing schedule for your horse. They will consider factors like the horse's activity level, hoof quality, and any specific needs to provide tailored care. Consider getting xrays for them if your horse has compromised feet.
2. Frequent care plays a crucial role in maintaining hoof health. Regularly pick out hooves, looking for any signs of damage or infections. Keep the hooves clean and dry to prevent the growth of bacteria or fungi. You can also use a variety of gentle products to address any sort of minor infection.
3. A well-balanced diet rich in essential nutrients is vital for healthy hoof growth. Ensure your horse's diet includes proper protein, vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids. There is a crazy amount of different feeds and supplements on the market and more being added daily. Do your research, get recommendations, and take pictures monthly of your horse's condition and hoof quality to really see the difference.
4. Regular exercise not only promotes overall health but also contributes to maintaining strong hooves. Movement stimulates blood circulation in the hooves, ensuring an adequate supply of nutrients and promoting natural hoof wear. As often as possible, try to get your horse turned out or under saddle!

Hoof Featured belongs to an 8yo Endurance Gelding and is fed by Mad Barn, 100X Equine, Purina Horse Feed, and MVP!

08/17/2023

Just a little cleaning up this morning... this sweet gelding got lucky with his new owner we're getting him all sorted out. He's a lot more comfortable and we're excited to see how his feet recover over the next few cycles.

06/27/2023

Sometimes it's best to keep things simple. This hoof belongs to an OTTB gelding that was unsound for a very long time. He was uncomfortable in the shoe package that is pictured as the before shot. A wedge pad and magic cushion packing with an open heeled rim shoe. His heels were so long and underrun that using the back half of his foot was not comfortable. My first visit I pulled that package, trimmed him up, and set a breakover reduction shoe with frog support to help stimulate the back of his foot as well as reducing the leverage on the toe. By doing this, his toe was not able to drag the heels forward as much and having those heels trimmed down allowed them to start coming back in without that encouragement to run forward. There was significant improvement I that first cycle and we were able to move to a composite shoe with the same mechanics built in at the toe to start his barefoot transition. He went 2 cycles in the composite shoes before we tried to leave him barefoot for the first time. He was sound barefoot and has been out of shoes since then. Every visit shows improvement still, and it's been a year now. There's still more improvement to be made, but this guy didn't need an elaborate (and expensive) shoe package. He just needed a solid trim and good balance. Hooves are resilient and keeping it simple can often get the results needed for optimal health and soundness.

Now, this isn't an anti-shoe post. I'm all for using shoes where shoes are needed. That said, shoes aren't needed nearly as often as most would think.

01/30/2023

Well at least some good is coming of these freezing temps! Bailey has been stuck inside since it rained and her clogs cannot get wet. Now that the ground is frozen it's bo longer wet and she can get a some much needed turnout. It sure does look like she appreciates some space to stretch her legs!

01/20/2023

Check out that strut!

Bailey has been outfitted with a wooden clog package to help relieve tension on her tendons and ligaments, cushion her heels, provide support for her hoof, and relieve sole pressure. We had to get a little creative as her feet are so tiny. There are no commercially available clogs that would fit her so we fashioned our own! We glued them on her and she was instantly more comfortable and able to move around a lot easier. We've still got a long road ahead, but we are least on a solid path to recovery. We can't upload 2 videos at a time so her "before" video will be in the comments.

01/15/2023

Please welcome Bailey to our facility at Lazy AF Ranch! Bailey belongs to a friend of ours that needs some help getting her back to a healthy weight and through her laminitic crisis. She just picked her up from a home that loved her dearly, but showed that with a bit too much food. Ponies are very feed efficient and are prone to laminitis. Now that she's off pasture, she will receive a diet that is optimal for laminitic ponies and we will be actively tending to her hooves until she's sound and fully recovered!

01/01/2023

For this new year goals should be set reasonably. Sometimes things don't work out how we expect or want them to. Sometimes the best job we can do isn't the one we want to put out in the world.

These pictures are from this past week, one of the last days of work for the year. This is a young draft horse's foot. He's a big baby, was nervous and wiggly, but tried his best to figure out the job he was given (to stand still and get a trim). Is this the work I want to call 'finished'? Absolutely not, but this was the best he could do and therefore we left it balanced, shorter, and more functional than before. It isn't pretty. It isn't worthy of photos and having its own post. But it is the best that could be done under the conditions that day. This was a reasonable outcome for the situation. Next time will be better. He can be better prepared. We can be better prepared. The goal for next time is a little bit more. That bar is a little bit higher, but it isn't out of reach.

If you're the resolution type, set your bars within reach. Make your goals attainable. Add a little along the way. Forgive yourself when you fall short the first few times, there's no shame in trying again. And again. And again. Take breaks. Recharge.

This past year was rough for a lot of people, for many in very unexpected ways.

This year starts on a day of rest. Take care of yourself, be forgiving to you, and Happy New Year from Murphy Hoof Care!

11/14/2022

Progress with severe rehab cases is sometimes painfully slow. This gelding has been featured here before, but not long ago we tried a different package to really amp up his healing abilities (fingers crossed)! From the top, his foot has looked a ton better and he's been sound for quite a while. However, from the bottom there hasn't been a huge amount of progress as you can see in the solar comparison shots. Yes, the separation is gone and hoof shape has improved, but the frog and heel buttress haven't changed a lot. His frogs are a little more plump and have widened a touch (which is great), but his digital cushion is just not regaining health like it needs to. So this time around he got a 3D Hoof Care Frog Support pad with soft dental impression material to stimulate the back half of his foot while offering the maximum amount of protection and comfort. Underneath the DIM is CS Plus Hoof Treatment to keep bacteria and fungus at bay throughout the cycle. All that said, progress can still be extremely slow despite our best efforts. Slow progress is still progress!

10/03/2022

Equine hooves aren't all that are taken care of here at Murphy Hoof Care! Goats, llamas, alpacas, and cattle all need regular hoof care as well and we can help you with that.

09/28/2022

Just a little donkey fixing this morning! We're not 100% back to normal, but a heck of a lot closer and 1000x more comfortable!

09/24/2022

Following up on the last post, this hoof is a phenomenal example of positive change growing down. 2 things changed in this horse's life roughly 5 months ago. The supplement Remission by Animed was added and regular trims began. This gelding didn't have any crazy distortion or crazy before and after first trim transformation when we first started with him. However, he did have a ton of surface cracking, weak outer walls, and a not so great connection between his internal and external structures. Nutrition is big. Nutrition can fix the surface cracks (sometimes) and can assist in strengthening the bond between structures, especially if followed up by regular trimming to reduce mechanical force. There is a very clear line around the hoof where you can see the texture of the wall change and the cracks all but stop. This was the point in time that the 2 changes occurred. Given the full year, his entire capsule will grow down to be that new, tight, and healthy hoof wall with a better angle than before. You can't see it from the top, but this horse has also put down a thicker sole and is more sound now that he doesn't have a stretched toe and underrun heels. There's definitely more progress to be made, but what is being seen here is fantastic!

08/22/2022

Ripples, rings, cracks, lines, defects in the hoof wall. These have many different names and even more causes! Every horse will experience at least one of these at some point in their life and it's important to be able to identify the cause. A horse's hoof is a window in to their well-being and will tell you a story as they grow in. Generally, it takes one year for a horse to completely regenerate a hoof so you can read a year's worth of information at any given point in time.

In the first photo there are horizontal lines that follow the growth pattern around the toe, but seem to fall before reaching the heel. This guy had chronic, low-grade laminitis (chronic inflammation) from poor diet along with severely under-run heels that we were in the process of correcting. Above those lines the wall appears smoother and no longer displays that defect or any indication of inflammation. This is because we were able to reduce sugars in his diet and reduce the inflammation present as well as bring his heels back towards the point where they need to grow in at to make the back half of the foot healthier.

The second photo is the result of a coronary band injury that interrupted growth temporarily. This crack had already been opened up to be cleaned out and investigated before we filled it with a glue compound to provide stability and prevent debris from falling in and causing issues. In this particular case, this mare was never lame and the exact cause of the injury was never identified. The ripples above the crack indicate that there was some prolonged inflammation in that area as it grew down, but they do not continue around the entirety of the hoof and do not indicate chronic inflammation of the entire foot. Since this photo, the entire crack has grown down without issues and is 100% gone. Smaller horizontal cracks that seem to randomly open up on the hoof wall can be caused by abscesses blowing out through the wall itself or the coronary band and growing down.

Large, well defined rings that are present on the hoof wall in only 1 level on each foot can indicate a particular insult to the body or metabolism. These could be anything from a major feed change, vaccines, fever, or any other major life change your horse may experience.

V shaped cracks that develop on the hoof wall could indicate a fungal infection.

Vertical cracks could be caused by something as simple as waiting too long between trims (4-6 weeks being optimal based on each horse) or as serious as white line disease. Poor nutrition, vitamin and mineral imbalance, stomping at flies, and spending too much time in the water can also cause vertical cracks.

If you notice something on your horse's feet you should discuss it with your farrier and veterinary team to get it addressed. There's never a wrong time to voice concern and advocate for your horse and most of the time when things are caught early, they're a much easier fix!

08/16/2022

Mr Sly has been working hard at growing new feet! This is roughly 13 months of progress and he had to have an entire lifestyle change. He had experienced an acute laminitis episode with rotation (founder) just over 2 years before the first photo and had recovered from that, but was still experiencing chronic bouts of laminitis. Because he was experiencing consistent inflammation causing a weak connection between the inner and out layers of his feet, his hooves grew inconsistently and with a ton of flare which is why his walls look wavy and dished. He was actually surrendered in to our care and we were able to address his issues from every angle. He was roughly 200 pounds overweight and was on a diet that was far too high in sugar for his metabolism to handle. Armed with new xrays of his feet and some helpful weight loss medications from the vet, we were able to get him comfortable within the first 2 weeks and down to a healthy weight after about 10 weeks. After that he remained on a diet full of the nutrients he needed, but super low in sugars. He was so comfortable that we were able to evaluate his training level and get him back under saddle for the first time in years. He turned out to be an absolutely wonderful and willing partner who was adopted out to a family that adores him and still has us taking care of his feet! That family has facilitated his healing and health by keeping tight control over his nutrition and keeping him on a tight shoeing schedule. He still has more healing to go, but he's come a really long way already!