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Tutorial: How To Care For Your Horse’s Feet

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Tutorial - How To Care For Your Horse's Feet

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We found a great article on the important subject of taking care of your horse’s hooves. The link is after our commentary.

Unfortunately, a significant number of horse owners “put a foot wrong” in surmising that hoof care is not of great concern. What’s more, an even more staggering number of horse owners actually assume that the task of keeping hooves and the feet in ideal condition should only rest solely upon the shoulders of a farrier – the hoof care specialist. True, a farrier’s skills in trimming and balancing of horse’ hooves are a very much welcomed help from a professional, but some foot care practices can be accomplished by any typical horse owner alone. Routine cleaning of the feet using a hoof pick and preventing them from drying out are examples.

The feet support the horse in carrying its own body weight and act as shock absorbers. This is no mean task because we’re talking 800 to 1,200 pounds of equine muscles, bones, and skin altogether here for light riding horses or 1,100 to 1,300 pounds for large ones! Add to that the additional weight of saddle and rider and you begin to understand the extreme pressure that the hooves are required to withstand. Good conformation of each foot is absolutely vital to the normal activities of any horse. Weak feet only mean one thing: An animal that is not only suffering, but will be a disappointment to the owner; unfit for any competition or even a trail ride for that matter.

Your horse has no one other than you to depend on for care, and once you have readily fulfilled your obligation as regards its needs, reaping the reward of having a horse ready-to-perform becomes certain. In order to provide the best care to a horse’s feet, you must know first the anatomy and physiology of the foot. For that purpose, here’s the informative article to give you a head start on hoof care: http://www.horses-arizona.com/pages/articles/footcare.html