Arizona Hoof Rehab

Trimming your horse is one thing, maintaining it is another. Here is a rule of thumb to remember. Your horses feet will adapt to the environment he lives in. If your horse is kept in a soft stall all day, with little or no regular exercise, he will have soft feet that fall apart easily. In this case you will probably use rubber hoof boots "sneakers" for most of your riding anytime you move out of the soft arena.  If you can arrange your paddock to accommodate a variety of footings, his feet will practically maintain themselves. You dont need alot of space, just a variety of footings and a way to keep him moving.

Here is an example of a pasture that will keep many horses going strong. The number of horses will depend on the size of the lot, but even an acre can take quite a few with this set up. 

 The green inside area is separated with simple electric post and wire. The outside perimeter is stronger fencing. You will notice hay piles all around to keep the herd moving. The lead mare will lead them around in a circle all day long. The variety of footing will provide a good manicure. The secret is to set it up so they have to move around something in a circle. If it is just a big square they do not walk around as much. Putting something in the middle that they have to walk around increases the number of steps substantially because they are always heading to the other side...even horses believe the grass is greener on the other side! LOL. 

Mud packs in the hoof are healthier than manure packs for our domesticated horses who do not travel as much as wild horses. The more traveling they do, the cleaner the hoof. Since our horses often do not travel 20-30 miles a day as in the wild, we need to provide them with ways to keep the feet clean and conditioned. A variety of footings (rocks, sand, dirt, mud, gravel) gives them the variety they would likely find in the wild. The foot adapts to its environment, so do not put them in a soft stall all day if you want strong hard bare feet. 

This owner took my advise and began converting her pasture into a variety of footings. Here is the reaction she got to the mud puddle! just look at that Face!!!! 

Natural Board Facilities

Boarding can be a night mare, but if you must board, be sure they give you what they promise and be sure you both define "free choice hay" and "unlimited turnout" the same way.

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West side of Phoenix

Ashley's Ranch 

Tired of your horse being couped up in a stall all day? Dry Lot Horse Board with Free Choice Teff/ Bermuda hay. Will be kept with other horses. Currently 3 mares.  Other services available for additional costs.

Ashley 602-882-3557

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East Side of Phoenix

Bermuda grass Pasture boarding. Recommended for non laminitic horses only. Small natural herd environment. Mesa Arizona 480-586-8322. No room for horse trailer, but RV storage next door. 

North of Phoenix

Diamond B Ranch

PO Box 4814
Cave Creek, AZ 85327
480-488-2268
dbr@diamondbranchboarding.com

Flagstaff

MCS Stables 

8301 S Highway 89A

Flagstaff, Az 86001

Outdoor run-$20 per night, Barn $25 per night, Electric Hookup $10 per night

Monthly Rate is $300 

Includes 2x daily feeding and fresh well water

Bales of grass hay available for purchase for those who prefer free choice hay. 

75 Horse capacity, barn stalls, covered outdoor pens, stalls with runs, and pipe enclosed paddocks up to an acre in size. Round pens, hot walker, large arena and miles of great forest trails direct from property. Well lighted large rig and trailer parking with electric for self contained units.  

 www.MCSstables.com

928-774-5835 

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Happys Dream Ranch

Sanctuary in Prescott

The Sanctuary's Pasture Pals program includes:

 Debbie 928-899-3373 equinesanctuary.com DebbieJamsa@HappysDreamRanch.com

Because this is grass pasture I recommend this for non laminitic horses only.  

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 Anchor Cross Ranch

 Robert and Rebecca Grant

653 W Fir Street · Camp Verde, Arizona  86322

(Tel) 928-567-5999   (Fax) 928-567-6350

(Cell) 928-853-6183

info@AnchorCrossRanch.com

 Pasture Board Year Round $170

Pasture Board seasonal $190 

Stall Board $400

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South of Phoenix 

 Amado Equine Hacienda

Pasture Board near Nogales

520-398-9314

Contact me  if you know of any natural boarding facilities and I will post it on this site! 

To see a live video of a wonderful natural horse setting on small acreage visit the site below. You you will find a video that shows you a great way to keep your horses moving all day.

 http://www.nakedhorsemanship.com

"Paddock Paradise" by Jaimie Jackson is an excellent book that will show you how to develop a paradise for the health of your horses. This is not a  new book, but is one of the best I have found to help plan your property in a way that keeps your horses happy and healthy all year long.

How to Grow Stone Crunchers!

The best way to grow stone crunching hooves is to be sure of three things.

1. Food

Free choice Bermuda hay is my number one recommendation. Yes, free choice. My definition of free choice is that grass (Bermuda)hay is always available in unlimited quantities around the clock.  When your horse first converts to free choice he will gobble it up and get a huge hay belly. He will not colic on Bermuda hay.  He could colic on other richer hays. After a few weeks to a month he will realize that the hay is not going away and he will slow down and start eating what he needs without gorging. You can supplement with small amounts of alfalfa or timothy hay, and of course vitamins and minerals. If he is ridden hard, or is not keeping on weight, you can give him additional feed like oats, beet pulp, or flax seed, and even Bermuda or timothy pellets. Just be sure the majority of his diet is Bermuda hay or some other low protein hay, and that his supplements are not sweet feed. You can find straight Bermuda or Timothy pellets at some feed stores. Horses tend to eat a bit more when pelleted. Lakin lite is a very popular feed in Arizona, is pelleted but contains molasses and is mostly alfalfa which should never be fed free choice, and should not be fed if your horse has any founder rings or stretched white lines.  Molasses and high protein hays are a big contributor to founder rings, Laminitis, and other hoof diseases. If you saw as much Laminitis as I do every week you wouldn't feed it to your horses either! :)

For more info on why this recommendation works so well, visit the nutrition link to the left.

2. Living conditions

Keep them moving. Meaning no stall time, or as little as possible. An hour a day turn out is not sufficient to grow wild horse hooves. You can still go bare, but will likely need boots for riding outside of the stall.  Researchers do not agree on how far wild horses travel a day, but they are saying between 10 and 30 miles a day to maintain their own hooves. As you know by now, hooves adapt to their environment. So if you have your horse on soft sand, he will have feet designed to function in that environment. You will need boots to ride out on the rocky Arizona trails. If you want stone crunchers your horse will need lots of daily walking on a variety of terrain, including rocks. You can provide rocky areas in his paddock, around water troughs, or even a rocky path leading some place that he goes daily. This will allow his feet to self maintain to some degree, and to form the toughness they need to go bare in Arizona. However, putting rocks in a paddock is not going to work if your horse just stands there. 

To keep your horse moving, keep horses together in a pasture and do not put the hay all in one place. Spread it out around the pasture in large piles that the alfa(leader) horse can see, not small handfuls that blow away. If  possible put a round pen or other arena in the middle so that the horses have to walk around it. Horses, like people, tend to want what is on the other side, so the lead mare or gelding will keep going for the hay someone else has...and that will keep them all walking all day long; just what we want!  If you place little handfuls of hay all over, they will walk less, but that is still better than stall time. If you put the largest amount of hay in one spot, the lead horse will stay there and the others will just stand around rather than walk. 

3. The wild horse trim.

He should be maintained every two weeks, or at the least every month. Daily would be ideal with just a quick rasping to match the wear he would have in the wild. It should be at the angle described in the workshop, and do not touch the sole or frog unless your collateral groove measurements call for it. Let his feet get ugly! 

Summary 

If you can do these three things, you will not need to nail steel to his feet, and will likely not need boots most of the year. Keep in mind, you may need boots during the rainy season if he is on soft wet soil. His feet will soften in that environment.

Good luck! And  call me if you need anything at all!

Patty