Hooves can be great indicators of your pony’s overall health. Poor quality horn (outer wall) in the feet of your pony suggests that better nutrition is needed, and rings in the hoof can be signs of previous episodes of laminitis. Any big sand cracks from the top of the hoof, or grass cracks from the bottom of the hoof, should be looked at by a farrier, but can also suggest issues with hoof quality and shape. In cases where the diet is balanced but the pony is still having issues with poor quality horn, it is worth considering giving your pony biotin as a supplement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, conformation plays a large part in hoof shape, and you do have to work with what your pony has. However, just as with legs \u2013 if you know what is normal for your pony you will be in a better position to spot issues before they become bigger problems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Farriers often have great strategies for gradually overcoming hoof issues and weaknesses, so it is well worth discussing any concerns you have with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hooves can be great indicators of your pony’s overall health. Poor quality horn (outer wall) in the feet of your pony suggests that better nutrition is needed, and rings in the hoof can be signs of previous episodes of laminitis. Any big sand cracks from the top of the hoof, or grass cracks from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,113],"tags":[116,89,177,179,180,103,176,21,143,102,178,182,181],"class_list":["post-559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-pony-channel","tag-askpony","tag-conformation","tag-farrier","tag-grass-cracks","tag-hoof","tag-hqmagazine","tag-laminitis","tag-pony","tag-pony-health-check","tag-ponymagazine","tag-sand-cracks","tag-shape-of-hoof","tag-top-of-hoof"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":561,"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions\/561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hqmagazine.co.za\/pony\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}