Anyone who has looked at my interview here at the Equinest knows that I was a horseshoer for alot of years. I was ask by Paige for my input about hoof care.
“The frog serves as the heart of the foot so-to-speak.”
Meet The Frog
The frog is the softest part of a horses foot, therefore it serves as a cushion and a wedge to force the outer wall to flex, forcing blood in and out with each step it takes.The frog serves as the heart of the foot so-to-speak.
Without this process happening the horse will develop contracted heels, which leads to other problems with the foot, causing your horse to go unsound. So this is the reason that particular care should be taken of the frog, especially horses that are stalled.
Keep ’em Dry
Moisture and manure will pack in the foot and if not taken care of daily can cause thrush, which will eat away at the frog. Thrush is that gooey black stuff that is in the crease of the frog that you see sometimes when picking their feet.
It’s purty normal to see signs of this most all the time, but when it gets gooey and smelly it’s time to do somethin’. There’s an over the counter stuff called CopperTox that works, straight Clorox works almost all well.
So to help in keepin’ your horse sound, take care of that frog.
Thrush is NOT always gooey black stuff that stinks. Anytime there is a deep crack down the center of the frog thrush is present, whether or not it oozes and stinks. There are a lot of horses suffering with thrush right now that aren’t getting treated because they aren’t exhibiting the stinking ooze. I learned this the very hard way as my horse was one of those. He was quite lame until a more knowledgeable person than me pointed this out and told me to start treating it.