Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
However, there is a growing movement to eliminate shoes on working horses. Advocates of barefooting point out many benefits to keeping horses barefoot and present studies showing that improper shoeing can cause or exacerbate certain hoof ailments in the horse. A hoof boot may help protect the horse's hooves during the transition period.
Horse teeth often wear in specific patterns, based on the way the horse eats its food, and these patterns are often used to conjecture on the age of the horse after it has developed a full mouth. As with aging through observing tooth eruption, this can be imprecise, and may be affected by diet, natural abnormalities, and vices such as cribbing.
Its main cause is a missing tooth which allows the opposing teeth to grow into the gap, but it can occur because of uneven wear or if the deciduous cap or baby tooth is retained too long preventing normal tooth growth. It can prevent the horse from freely chewing and cause the improper wear of the molars and incisors.
The repeated rubbing or impact of the bit can cause bruises, cuts, tears and ulcers in the horse's mouth. [18] Swelling and bleeding bars can cause a horse to try to slide its tongue over the bit. [8] Sudden action on the reins always causes the animal severe pain. [19]
The clean, picked hoof allows for better inspection for injury. Hoof care is especially important when caring for the horse. Although many horses are quite healthy without daily brushing, lack of hoof care can result in various problems, which if unattended, can result in short or long-term soundness issues for the horse.
The hoof wall may also be percussed (struck with a hammer), which will produce a positive response in cases of hoof cracks that are causing the horse pain, laminitis, or a gravel (hoof abscess travelling up the hoof wall towards the coronary band).
The hipposandal (Latin soleae ferreae) [1] is a device that protected the hoof of a horse. It was commonplace in the northwestern countries of the Roman Empire, [1] [2] [3] and was a predecessor to the horseshoe. The necessity of protecting the horse hoof was recognised by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and written about by Xenophon. [4]
Lignophagia in horses can be a cause of colic due to the ingestion of wood splinters, [3] and in severe cases, can cause excessive wearing and deterioration of the teeth. [4] A related vice is cribbing , wherein the horse grabs a wood board and sucks in air; not all wood-chewing is cribbing and though cribbing may also result in chewing on the ...