SoVa Hoof Care

01/08/2026

Yes. This is my observation in client horses as well as my own. This is why I have delved into nutrition along side my hoof care profession because what we feed the horse is what “feeds” the feet, and I can’t trim a good diet into a horse.

Hoof wall is formed at the coronary groove and takes approximately 9–12 months to reach the ground. This raises an important question:

If the horse’s nutrition was suboptimal when that horn was being laid down, could that result in weaker horn months later — creating the conditions for separation and fungal invasion despite good trimming and management?

12/21/2025

Our next question on the Equine Cervical Neck -
How does arthritis in the neck affect hoof handling of both front and hind feet? Thank You, Monique L

If your horse struggles with their farrier work or afterward, there could be a reason unrelated to the trim/shoeing.
• Pain with sustained positioning.
Farrier work requires the horse to hold a limb up and often slightly flexed for several minutes at a time. For a horse with lower cervical (neck) arthritis, this prolonged positioning acts like a long flexion test, stressing painful joints and surrounding soft tissues.

• Nerve involvement (especially in the front limbs).
The nerves that supply the front legs originate in the lower neck and brachial plexus. Arthritis can irritate or compress these nerves. Vibrations from rasping and hammering travel up the limb and can amplify nerve pain, making hoof work very uncomfortable.

• Shoulder girdle strain.
Lifting and holding a front leg requires stabilization through the neck and shoulder girdle. If the neck is arthritic, this effort can trigger pain that persists for days after farrier work, sometimes mimicking lameness caused by the trim or shoeing.

• Hind feet are affected too.
Although the hind limbs are not directly innervated by the brachial plexus, holding a hind leg up requires the horse to brace through the neck and back to maintain balance. Neck pain makes this difficult, so the horse may resist, fidget, or become sore afterward.

• Delayed soreness after farrier work.
Horses with cervical arthritis may appear fine during trimming but become lame or stiff for 2–4 days afterward, leading to farriers being blamed for issues like “taking too much off” or nail pain, when the real source is cervical discomfort.

Bottom line:
If a horse consistently struggles with farrier work—front or hind—especially with signs of soreness afterward, resistance to holding legs up, or sensitivity to vibration, the neck is an important place to investigate, particularly for arthritis or nerve-related pain.

12/20/2025

Practicing hoof care in the land of laminitis (Virginia), I can’t stress this enough!! If your hoof care professional has suggested removing from grass, asked you to have bloodwork and radiographs done….please please please take them seriously!

I'm stealing a photo from a prominent, outrageously loud and outlandishly uneducated cult on Facebook. And I am going to be harsh because it needs to be called out. Without seeing the radiographs, everyone of those hooves presented very well maybe laminitic feet. But you want to know the bigger shocker, and the one that takes all the weight out of their argument against laminitis. Everyone of those hooves is neglected. Thats nine examples of neglect, not of professionals failing but of owners failing. Endocrine based laminitis is an owner caused condition, its a failure of management by the owner. Then once this management failure happens, its a failure to alter management and apply appropriate care. The professionals involved in the care of these cases are limited to what they can do by the owner. Laminitis cases are expensive to manage and treat, they also never fully heal. No ethical professional has left any of those hooves in that condition by choice. These happen because owner wants to push trim/shoe cycle, avoid radiographs to ensure we are taking both enough and leaving enough, the diet has never been properly addressed and so on. This cult wants to preach the blame falls on the hoof care provider and veterinarians because owners don't want to hear the truth. These horses are suffering because the owners neglected and failed their animals. You want to resolve laminitis... take better care of your animals. And that doesn't mean feed them the best supplement or most expensive hay, it means learning about what an equine needs or doesn't need. No animal does well in state of obesity, so stop killing your horses through kindness. Laminitis is on the rise not because of failure of the professionals but because owners are not taking responsibility for the animal in their stewardship. I would encourage owners to take a nutrition course. Take a hoof care course. Even take a basic husbandry course. Pony clubs are disappearing and even then it's cruel to have those kids pick stalls and learn husbandry to earn time riding. Laminitis will continue to rise until owners start taking responsibility to provide proper care for their equines. Neglect needs to be called out and this group has been showing the world examples of neglect labeling it professional failure. These aren't failures of the professionals, these are all failures of the owners who needed someone else to blame. So yes, I suspect these are laminitc hooves but I also suspect that every one of them is also neglected and not receiving appropriate care. Failure by owners who want to pass the blame.

Rant over.

Dr J Alltop, DVM CBT APF-II

12/15/2025

One of the biggest favors you can do to support your horses’ soundness and longevity is to monitor the health & appearance the back half of their hooves, the caudal hoof. Can you recognize healthy vs unhealthy?
Here is a caudal hoof rehab on a QH whom underwent surgery to have OCD fragments removed from the extensor process of P3 in both front hooves. Improving the hoof balance was critical for a great surgical outcome and he is doing fantastic!

12/04/2025

12/03/2025

Lovely pre-trim example of a hind foot belonging to a Dutch warmblood.

12/02/2025

Excessive moisture is a problem for our pasture kept horses in wet climates. Some more than others seem to be affected by it, an example is this sweet gelding who is prone to wall delamination when his pasturemate is not. After a few rounds of Hoof Armor and some drier weather, these previously waterlogged feet are looking so much better. 💪🏻
As with most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Your first line of defense is always a proper, nutritionally balanced diet, following NRC guidelines. Painting a potion on the feet is not a substitute for a deficient diet.
For those horses who need a little extra help like this guy, we will continue with Hoof Armor use BEFORE the wet winter weather strikes to help prevent delaminating in the future.

12/02/2025

Ten things that affect your horse’s hoof. Please feel free to share.

These subjects are all covered in depth in The Hoof of the Horse: curtisfarrierbooks.com

11/14/2025

This sweet senior QH gelding with PPID had a bout of acute laminitis and foundered in January. Since then, his diet has been tightened up as well having an increase in his Prascend dosage. As you can see from the large event line, we are *so close* to having that last bit of lamellar wedge grown out!

11/12/2025

When Virginia hooves begin to resemble desert hooves you know we could use a little rain!

10/06/2025

Great info to get out there. We need to be more proactive about diagnosing and finding “at risk” horses before they become obviously symptomatic. I strongly feel we also need to prioritize every horse having a set of baseline podiatry radiographs when their feet are sound & healthy! Having these radiographs to compare to is really advantageous if/when things go wrong and we need to take radiographs to diagnose a lameness or note any changes in the hoof capsule.

09/04/2025

Nutrition is a powerful tool to build healthier hooves. This lovely new growth on top is the result of removing dietary insults (grass, poor hay), adding a toxin binding gut supplement, and having all dietary needs met (minerals, vitamins & amino acids). Even the pigment has changed.

Ripples on the wall, cracks, delamination, wall separations, thrush, foot soreness are all part of a bigger picture…a check engine light, so to speak.
Some horses are genetically blessed with solid feet. Some horses need all the dietary help they can get (and a healthy gut) to reach their hooves’ genetic potential. This is your nudge to dive deeper into the nutrition and health status of your horses who are having chronic hoof issues. 💗