Abstract
Usually horses are treated on a consultative basis; the veterinarian is consulted when a horse has been found lame by the owner. Nonetheless, population wise there is hardly any information available on hoof disorder’s prevalence. Therefore, the aims of this study were to estimate the prevalence of and identify risk
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factors for hoof disorders in a country’s horse population. For that purpose, a group of 942 horses of the same number of at random chosen farms their level of hoof health was subjectively scored using a scale of n=12 hoof disorders in n=1 horse / farm by a total group of n=21 certified farriers during a (2 month) winter and a (2month) summer period at their regular time of hoof maintenance.
The mean (+/- SD) age of the group of horses was 11.2 +/- 5.6 years and their use was recreation (28.4%), dressage (26.8%), showjumping (17.6%) and other disciplines (27.2%), divided into stallions (6.1%), geldings (50.1%), and mares (43.8%). Horses were kept on different ground surfaces, straw (51.0%), cuttings (17.5%), flax (16.1%), and at pasture (4.4%).
It appeared that 85% of horses showed at least 1 hoof disorder at their time of regular maintenance. The most frequently diagnosed hoof disorders were thrush (45.0%), superficial hoof wall cracks (SHWC; 30.4%), growth rings (26.3%) and sole bruises (SB, 24.7%). Other less frequently found hoof disorders were perforating wall cracks (PWC, 16.4%), white line disease (WLD, 17.8%) and white line widening (WLW, 11.8%). The least frequently diagnosed hoof disorders were horizontal hoof cracks (5.2%), chronic laminitis (3.9%), quarter cracks (2.7%), keratoma (1.8%) and frog cancer (1.0%).
Environmental factors significantly correlating with thrush appeared to be a wet stable, less absorbing straw as bedding and no pasture time. A higher SHWC and PHWC frequency was seen in horses kept bare foot. A higher WLD frequency was associated with less frequent hoof picking and flax of shavings bedding. A higher SB frequency was more frequently seen in horses from multipurpose disciplines, white coloured hooves and longer trimming intervals. A higher WLW frequency was seen in older horses, those with longer trimming intervals, and more in Friesian horses, Welsh and Shetland ponies compared with Dutch Warmblood horses. All these disorders are seen more often when horses had poorer horn quality.
In conclusion, an unexpectedly high percentage of horses was presented to farriers with already at least one hoof disorder during their regular horse farm visits. Despite the fact that most of the found hoof disorders were mild, they may be a risk for the horse its soundness, welfare and fitness when not treated serious. A more intensive horse (farm) owner education and preventive measures are depending on an adequate diagnosis by the farrier and his/her referring equine veterinarian.
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