Making a Paddock Paradise 7
Track Troubles!You might notice in the picture opposite that their are mats around the feeder. We laid these because we were concerned about the horses standing for long periods on road planings. Ultimately we took the mats away and the horses seemed fine. So very cautiously we had more road planings delivered bit by bit as this surface is not only cheap but sticks together well and so forms a really good track with the minimum of ground work. Still the horses seemed fine. Although from time to time black dots could be seen in their bars
Two years later and we had nearly three sides of a 7 acre field tracked, with a large proportion of that being old tarmac off the roads. The horses seemed fine although there was a couple of unexplained abscess incidents which we had never experienced before. The last lot of seven truck loads was quite sticky and that is when the trouble really began!The problem with being on the cutting edge of barefoot is that there are very few people to tell you what not to do. Hopefully however you are reading this and thinking ‘Ah I know what not to do’ because the horses hooves just disintegrated before our very eyes. Within a matter of a few weeks the white line had been corroded away at both the quarters and the bars. The black dots were now a black line where infection had now taken hold and the quarters were gaping holes collecting grit and dirt. With all this infection in their hooves it wasn’t long before we had abscesses galore and horses hopping lame!
Once we realised the cause we moved the feeders so the horses were not standing on the planings to eat hay for long periods of time. Almost immediately we saw a reduction in the amount of infection in the bars and quarter area even though the horses could still walk across the planings. Then of course we set about trying to sort out the mess we had created.Five months later things are much, much better but we are still battling the battle of white line disease. It appears that perhaps the tar corroded the keratin and white line in the horses hooves and then that allowed bacteria to take up residence as supreme opportunists. Once you have an infection an inch or more up the white line getting at it is jolly difficult. We have tried all sorts of soaks with white lightening and golden hoof appearing the most successful.The one thing we can say is that getting this infection in your hooves is a lot easier than getting rid of it. Keep checking back to see what ended up being the best solution to our problem.!
