Healthy Joints Start With Healthy Hooves

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=M_Hammersley]M Hammersley
In order for you horse to be truly healthy, he must have healthy hooves and joints. While there are several steps to increasing the health of your horse's hooves, one important step is make sure he is taking the right horse joint supplements. After all, if your horse's joints are wearing down, his hooves will take the brunt of the injury. If your horse is suffering from unhealthy looking hooves, here is some information you may want to know.
The Connection Between Horse Joints and Hooves
Just like with the human body, everything in a horse's body is connected. This connection is what allows the body to function. When one part of the horse becomes worn down, it can easily affect the other areas of the body. For instance, if the horse's joints are damaged, a horse's hooves may suffer.
With damaged joints, often comes an irregular gait and painful movements. This can cause irregular wear and tear on your horse's hooves, and can even lead to lameness if left untreated. Certain joint diseases, like founders, affect the joints of a horse as well as the hooves.
Treating Hoof and Joint Problems
To prevent and treat joint and hoof problems, several steps can be taken.

Every horse should eat a diet rich in the nutrients he needs to grow healthy hooves. But even when you take the time to ensure he is eating right, with a high fiber diet and an adequate amount of protein, he still may be lacking the right nutrients. This could be caused by the hay or grass where you live. In many areas, the hay or grass may be high in one nutrient, while lacking in other important areas.
Horse joint supplements can do wonders for your horse's joints and hooves by proving the vitamins, minerals, and amino acids your horse needs, increasing hoof strength, and elevating the overall health of your horse. Most importantly, horse joint supplements can treat the symptoms of joint diseases. This can prevent painful and debilitating problems.
Trimming- When trimming, it is important to make sure the heels are even, so the hooves will be balanced. An unbalance hoof can lead to difficult movement, which may aggravate and speed up joint wear and tear. You may trim excess sole length, flares, and dead sole, but respect the white line on the sole and don't try to trim parts of the sole that should not be trimmed. If your horse has thin soles and you are not sure if you are trimming the dead, flakey part of the sole or not, it is best to leave it alone. This will help you avoid making the horse sore.
Hoof cleaning- To promote healthy hooves, make sure you clean your horse's hooves daily. Remove any rocks and dirt and keep an eye out for sores or other issues. Infections caused by dirty hooves can lead to joint problems.
Healing- In order for your horse's hooves and joints to heal, they have to be moving. Don't' keep them locked in their small stall or a small paddock. They to be up on their hooves, moving around. With exercise, you are sure to notice a significant chance in the amount of pain and inflammation a horse experiences from hoof and joint problems.

Keeping your horse's hooves healthy takes a lot of time, effort, and work, but if you ensure they are having enough exercise, keep the hooves clean, feed them a healthy diet, and use horse joint supplements to take care of any joint problems, you horse's hooves are sure to be healthy. [http://www.equiformnutrition.co.uk/]Equiform Nutrition has been a leader in horse supplements and natural equine health for the past century. We offer a complete range of horse supplements, including vitamin and mineral supplements, anti-anxiety aids, horse joint supplements and other products especially created to support performance.
We create our supplements using the most rigid standards of production and the highest quality and purest ingredients. We never use banned substances, so you can use our supplements with the confidence of knowing you are within regulations with horses running under rule.
Check our wide range of [http://www.equiformnutrition.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=joint+supplements]horse joint supplements, as well as our immune range, our performance range, breeding supplements, hoof health line, and our other health specialty formulas.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Healthy-Joints-Start-With-Healthy-Hooves&id=6612460] Healthy Joints Start With Healthy Hooves