Michelle Anderson serves as The Horse's digital managing editor. In her role, she produces content for our web site and hosts our live events, including Ask the Vet Live. A lifelong horse owner, Anderson competes in dressage and enjoys trail riding. She has worked in equine publishing since She currently lives with her husband on a small horse property in Central Oregon. Quarter Cracks in Horses: Causes and Treatment Approaches Quarter cracks form in response to various hoof imbalances and often require a multimodal approach to resolve.
Favorite Share:. We have to consider if our shoeing practices are sustainable over time. Shoeing Strategies Because various hoof imbalances can lead to quarter cracks, veterinarians and farriers must address each case individually, Muir said. Crack Repair Veterinarians and farriers also have more choices of materials with which to repair cracks, Muir said.
Take-Home Message Quarter cracks are serious and can cause long-term internal damage in addition to acute lameness. About The Author.
Michelle N. Related Posts. Dead space. Search Search for:. Weekly Poll:. Have you ever had a saddle professionally fitted to you or your horse? Quarter cracks can be the most aggravating of all hoof cracks to manage. They are usually caused by uneven foot landing, usually due to conformation defects such as carpus valgus outward deviation of the lower limb stemming from the knee, seen as knock knees or varus outward deviation of of the lower limb stemming from the knee, seen as toeing in.
They can also result from many other factors such as neglect hooves can grow too long if not trimmed regularly, causing cracks and splits , imbalance when one side of the coronary band is higher than the other , coffin bone defects e. Quarter cracks usually appear at the coronary band and grow toward the ground. These types of cracks might bleed or become infected, causing extreme pain.
Your veterinarian might need to take radiographs X rays to determine the exact cause of the crack. Radiographs can reveal foreign objects in the hoof wall, coffin bone defects, or coffin bone remodeling that could weaken the wall and create cracks. Hoof abscesses can also cause cracks. If your horse has an abscess and the infection drains from the coronary band, a small horizontal crack called a cleft might appear at the hairline.
Usually, these small clefts will grow down the hoof wall with no problems as long as they are kept clean and reasonably dry. With the advent of the smartphone, it has become easy to snap a picture and send it to your farrier and veterinarian for them to scrutinize. However, if you notice any infection, blood, or lameness associated with the crack, call your veterinarian immediately.
What can your farrier and veterinarian do to help treat the problem? The first step you and your horse health-care team will likely take in this process is to watch the horse walk and trot to determine footfall.
Recognize that you might need to institute environmental changes—such as eliminating extremely wet, dry, or filthy turnout or bedding conditions—before your vet and farrier can remedy the hoof cracks. Knowing what type of feed and supplements the horse receives will also help them determine if your horse is on the correct diet to support his hooves several studies have found that biotin supplementation, for instance, can improve hoof quality.
The next step is to repair and stabilize the hoof crack. Your farrier and veterinarian might have particular methods they prefer to use for different types of cracks.
More severe cracks might require corrective shoeing and stabilization techniques, such as adding clips on the shoe to either side of the crack and placing implants across the crack. Some of the methods veterinarians use to stabilize a hoof crack involve lacing—cleaning and resecting cutting away parts of the hoof wall the crack and then drilling very small holes on each side of it. They run stainless steel wire through the holes, connecting the wires at each end and tightening them by twisting the ends together.
Hoof cracks are remedied using a three step progress: address the underlying hoof balance issue, remove the affected, contagious horn and expose the area to air to eliminate anaerobic conditions that perpetuate this hoof funk. The coffin bone is the core of the hoof which dictates the shape and size of the capsule that forms around it. Viewed externally, the hoof wall should slope evenly away from the coronary band so that shape of the bottom hoof should echos that of the coronary band.
A flare describes an outward distortion of the hoof wall due to imbalance. If part of the hoof is left longer than the rest, that longer hoof will yield and pry away from the sole creating a flare. WLD will soon occupy the cavity between the wall and sole. In either case, When the hoof maintained by a competent farrier and a diligent owner, flaring will be minimized. The emerging, unbent horn will be much stronger and not prone to WLD invasion. Loose shoes cause hoof damage, creating ideal conditions for WLD.
The constant movement of the nails erodes the adjacent hoof wall. Signs of loose shoes are raised clinches well before the next appointment, hoof wall loss below the nail line, shoe loss, and a ragged appearance. Going too long between farrier visits and wet environments cause loose shoes.
Shorting the shoeing interval by a week, especially during the warmer months, when fungal problems are worst, will help. They typically originate at the coronary band in the quarter of the hoof and progress distally. The vertical movement of the heel bulb on the affected side further contributes to this instability.
Causes of quarter cracks may include trauma to the coronary band, preexisting damage to the submural tissue from infection, inappropriate limb conformation, abnormal hoof conformation and a landing pattern in which disproportionate forces are placed on the foot as it strikes the ground. There are two approaches that can be used to resolve quarter cracks. Giving the horse time off, correcting the cause using appropriate farriery and allowing the defect to grow out is the ideal approach.
But often, the problem facing equine practitioners and farriers is that many of the horses that develop quarter cracks must continue to perform. For them to do this, it is essential to combine farriery with a repair that provides strength and stability to the hoof-wall defect, allowing the horse to perform and at the same time promoting healing, so that the crack will grow out.
Various techniques for repairing hoof cracks have been described. It will also describe a simple, consistent method of repairing quarter cracks that, when combined with appropriate farriery, gives superior stability. For successful resolution of a hoofwall defect, it is necessary to determine the underlying cause of the quarter crack and to correct it where possible. There is always a combination of factors that must be considered when outlining a treatment plan.
Horses with low- or underrun-heel conformation appear to be prone to quarter cracks. This type of heel will be structurally weak due to inadequate hoofwall mass. On the other hand, with the upright hoof or clubfoot conformation, the heels grow long, bypassing the frog, and the energy of impact is placed directly on the hoof wall.
Horses with an offset hoof conformation will always bear more load on one side of the foot Figure 1 and be more susceptible to a quarter crack. Short shoes decrease the ground. In such instances, a vertical line drawn from the origin of the quarter crack will invariably coincide with the end of the shoe. Of utmost importance is the landing phase of the stride.
Horses that develop a quarter crack will land asymmetrically, impacting first on one side of the hoof and then loading the opposite side. In fact, it is rare to see a horse with a quarter crack that is not accompanied by a sheared heel on the affected side.
This type of strike pattern is generally related to either limb or foot conformation. The landing pattern and the sheared heel conformation of the foot may also perpetuate quarter cracks caused by trauma to the coronary band or a previous abscess.
The most logical pathogenesis for a quarter crack is that when excessive stress forces are placed on a localized section of the hoof over time; this exceeds the ability of the hoof wall to deform. The excessive load over time leads to tearing of the lamina, bleeding and exudation in the submural tissue,.
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