Both external and internal factors are linked to hoof wellbeing
What kind of nutrition supports the growth of strong, healthy hooves?
Nutrition affects the horse’s entire body: from performance and mood to growth and metabolism. Hooves are no exception. Growing a completely new hoof can take up to a year, which means that what your horse eats today can influence its health far into the future.
The recipe for strong, thriving hooves
Diet plays a major role in the quality and durability of the horn material that forms the hoof. Horses need specific nutrients in specific amounts and ratios to grow and maintain strong hooves. Diet alone is not enough, however, because many other factors also influence the hooves. Hoof care, exercise, metabolism, shoeing, overall health status, genetics, paddock footing, and climate (especially moisture levels) can all affect how a horse’s hooves look and how strong they are—and not always in a positive direction. The most important point to recognise is that hoof health requires a very holistic, whole-horse approach.
Hooves reveal the horse’s health and nutritional status
If you look closely, you may see horizontal ridges that circle the hoof wall in some horses. These growth rings show how the hooves have responded to the horse’s diet and health over time. Rings may appear after an illness period, or they may reflect changes in nutrition—for example, when the horse starts eating fresh spring grass or when it suffers from insufficient or deficient nutrition. Regularly monitoring the appearance of your horse’s hooves can help identify potential nutrition-related or other health-related problems.
The hoof grows slowly, at less than a centimetre per month. This slow growth rate means it takes months before the horse’s current health and dietary status begins to show in the hooves. Sometimes it can take more than a year to create visible changes. For this reason, it is good to remember that the benefits of hoof-supporting feeds typically become concrete only after months have passed. Patience is needed.
The recipe for healthy hooves: nutrients that build strong hooves
Energy: The growth of strong, durable hooves is based on adequate energy intake. For this reason, it is essential that the horse receives enough energy from its diet. In Finland this is usually not a problem—often it is the opposite. A horse that uses more energy than it consumes will conserve valuable nutrients for vital organs and essential bodily functions. In that situation, external structures such as hooves and hair receive less. Balance is the most important factor.
If a horse’s diet contains excessive energy and too many non-structural carbohydrates, starch, and sugar, the risk of laminitis increases. The same applies to an overweight horse. Obesity increases the likelihood of metabolic disturbances that can also lead to laminitis or metabolic syndrome.
Proteins: Proper protein intake has a crucial impact on hoof wellbeing. This is mainly because hoof material consists of an insoluble protein called keratin. Keratin is essential for the hoof’s strength, hardness, and elasticity. Like all proteins, keratin is made up of amino acids, which the horse uses to build and maintain different tissues in the body. The hoof naturally contains certain amino acids that help ensure proper structure and function. These include cystine, arginine, leucine, lysine, proline, serine, glycine, and valine, as well as smaller amounts of methionine, phenylalanine, and histidine.
For this reason, it is important that the diet contains all 10 essential amino acids. Adding only certain amino acids to the diet may cause a protein imbalance. What makes certain amino acids “essential” is the body’s inability to produce enough of them on its own, which is why the horse must obtain them from its diet.
Even with protein, moderation matters. Overfeeding protein can be harmful, especially in hot weather, because digesting protein produces extra body heat and increases water requirements. This can be problematic for competition horses that travel and train in hot conditions. Sport horses are already more prone to dehydration and heat stress. In addition, digesting excessive protein burdens the kidneys, and this is particularly important to consider in older horses.
Fats: Fats alone do not improve hoof quality. However, fats help ensure sufficient energy intake and therefore indirectly support hoof health. Feeding fats also helps keep bacteria and fungi away from the hooves. In moderate amounts, fat is generally a safe and efficient energy source for most horses. It can also be used to replace starch-heavy grains in order to secure adequate energy intake.
Biotin: Nutrition experts consider vitamin B7, biotin, to be the single most important vitamin for hoof health. Biotin contains sulphur, an element that promotes the strength of bonds between collagen fibres in connective tissues, including the hoof wall. Several studies (including Kempson 1987; Wintzer 1986) have shown that biotin is effective at restoring hoof wall strength and elasticity when there are structural defects. Biotin occurs naturally in grass, bran, and yeast, so horses typically receive enough of it from their diet (15–20 mg/day). Because biotin is water-soluble, the body excretes any excess. This eliminates the risk of toxicity and makes biotin very safe. Biotin appears to be especially beneficial for horses whose hoof brittleness is due to deterioration of the outermost layer of the hoof wall.
Gut health: One essential factor affecting hoof health is the beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. Supporting a functional hindgut microbiome is important, because microbes in the large intestine produce B-complex vitamins that also influence hoof circulation. If digestion and nutrient absorption are impaired, or if the gut microbes are out of balance, nutrient utilisation decreases. In that case, the hooves may also suffer. For this reason, with horses that have poor hooves, it is always worth ensuring that the stomach and gut are healthy and balanced.
Minerals: Zinc plays a significant role in keratinization and maintaining hoof strength. Studies have shown that weak hooves are sometimes associated with low blood zinc levels (Harrington et al., 1973). Horses also need calcium to bind cells together within the horn structure. The correct calcium-to-phosphorus ratio is a basic pillar of feeding, because excess phosphorus can interfere with calcium absorption and cause many health problems. Calcium is important for hoof wellbeing, because calcium deficiency can weaken hooves.
Like amino acids, minerals function in groups. For this reason, overdosing one mineral can interfere with the absorption and utilization of others. For example, excessive zinc intake weakens copper and iron metabolism. Selenium and methionine help build strong hooves, but excessive amounts can, in turn, weaken horn quality. The goal is to find a balance of nutrients.
When should you reach for supplements?
Horses that already have good hooves do not usually benefit from adding supplements to their diet. This is likely because their diet is already balanced enough to meet hoof needs as well. Therefore, the most useful approach is to ensure an adequate and balanced overall diet, and to feed hoof-supporting supplements only to horses that have weak, cracking hooves despite balanced feeding. Every horse is an individual, and each has individual needs for supporting hoof health. The owner should pay close attention to how changes in diet, exercise, or environment affect the horse’s hooves, so that factors threatening hoof health can be addressed early.
