Do you know what a quarter crack is? If you’re a horse owner, you should know; if you’re a horse, you may or may not know. I do know because I’ve had one and it was not pleasant! Unfortunately, I wasn’t born with the best of hooves (unlike my pasture buddy Ziggy who inherited her hard hooves from her dam), so my mistress needs to take extra care of mine.

When I first came to live with my mistress, my hooves were in bad shape ’cause my previous master didn’t take good care of them. He had many other horses to ride and since my hooves were a constant problem, he not only stopped riding me, but he also stopped taking much care of me. Anyway, I came to my mistress with a quarter crack in my front left hoof, that is a crack starting at the coronary band and spreading downwards, much like the picture. It was painful, but between the farrier and my mistress, we managed to grow it out using specially made shoes, a topical paste called “Sole Pack”, and supplements in my feed which I take to this day