Seedy Toe/White Line Stretch- And How To Prevent and Treat It.

Seedy Toe, or White Line Disease as it’s also known, is when the hoof wall and the laminae start to stretch apart to separate. As can be seen in photo 1.

For most horses, this is normally a sign of a diet too high in green grass and is a big warning flag that your horse's diet is compromising their overall health, as it’s often the telltale start of the beginnings of subclinical laminitis. As when this stretch can be seen at the junction of the hoof wall and the sole it is a direct precursor to other more serious health issues including laminitis. So, it should be taken very seriously.

This is normally a big warning indicating that your horse is having a diet with way too much green grass and/or grains/ pellets/ concentrates. 99% of the time Seedy Toe is caused by inflammation, directly due to high levels of plant sugars eaten by horses on full-time grass, which cause inflammation to occur at the white line area of the hoof, which is where the hoof wall and laminae are normally bonded tightly together.

High sugar diets compromise that bond to the delicate laminae inside the hoof capsule, causing tiny tears to occur in the form of fissures, which allow for dirt, as well as bacteria and fungal matter to track into the previously sealed hoof unit to penetrate the inner workings of the hoof, causing infection and further damage to the laminae.

Therefore, it is highly recommended to be stricter with your grass management plan by tighter controls of either break feeding or tracked grazing to limit how much grass your horse has access to, and favour a diet higher in low sugar grasses such as hay and straw via slow feed hay nets to prevent, as well as treat, this condition before it develops into something more serious.

We would advise to not let your farrier or hoof trimmer to gouge out the Seedy Toe area of the hoof, as the hoof should be a tightly sealed capsule do gouging out hoof horn only serves to open up the hoof to even more to more infection.

Therefore, the best approach is to treat this is by being vigilant on how much plant sugars your horse eats and directly treating the hoof with a topical treatment cream.

The Seedy Toe area itself can be gradually trimmed away on each trim as the hoof capsule starts to grow down more tightly bonded, once the diet has been corrected.

We have developed our own product range to help deal with this and other hoof care issues. They are called Equi Balm, Hoof Clay and Hoof Wax, all of which are botanical plant-based treatments that are both antibacterial as well as anti-fungal, so they kill the pathogens that are entering the hoof and seal the holes to prevent further infection.

All three products and more are available on this link: www.naturalhorse.co.nz/hoof-care-and-treatments

We hope this will help you have a happier and healthier horse by getting on top of your horse's Seedy Toe .

NaturalHorseNZ