You may know laminitis by its more common name of Founder. It is a very painful inflammation of the foot that occurs in horses most often in the spring. It usually occurs in the front feet first and causes tissue damage. Bad cases of laminitis can result in the breakdown of the bones within the foot.

The symptoms of laminitis are usually easy to spot. When the front feet are affected the horse will stand in the classic "Founder Stance". Which is pulling his hind legs well up underneath his body to carry the largest part of his body weight and get it off his front feet. When all four feet are affected, generally the horse will spend a lot of time on his side and many horses will refuse to get up. Glassy eyes, labored breathing, and unresponsiveness due to extreme pain is common with this problem. Usually the feet will feel hot and the hot feeling can be felt up the leg to the fetlock area. Laminitis scars the hoof, each attack leaves a ring.

There are multiple causes for laminitis and are all preventable. Overgrazing on lush pasture (particularly overweight horses), overeating grain, eating lawn grass clippings, or drinking large amounts of water when overheated are the most common causes. Less common reasons for the disorder are a mare retaining the afterbirth, hard or fast work on a hard surface or standing too long on a hard surface. If you think your horse may have laminitis, identify what is causing it, remove that situation immediately and call a veterinarian. Careful attention to feeding habits can go a long way to preventing a reoccurrence of laminitis. Keep the foot in as normal a shape as possible with regular visits to a farrier. Your vet may recommend corrective shoeing.

One often neglected part of horse care is their hooves. Without healthy hooves, a horse cannot lead a healthy life. Many newer horse owners assume that since horses in the wild get no human care for their hooves, they don't need it when they are pasture animals. That couldn't be further from the truth. In the wild, horses clomp over a variety of terrain from rough rocks, to hard flatlands to grassy nooks and all of this keeps their hooves naturally worn down and in perfect walking and running shape.

However, horses that are kept in stalls or allowed to primarily roam soft grasslands will have hooves that grow faster than the hooves can be worn down. For this reason, your horse's hooves will need a trim on a regular basis. If your horse wears shoes, he will need to see a farrier (horse shoer) about every month and a half to insure perfect fit. You know what happens to your feet when you wear ill-fitting shoes? Imagine if they were tacked to your feet and you can see the necessity of giving your horse fitted, comfortable shoes. If you let your horse go barefoot, have his hooves trimmed about every 2 months or sooner if you see they need it. Never let hooves grow out of control.

Clean your horse's feet every day. Dirt and mud can become impacted and press rocks and debris tightly against the sole causing bruises and painful walking. Also, this is a good time to look for thrush. It is the same bacterium that causes white spots on a baby's tongue, it also causes horse's feet to become soft and grainy looking. There will also be a dark, foul smelling discharge from the foot. If you keep your horse's stall dry and clean and clean his feet every single day, you will go a long way to avoiding this.