Why do horses founder?

Answer 1

Horses founder because the owner doesn't get their feet trimmed. After a long time of not being trimmed it takes a LONG time to get their hooves back to normal. I once had a mare who foundered with her previous owner and it took 2 years to get her feet back to normal.

Founder is caused by laminitis which causes damage to the connective laminae in the feet if too much strain occurs the pedal bone detaches and can protrude though the sole.

Many people think that rich grass or one of the below bullets are what caused founder, when really, eating the grass or doing whatever else was merely "the straw that broke the camels back" so to speak. What most people think causes founder is:

• diseases which affect the horse's intestines such as colic or diarrhea.
• (too much) Grain
• Water in an overheated state
• Digestive upsets due to grain overload or sudden changes in the diet
• Sudden access to lush pasture (spring grass)
• High fever
• Colic (horses with damaged intestine)
• Retained placenta
• Excessive concussion to the feet when walking on pavement, often known as "road founder"
• Bedded on black walnut shavings or ingestion of black walnut shavings
• Excessive weight bearing on one leg due to injury of opposite leg
• Gram negative bacterial infections with endotoxemia
• Obesity

When really, these are all "the straw that broke the camels back"

What really causes founder is laminitis, which is the inflamation and/or weakening of the connection between the coffin bone and hoof wall. Then, when one of the above things happen, it "breaks the camels back" and causes the horse to get founder.

Now, what really causes laminitis is improper hoof shape and condition (like in untrimmed feet, high heels, etc.). In normal hoof shape and condition, the coffin bone will be level with the ground (high heels and wedges or other orthopedic shoeing prevent this and causes the coffin bone to point downward until it starts to penetrate the bottom of the hoof). And then Laminitis, when combined with one or more of the above bullets, results in founder (they are 2 different things, although most people use them interchangably, but this is wrong)

So, taking away the above points will not fix the problem. You need to return the hoof to its natural state. Find an expert barefoot hoof trimmer (preferably one trained in the Strasser Method), and the horse must be turned out 24/7 with a herd and 24 hour access to food and water that it has to walk to to get. Also, whether naturally or artificially, the horse must move 15+ kms a day to ensure proper blood circulation is occurring within the foot to heal it. The healing process for laminitis and founder is generally long term (1-2 hoof capsule growths for simple cases--to over 2 years in severe cases of dropped coffin bones, joint adaptation and other problems), but can be healed successfully and with soundness if done correctly. The hoof must be kept in this natural state. All horses should really, but foundered horses more so. Have you ever wondered how wild horses feet stay so heathy? This is how. They stay in a natural state, unaltered by shoes and other man-made things that supposedly help horses.

Answer 2

for a horse to founder it would definitly take about 6 months umm listen to this advice coz i used to have a large amount of horses and they have now all found new homes.lol