# Digging into the white line...



## Koira (Aug 11, 2010)

Hey there,
I learned most of my riding and loan my horse from a woman who owns a small ranch. She's great with her horses, but recently I had a few lessons in English riding and the lady there didn't instruct me to use the pick to dig into the white line of the hoof and remove gravel/pebbles, she only instructed me to clean the sole. So I'm wondering, should the white line be cleaned regularly or not?


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## Nonnie (Apr 15, 2009)

Do you mean to clean around the frog?


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## Koira (Aug 11, 2010)

No no, I clean the sole and frog and know I should. I mean the white line, visible on an unshod horse.


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## Nonnie (Apr 15, 2009)

Ahh, havent a clue then. Ive never dealt with unshod horses.


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## Koira (Aug 11, 2010)

No problem.


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## momentofmadness (Jul 19, 2008)

If you have an unshod horse and you spot a stone or something embedded in it just pick it out or get a stiff brush and give it a clean...

I wouldn't go digging..

Over hear we just pick the hoof out.
I wouldn't dig incase I caused a seperation between the wall and the sole.. xxx


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## Koira (Aug 11, 2010)

Well by 'digging' I mean using the metal part of the hoof pick to scrape dirt away and then pick out any gravel or stones. But after a while, it seems like after I pick out all the stones once a day it's pretty deep, when there isn't any mud or stones in it.


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## tonette (Dec 28, 2008)

I know what you mean by the white line and in England we don't pick it out in fact very rarely do we get white lines, my mini did when he had a bad case of lammy when the hoof was growing out and I just brushed it to keep it clean as I would have thought it could make it worse.


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## packhorse (Aug 23, 2010)

I would suggest gently scrape rather than dig.


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## packhorse (Aug 23, 2010)

I would suggest gently scrape rather than dig.  Definitely don't dig


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