My horse lost a 3rd of his hoof...

Question
My horse(1/4 horse,bay,5 yr old) got his hoof caught in a wire fence this morning. He lost alot of blood but luckly hes alright. The vet says I won't be able to ride him for up to 8 months but when I keep telling others that they say thats alot of time for a horse who just lost only a 3rd of his hoof(i dont know if I have that right, its not half of the hoof its less than that). My question(s) to you is, do you know how long a hoof grows a day? Do you think 8 months is rather long to wait to ride him again? Do different horses grow their hoofs faster than others? Overall I would just like to know if I really have to wait till January for the hoof to grow back enough for him to be ridden(Im a green rider and im afraid that will effect my riding skills with such a long wait):(

Thanks for your time,
Kelsey  

Answer
Hello Kelsey,
thanks for your question. You are very fortunate that your horse only lost part of his hoof and that the blood loss was not too bad. Horses hooves do indeed grow at different rates and on average, one usually finds 9-12 months for a whole hoof to grow back. Did your horse loose the top 1/3 or the bottom 1/3 or a chunk out of the side? This will all determine the time it will take for just the hoof to grow back. Now, if your vet says no riding for 8 months, you should definitely listen to him/her and not push your horse too early to get back to work. However, you may be able to start sitting on him and do some light riding earlier IF your vet thinks this is ok and will not hurt your horse - you should keep you vet involved and keep checking in a few months to see how your horse's hoof growth and also the healing of the injury is progressing. If there are other tissues or parts of the foot that got injured in this accident, your vet's recommendation to give him 8 months off may very well have to do with these injuries (are ligaments/tendons involved?) since these may well take longer to heal than it will take time for the hoof to grow back. I would definitely err on the side of caution and not ride your horse unless your vet thinks its ok, so checking in a few months may be good. As to being a green rider with a young horse, you may be able to borrow someone else's horse to refine your riding skills and maybe take lessons and there are so many other things you can do with your horse during the time you cannot ride, like bonding, working on ground training and manners, working on de-spooking, etc. all fun things and very rewarding without riding.
Do check with your vet before you start working your horse again and it may be possible to do some earlier riding if the issue is really just the hoof to grow back rather than other things that got hurt.
The last thing you want to do is ride him too early and then having to give him even more time off....

Hope this info was useful.
Take care,
Christine