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T O P I C R E V I E W
birdof1977
Posted - 13 Nov 2009 : 2:15:39 PM I decided that as my lad has got good feet and is already barefoot at the back that we would try and go completely barefoot. I need some advice on the best way to keep his feet in good condition without shoes and opinions on how you think its going. Here is an outline of his current diet and lifestyle.
His turnout is fairly soft ground now. The grazing isn't too bad for this time of the year. He is turned out for about 12hours a day, and stabled with Rubber matting and straw at night. He is fed Local, Mollichaff Herbal and unmollased sugarbeet, he has his reccommended daily amount of Local, plus 400g of chaff and 600g of beet. Plus an additional 6kg of haylage at night. I am very careful about the amount he is fed. He is 15.1 and weighs around 450kg and is a good doer. He is in general good health, and excersised 6 days a week, although this is slightly less at the moment due to his now lack of shoes. And is mostly lunging in an indoor sand school, and sometimes a little bit of ridden work at walk in there. I don't want him to get foot sore :) I have just ordered a pair of easyboot epics though, so as soon as they arrive, hopefully things can get back on track.
Here are some pictures I took of his feet this morning. He had his shoes removed last friday, so this is one week into transitioning. Any helpful comments or advice gratefully recieved about their condition etc.
Near side:
Off side:
14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First)
moonlight
Posted - 01 Jan 2010 : 11:59:25 AM Would just like to add that my mare does regular roadwork barefoot and is fine despite having had front shoes some of her life, she's now rising 19. Apparently some research suggests that trotting a barefoot horse on the road creates less concussion within the foot than a shod one walking on the same surface. Good luck!
birdof1977
Posted - 01 Jan 2010 : 05:46:46 AM Thanks you guys. All of this innformation is invaluable.
At the moment hacking is down to zero due to the recent weather conditions, the fact that our yard is situated on a busy I have to hack on to get to the country lanes:(
But is hoping to resume ASAP now that the holidays are nearly over. Hmm that going to be a hairy ride I think LOL.
I will try and get some more recent pictures of his hooves soon too. I keep forgetting to take my camera to the yard, and my phone one isn't very good for fidgety Knickers LOL :)
Helen Newton
Posted - 31 Dec 2009 : 11:09:02 AM From experience I can tell you road work is the best thing for bare hooves as Loosefur has pointed out. I have ridden Carly barefoot now for 9 years, we do miles and miles of roadwork, mostly at trot, often canter. Rooster has been barefoot for nearly five years and has sucessfully competed in endurance rides of up to 40 miles completely barefoot. I have on occasion booted him for a ride if I know that there is going to be prolonged stoney going - but I feel that gives him a real advantage over shod horses as his whole hoof is protected. So don't believe anyone who says barefoot horses can't do roadwork, they can - and should!
Grey Girl
Posted - 30 Dec 2009 : 3:46:56 PM Loosefur: your post is most interesting. Actually the only reason I don't do much road work is cos the roads round my way have got ridiculous with traffic and it's frankly not safe. I only mentioned it for the original poster because I can't comment from personal experience on much road work with barefeet.
loosefur
Posted - 29 Dec 2009 : 7:40:40 PM Well done for taking the plunge birdof1977 - and you seem to be doing great. How about up to date hoof photos? I could look at photos of hooves all day long!
My lot have been barefoot since June and it's the best thing I've ever done for them. In fact I became so fascinated with hooves and inspired with the belief that all horses should be allowed to go barefoot that I've just done an intensive trimming course with the AANHCP in the US. It was eye opening and fascinating and my brain is positively bursting with everything I learned (and the huge number of all sorts of different hooves I trimmed out there).
Contrary to the two posters above I would positively encourage any barefooters to do plenty of road work. I walk, trot and canter on the roads with mine. The more stimulation you provide to your horse's feet the stronger and healthier they will grow. Roads are great for this because the surface is hard, abrasive but smooth so transitioning horses can generally work comfortably on it where they may struggle on rocky ground. The hoof is an incredibly clever structure and will produce more horn the more you work it - exactly what you want. Many horses fresh from being shod have very thin hoof walls - this is because of lack of stimulation... so get them working on those hard surfaces and in a few months time you will notice the hoof wall thicken.
You're doing exactly right to do longer hacks in boots and shorter ones without. The more you can do without boots the better but never if your horse is uncomfortable. The odd ouchy step on a stone is fine (shod horses do this too if they step on a big stone) but if your horse is clearly unhappy then boot up for those particular hacks.
Sand as a surface has it's uses but really isn't going to stimulate much growth or strengthening of hoof structure as it's far too soft. Better surfaces are provided by pea gravel, and stretches of rocky ground - but of course for most people on livery yards you just have to make do with what you've got.
Diet is extremely crucial - I can see from the photos that your horse's hoof wall has a number of rings/ridges growing down. These are sometimes called growth rings or stress rings but a more accurate name is laminitic rings as each one is caused by a laminitic event i.e. at a particular point in time the laminae became inflamed, circulation was compromised and the laminae detached from the hoof wall - producing the ridge in the hoof wall. These laminitic events are usually caused by diet - a sudden flush of sugar rich grass, change in diet (too much sugar/molasses) or by worming or even vaccinations (though vaccinations seem to create grooves rather than ridges, the reasons not yet fully understood). The vast majority of horses have these rings and most horses, luckily, are healthy enough to remove the toxins attacking the laminae and restoring the hoof to normal status. However they are a warning sign that not all was/is right with the diet. We cannot provide our horses with the perfect diet (that only exists in wild horse country) but we can do as much as humanly possible - so avoid feeds that contain molasses (check out your feed bags - many feeds have molasses in them but you would only know by looking at the small print), and avoid turning out on fields with lots of grass. No grass at all would be the ideal solution but again if you're on a livery yard this is generally impossible.
Keep us posted with your progress - more and more of us are going barefoot and finding out our horses are happier and healthier because of it.
Grey Girl
Posted - 29 Dec 2009 : 11:26:22 AM Amelia has been barefoot nearly her whole life and (touch wood) I've never had any problems at all. Mind you, I do virtually no road work. Her feet are hard as anything and both vet and farrier are happy. Useful too if there is ever a crack or whatever as you don't need to worry about nails not having enough grip and tearing - for example, last summer she caught herself on a stone or something and had a dink in the hoof which grew out perfectly happily and without any trouble but if she'd been shod there would have been a long period where nailing the shoe on would have been a nightmare.
sazzlepants71
Posted - 23 Dec 2009 : 4:43:19 PM Hiya ramak has been barefoot since the day of birth he's now 11...
all i will say, is that i have more regular trimming than normal than a shod horse which isnt a bad thing to be honest in terms of keeping the foot balanced and healthy especially in the winter. I use Keratex Hoof Gel designed to harden the feet and protect against very wet muddy conditions which cause abcesses , cracked heels etc. i dry the feet when he comes in from field, and check them thoroughly for damage. he doesnt have a special diet just well looked after! if you have a sandschool thats great for barefooters as the abrasive action of the sand is very good for the feet so my farrier tells me!
road work yes, there is more wear and tear i never trot on the roads which goes without saying! and if there is a grass verge to go until we get to the common I will ride on there.. really its just good old fashioned common sense, you do have to pay more attention but they do adapt very well good luck ! x
birdof1977
Posted - 22 Dec 2009 : 7:31:54 PM Well its been 6 weeks now since his shoes came off, and so far so good:)
(Touch wood) we,ve had no 'footyness' no cracks, splits or any other bad stuff.
We've been out hacking, long ones with boots and short ones, normally go for a hack around the farm after schooling to cool off for 10 mins, without boots. The farrier came last week to trim, and said that my horse has one of the best set of hooves he see's.
And best of all, I have one of the only horses on the yard not getting snow platforms under their shoes and slip sliding across our ice skating rink of a yard. LOL.
Karon
Posted - 26 Nov 2009 : 2:13:11 PM That is the good thing about renting a yard to myself - I can do pretty much what I want. It does make life a lot easier!
birdof1977
Posted - 17 Nov 2009 : 4:48:43 PM I wish I could leave Zar out at night, but being on a big livery yard, we all have to apply the same rules of bringing in at night. I don't mind, but TBH zar does prefer to be out. During the milder months (usually april til end of Oct) they are allowed 24/7 turnout, so that is better than a lot of yards I suppose. Also I would love to track graze, but once again, I just have to follow the rules set out by the YM. My lad is in a communal field all year round, with between 4 (in the winter) and 10 horses. I do have a green gaurd grazing muzzle though for him, so come springtime that will probably be on during the day. Poor soul. LOL.
Karon
Posted - 17 Nov 2009 : 3:53:41 PM When I yard mine at night (rarely!), one of the stables has no bed at all just rubber mats and the other stables have half beds on mats so at least I feel they are getting some dry standing. I haven't yarded them for 3 winters and if I do this year I'll just do a 1/4 bed with something easy to muck out.
Your track sounds perfect - can I have one too please?!
I can highly recommend using Mag Ox, it has really helped with Shantih this year (that plus setting up a track round their spring grazing rather than strip grazing it).
birdof1977
Posted - 17 Nov 2009 : 11:20:43 AM Thanks for the advice Guys.
The hoof boots I ordered for him arrived this morning, so hopefully hacking can resume as normal. I have been riding and lunging him everyday since friday, and last night he worked lovely for me in the school. I ended up riding him for nearly half an hour at walk and trot, and he seemed to really enjoy it and worked really hard for me, without any signs of soreness.
Karon. He doesn't actually have a lot of bedding down on top of the matting as he is such a filthy pig, its usually just banks and a sprinkling in the middle, so I'm glad you have suggested that, it stops me feeling so bad about him not having a lot of straw underfoot.
As for walking him out in hand over different surfaces. Once again I am quite lucky. The track to his field is about 500m long, and goes from concrete, to gravel, to mud, to sand with a few rocks and puddles thrown in along the way, and he walks that twice a day with no problems.
So, so far so good. I just really hope he can cope with being barefoot all year round. Thanks for the magnesium tip, I had heard of this being used for Lami ponies, I suppose it is the same thing really
I'll keep you updated as to how its going. xx
Karon
Posted - 17 Nov 2009 : 10:25:27 AM They're looking pretty good to me. I'd build up the roadwork slowly, too, with boots as needed. If you can keep the bedding back so he can stand on the rubber mats that's a bit better as that gives him something firmer to stand on. I've got one who only has to see a blade of grass in the summer to get footy but this year I think I cracked it finally - extra Magnesium Oxide from March onwards really helped and you might find it's a useful addition to his feed, too.
You could walk him out in hand for a while - TBH I just got on mine and rode them once their shoes were removed (two who went barefoot after being shod for a while). I did take it a bit easy for a bit but one took to being barefoot straight away and carried on being ridden the same amount.
I don't put anything special on my lots' hooves, either, and they seem as tough as anything most of the time. This time of year is a pain as mine live out, but now they've been barefoot for some time I don't get too much of a problem with them getting too soft to work gently over winter.
I'd get out and about a bit with boots on, perhaps if they're not too difficult to get on and off then I'd take the boots off 5 minutes from home, then 10, then 15 and so on - bit of a faff around perhaps though?
BeckyBoodle
Posted - 13 Nov 2009 : 5:24:17 PM I wouldn't do anything major. The thing is to build up slowly - the recommendation is to handwalk for 10 mins a day initially on tarmac and then build up the duration and going over different surfaces. In an ideal world you would have a track you could walk down of tarmac, concrete, pebbles, gravel etc.
My girl isn't ridden yet, but has fab feet, is on 24/7 turnout on clay - ie getting horrible in the winter. I don't feed anything really special. She was on biotin, but have just changed her feed to Simple Systems Top Nosh and add yeast and seaweed, which should give her all she needs in terms of the raw materials to manufacture her own biotin/keratin etc.
I don't put any oils on her hooves, just milton spray once a week if she ever gets a touch of thrush. The trimmer I use raves about her feet, and expects her to cope fantastically when ridden.
