11 weeks barefoot.. Opinions please

BigGinger

BigGinger

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My Gelding was barefoot in 2012 for just over 12 months after constantly pulling shoes. In early 2013 he went lame and was diagnosed with a fractured pedal bone in the right front, oestoarthritus to both coffin joints and inflamed collateral ligament amongst other changes.. His future was very guarded and he went into egg bars and then heart bars after consistently pulling shoes every 2/3/4 weeks.

He has returned to full work which was not expected and has remained sounded even through all the shoe pulling with careful management of boots whilst shoes were pulled until his shoes could be replaced but his feet have been getting worse. I made the decision to take his shoes off before I had no choices left to make and he had no feet left.

He has been barefoot 11 weeks now and his gait ridden wise has improved so much, opinion on his feet would be appreciated!


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Long toes, under-run heels, contracted heels, flare and weak frogs. However the new growth, especially on the NF is growing at a much better angle. So that's great news.

Is he heel first landing?
 
Hi, yes his feet aren't in great shape and it makes me sad that he had to have shoes put back on but i was put in a position with vet where I had no choice with fracture although I knew long term it wasn't the right thing to do and did air my views. Obviously it will now just take time for new hoof growth to get his healthy hooves back.

He does tend to land toe first and this is more noticeable in shoes. And he did initially struggle when first out of shoes. But with pads/boots and lots of movement he's now starting to move better and I'm starting to notice in last couple of weeks he's landing heel first and more sure footed on different surfaces.

Here's his feet when he's was previously barefoot and just starting to get a full new hoof capsule. You can see the difference of what a pair of shoes do and diet has stayed the same he is on low sugar/starch. High fibre and no cereals. Although he wasn't in much work or a lot of turnout during winter so they probably weren't as good as they could have been.

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He's making good progress if he's starting to land heel first. :)

I can see room for improvement on the old photos and yes, the shoeing has set him back but he had a fracture. Now, just look to the future and keep going in the direction you are.
 
plenty of walking on tarmac to self trim, I think you have had a lot of problems, lets hope things progress, minerals and micronised linseed and salt in his diet?
 
Yes, he has micronised linseed, mag ox, brewers yeast, biotin, boswellia and nutra Quinn for joints and access to a Himalayan salt lick. Had though about the pro feet stuff but he does well on what he's on and worried to change anything as he's had ulcers in past too.

Is there anything glaringly obvious that he's missing do you reckon?
 
BigGinger said:
Yes, he has micronised linseed, mag ox, brewers yeast, biotin, boswellia and nutra Quinn for joints and access to a Himalayan salt lick. Had though about the pro feet stuff but he does well on what he's on and worried to change anything as he's had ulcers in past too.

Is there anything glaringly obvious that he's missing do you reckon?
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It could be he is short on balanced minerals, you could try adding some Feedmark or Equimins original. I know what you mean about changing things.
Have a look at all the ingredients, you need support for gut, but there are quite a few with this.
I would want to think about pro balancer for example. You can start with a months supply, but add it to your own mix, in fact you can do this with any mix.
I worked out all my costs and found that it was cheapest to use pure MgO to add to another mix in order to make sure he had 10mgs MgO per day as I felt that he was generally health and all good quality hooves but still was a tad footy at times.
A lot of things have brewers yeast, which I like, but I think biotin is something the horse can generate from a good diet.
 
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