3 Weeks in, Help!

ktj1891

ktj1891

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My guy had his back shoes removed over 3 weeks ago now, Next Tuesday will be a month and he has been coping brilliantly. Completely fine in the school, field, roads, xc schooling. However, in the last week he has become sore over stones and on the road and I don't know why?

We have had some wet weather so the only thing I can think is his feet have gotten a little soft. I took him on road today and gave him some good short bursts of trot- haven't really done much trotting at all on roads yet and he was okay but short and definitely not completely comfortable even in walk his stride was shorter which is hasn't been.

So any advice or ideas?
 
ktj1891 said:
My guy had his back shoes removed over 3 weeks ago now, Next Tuesday will be a month and he has been coping brilliantly. Completely fine in the school, field, roads, xc schooling. However, in the last week he has become sore over stones and on the road and I don't know why?

We have had some wet weather so the only thing I can think is his feet have gotten a little soft. I took him on road today and gave him some good short bursts of trot- haven't really done much trotting at all on roads yet and he was okay but short and definitely not completely comfortable even in walk his stride was shorter which is hasn't been.

So any advice or ideas?
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It could be the wet weather, it could also be the sugars in the spring grass coming through making him sore. Could you limit is grass for a few days and give him soaked hay? For a few days I would back off the riding, take him out on the roads in hand for a little while, so the feet are still being stimulated but he's more comfortable.
 
He's normally out at night and in during day. But past few days have taken advantage of drier weather and he has been out all time. Was in all day today and he's on dry haylage and 2 feeds a day to keep his weight up. I have been but antibacterial stuff on his feet as not sure if thrush has completely gone and I have put some keratex on tonight to see if that makes him more xomfortable
 
i had fronts off 3 weeks ago, my horse has been quite sore, i have been bringing him in an out in boots, keeping him in a night to allow his feet to dry out and cutting down grass, have also been treating for thrush. dont know which is helping, but we are definately improving.
 
Yeah could be but he doesn't hack much anyways? I would say no more than 2hrs road work a week max ATM. I have been on about 3 longish x 1/1.30hr since he's been barefoot.
 
sounds like it ties in with him being out 24/7. Try just out at night again and see if it makes a difference?
 
My guy had his back shoes removed over 3 weeks ago now, Next Tuesday will be a month and he has been coping brilliantly. Completely fine in the school, field, roads, xc schooling. However, in the last week he has become sore over stones and on the road and I don't know why?
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This is a really common pattern. Shoes come off, person says "I don't know what all the fuss about barefoot is, my horse is fine" (I did it myself, a good few years back) ;) and then 4-6 weeks later, horse is slightly uncomfortable. I don't know why it happens, but it happens a lot.

It might be a) doing too much because the horse seems fine, so not building work up as gradually as is needed, b) hooves are a bit long when shoes come off and at 4-5 weeks, growth and wear match each other and true state of hooves appears, c) people talk about hooves regaining sensation after long time being shod and the "pins and needles" effect (I would like to see hard evidence for this one ;) ), or d) metabolic sensitivities that were masked in shoes but are now apparent - grass growing, diet problems etc.

Chances are, if you do nothing, scale work back a little and keep going, everything will sort itself out. If it doesn't, you might need to build up a bit more slowly, or look at diet more carefully.
 
Okay that's interesting. Surely school work can resume as normal though? His diet I would say is pretty good don't really want to change his hard feed as it has taken all winter along with vet and physio to get him in good condition. But makes sense he was been coping so well until this week really. Grazing hasn't changed dramatically he is generally out a lot and may come in between 4-10 hours. Will see how he goes.
 
ktj1891 said:
Okay that's interesting. Surely school work can resume as normal though? His diet I would say is pretty good don't really want to change his hard feed as it has taken all winter along with vet and physio to get him in good condition. But makes sense he was been coping so well until this week really. Grazing hasn't changed dramatically he is generally out a lot and may come in between 4-10 hours. Will see how he goes.
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As long as comfortable and sound i would continue school work. What is his diet out of interest?
 
Brightbay, I think that is a very good analysis of progress, just so very true in many, many cases.

Try keeping off the grass during the day at peak growth times, and cutting back on road work for a bit.
 
He is sound he's just short in walk/trot and over stones which he wasn't before. Well he is out on grazing and has dry haylage when in and hard feed is pure condition and micronised linseed.
 
Brightbay said:
people talk about hooves regaining sensation after long time being shod and the "pins and needles" effect (I would like to see hard evidence for this one ;) ),
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I don't know about hard evidence, but it was my vet that actually introduced me to the concept many years ago.

We deshod a rehab which very quickly got pulses on all four which also became much warmer. The vet described it as 'pins and needles' although of course we can't actually know what it feels like for them.

Since that time I've seen a similar effect in varying degrees numerous times. Most commonly in horses with very contracted feet and/or those shod very tight. But that isn't hard data, just my own observation of the various horses I've worked on. It only happens with relatively few - at least at an observable level.

I do see lots of horses which appear to be ok for a few weeks but then they get more grass than they can cope with or too much is done too soon and they get a bit sore. Most often seems to be the grass.
 
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