5 weeks of being shoeless...

floradora09

floradora09

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Ok, so I was/am a massive sceptic about this barefoot business, and over the summer whilst having some foot related lameness issues, began to read up about feet to try and find other ways of helping Win. My farrier is great, and does a fantastic job with him but it seemed worth seeing how he was without shoes. So off I went and educated myself about diet, exercise, trim etc.. and my farrier agreed that it would benefit his feet to have some time out of shoes while he had some downtime. No work for the first 2 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of very light work, and he's now starting to be worked properly again. We can only hack once a week anyway, and the rest is in the school.

I think it looks like his feet are going in the right direction?

Right fore, day shoes came off, about 5 weeks ago: (bear in mind he was due to be shod)
P1060739.jpg


Same foot, today after our ride: (not been touched by anyone since first photo)
P1060836.jpg


He works fine on a surface, in the field and trotted down a road today sound as a pound, but obviously still finds stones tricky.

Here's the whole album for the more obsessive of you! ;) http://s172.photobucket.com/albums/w15/floradora_2007/Winstons Feet/?start=all

:)
 
Have you spotted the change in pastern angle as his new foot comes through :) he should be a lot more comfortable to ride in a short while, as that heel continues to come back under his leg and support it properly. Good rate of growth too - nail holes nearly gone already :)
 
Thanks for posting those pics, fantastic to see the change over a period of time.:)

I would be really interested to see some pics of the horses lower leg as the feet progress too.:)
 
Yes I think they going in the right direction too... down instead of sideways :D

5 weeks - never fails to amaze me hooves :)
 
Thanks, I'm actually quite pleased with them! :) Would be nice the see the new growth angle come down his foot even further, but his feet are actually growing much faster than when he was shod. Am waiting for my farrier (was meant to come out saturday but has gone AWOL, and he's usually so dependable..) to come and have look so we can discuss where to go from here. He did say to me last week that he didn't have a problem with his shoes staying off for a bit but 'if he starts feeling his feet it might take me a couple of weeks to get him back sound again'..

This is really what I wanted to speak to him about, as surely if he was going to struggle it would have been at about two weeks, not now?
 
floradora09 said:
Thanks, I'm actually quite pleased with them! :) Would be nice the see the new growth angle come down his foot even further, but his feet are actually growing much faster than when he was shod. Am waiting for my farrier (was meant to come out saturday but has gone AWOL, and he's usually so dependable..) to come and have look so we can discuss where to go from here. He did say to me last week that he didn't have a problem with his shoes staying off for a bit but 'if he starts feeling his feet it might take me a couple of weeks to get him back sound again'..

This is really what I wanted to speak to him about, as surely if he was going to struggle it would have been at about two weeks, not now?
Click to expand...

They're growing faster because they are getting all the circulation and stimulation they want - this gets the 'hoof factory' working as it should be.

Give him as much work as he is comfortable with and you'll see them blossom.

If he starts to 'feel his feet' at this point or onwards it will be either
1) The diet is wrong for him
2) The trimming is wrong for him.

Hooves don't just spontaneously break down for no reason - they get stronger and stronger if they're allowed to.
But they will tell you if something is wrong with the horse, think of them as your early warning alarm:)

Well done so far.
 
Thanks Oberon, I guess I'm still half expecting them to explode or something dramatic!! Diet is very low sugar/starch on the whole, although he's on fairly green grazing, and he's just being fed a balancer as baseline, I haven't really faffed about adding lots of different things for fear of getting it wrong! :o
 
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