7 weeks barefoot - gone a bit footy, can anyone reassure me this is noraml?

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ecrozier

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Big lad has been barefoot in front for 7 weeks now, been going pretty well so far. Just this last 48 hours or so though he looks a little footy on concrete. Previously he had looked fine on grass and concrete/tarmac, occasional footy moment on gravelly surfaces. Hacked him out on Sunday, longer than normal probably, so wondering whether that might have over done it a bit? Am measuring him up this evening for hoof boots so we can use them hacking from now on. Also moved yards last week, no idea if that could be related?
His diet is 3/4 scoop pure easy PM, 1/2 scoop AM, linseed, EA 365 and joint supplement. He eats this very happily, and is a bit of a fatty so I am reluctant to change unless absolutely necessary. He has approx 15lb hay overnight and is out on 2 acres during day with my other boy, grazing is far from lush!!
Anyway, is it pretty normal to see a bit more footiness at this stage? Should I just not do any roadwork with him til the boots arrive? This rather limits me to minimal school work (other possibly un-associated problems) and use of our grass track... But I wolud hope to have the boots by the weekend if I order tonight?
 
It is what happened to us, F had flat soles and had worn down the excess outer wall but then was putting too much weight on soles really. He wore boots for a while after the 6 week point until his soles improved sufficiently (would do the last 15 mins or so home without them for some trimming/conditioning and not wear them on our bridlepaths). A year down the line he does still wear them occasionally as he can still struggle with a hard surface with lots of grit on top (and we've had a bout of bad resurfacing here!)
 
same happened to me. Ended up with hoof boots until the growth caught up with the wear.

Still happens now if I overdo the roadwork rather suddenly
 
Thanks guys - hopefully that is all that the problem is, hack on Sunday was probably 1.5 hours where previous max was about an hour, and we did about 30 mins roadwork in that, so probably 50% more than we had done in one go prior to that (somewhat unintentional, don't know new hacking routes!)
 
It may be that you've overdone but you can't ignore the fact that we've had higher temperatures the last few days and the grass will be starting to come through. I do know some people who have had to take their horses off it already.
 
criso said:
It may be that you've overdone but you can't ignore the fact that we've had higher temperatures the last few days and the grass will be starting to come through. I do know some people who have had to take their horses off it already.
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I would think grass before overdoing it TBH. I'm watching Buds like a hawk at the moment and accept that we may have to restrict his grazing soon :(
 
What little grass we have is playing havoc with my guys too. The joys of spring!

I try to keep mine off the grass before work and am thinking of adding a bit extra mag ox to their feeds, that often works.
 
Hmm - possibly. By 'take them off it' do you literally mean no grazing though? Not sure that is a viable option really :/ as he would go mad being in all day! There probably is more grass at new yard than old....
Scarlett - mag ox sounds worth a try, how much/how often?
 
I was able to manage mine with only turning out at night (after 7pm) and using a grazing muzzle at times.

Magox and brewer's yeast helped too. About a 50ml scoop of each.
 
Ok - they can go out at night but not for another month or so, so in the mean time I will try mag ox and brewers yeast. How easy are they to get hold of?!
Auslander yes - last place closing down as they sold the property :(
 
I just add an extra small scoop of mag ox in each feed and see how it goes, then adjust accordingly.

We try to bring them in a little while before riding, or at weekends we ride before turning out over spring. We have awful grazing but the new growth does affect them, even though you'd never, ever call our grazing lush!

I often buy from these guys...
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAGNESIUM...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item3f1d721882

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BREWERS-Y...t=UK_Horse_Wear_Equipment&hash=item41640dbc3e

It will settle down, try and keep him moving too. :)
 
Thanks hon - need to get his hoof boots ASAP so I can get him out hacking again. In mean time will do a bit in school tonight and try and get out on grass track again. our grazing isn't amazing thankfully do hopefully will only be spring we struggle a bit! I can always pop J into new paddocks a week before roo to take top off, and in summer will bring them in during day and out at night, and mostly ride in the afternoon anyway.
 
ecrozier said:
Hmm - possibly. By 'take them off it' do you literally mean no grazing though? Not sure that is a viable option really :/ as he would go mad being in all day! There probably is more grass at new yard than old....
Scarlett - mag ox sounds worth a try, how much/how often?
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If he goes footy you are better removing him from the grass for a few days (and then if he improves then you know what the issue is) but if you can't do that then muzzling would be a good alternative.

Diet is pretty key to success so if you aren't adding anything to balance the grazing then that might be an idea too. Buddy gets 50g pro balance (from pro earth on eBay), 50g brewers yeast, 50g cal mag (cheaper version of mag ox), 10g of salt and 200g linseed.
 
ecrozier said:
Thanks hon - need to get his hoof boots ASAP so I can get him out hacking again. In mean time will do a bit in school tonight and try and get out on grass track again. our grazing isn't amazing thankfully do hopefully will only be spring we struggle a bit! I can always pop J into new paddocks a week before roo to take top off, and in summer will bring them in during day and out at night, and mostly ride in the afternoon anyway.
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It will settle, if you can get him in the school and moving, even if it is just in walk, then that will help. 7 weeks is a relatively short time into it, he will have an awful lot going on in his feet that you cant see along with the changes outside. You might need to play about with your management routine but you'll find what works for him and you :)
 
Will get him either in school or round the grass track tonight and tomorrow.
Leg_end, I can't really take him right off the grass as he would just weave and box walk and potentially have a go at jumping out of his stable (his box rest last summer did us no favours!) so may investigate the muzzle idea. He has Equine Answers 365 as a standard balancer but no, nothing as yet to specifically balance the grazing so will def investigate those :)
 
Just as an aside - have you his gone the route of having grazing/forage analysed? Or just gone with trial and error to work out what helped?
 
I had my forage analysed at 3 yards.

At the first two it was helpful but I may have been able to get away with using the forageplus winter/summer balancer instead. These have higher levels of copper and zinc fed at the recommended dosage than pro hoof so they were not a million miles out.

This yard I am having to add levels of copper and zinc that would be far too high in most circumstances and avoid calcium rich feeds so the analysis has been crucial

However even with balancing I still had to use a muzzle and/or keep him off daytime grass. Some years are worse than others.

It does help though, I rode one day after work and I thought he felt a bit footy, on my way back bumped into the ym who told me he'd got his muzzle off the night before!
 
ecrozier said:
Just as an aside - have you his gone the route of having grazing/forage analysed? Or just gone with trial and error to work out what helped?
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I haven't... If we were having issues and he was remaining footy or getting worse then I would look at doing it. However, at the moment he is improving so what we are doing is obviously working. He is still ouchy over small stones and probably will be until he's grown his full hoof capsule but Nic told me not to worry about it UNLESS he gets worse. I have added a bit more mag into his tea the last few nights, just in case, but *toucheswoodmanically* he seems to be ok on our grazing for now.

I think you have to work with what you've got. I can't turn out overnight so will have to continue daytime turnout throughout the summer which isn't ideal but its all I've got so I will have to manage it. I will muzzle him if necessary but I have to work with what I've got :)

Oh to win the lottery and manage my own land :rolleyes:
 
Interesting thanks. As a rough guide how much does an analysis cost? Does someone have to come to site to do it? I am hoping to stay at current yard long term, and I'm sure the YM wouldn't mind at all. I have two paddocks of an acre each that will be mine to manage as I want, only proviso being this year at least there will be no 24/7 turnout as its been overgrazed by previous tenants.
Bit confused though - copper and zinc mentioned above but previous mention of brewers yeast and mag ox? Wonder which I should try first? Will have a read of the EA365 and see what levels are in that!
 
If you can manage them how you like we use a track system round the outside. I was really against having to take mine off the grass unless I really had to even though he is a good doer and was in lightish work at the time. They move a lot more on a track and it limits intake.

re analysis you take the sample yourself and post it off, approx. £45.
 
If you buy one of the off the peg balancers from forage plus or pro hoof they contain magox copper zinc and some also contain yeasacc which is a yeast. Plus some other minerals. Crucially they do not contain manganese or iron or calcium.

I just mentioned copper and zinc because these are the two that would have been wildly off in the current fields.

if you check the levels of minerals in these you will find the the forage plus ones contain twice the amount of key minerals in their recommended dose however it is almost twice the price whichever you go for I would suggest playing with the dosage within this range.

even with these or with balancing some people find it helpful to up the dosage of magox at critical times and brewers yeast is helpful if your balancer does not already contain it or yeasacc
 
Thanks all - sounds like could be worth an analysis.... Any recommendations of who to use?
Will look into the more specific balancers, thanks. In the mean time will add some mag ox and brewers yeast.
 
ester said:
If you can manage them how you like we use a track system round the outside. I was really against having to take mine off the grass unless I really had to even though he is a good doer and was in lightish work at the time. They move a lot more on a track and it limits intake.

re analysis you take the sample yourself and post it off, approx. £45.
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Should've moved to mine ecrozier - got a lovely track system (currently seeing service as a racetrack though!)
 
I saw - he looked lovely! Must admit so far (a week in) I am SO happy with new yard, really lovely people and boys are super chilled. Roo is far far more relaxed than I have seen him in almost a year.
 
ecrozier said:
I saw - he looked lovely! Must admit so far (a week in) I am SO happy with new yard, really lovely people and boys are super chilled. Roo is far far more relaxed than I have seen him in almost a year.
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Amazing how a new yard can change a horse for the better. Alf is like a different horse since we moved here!
 
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