A barefoot question - concavity

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HaffiesRock

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I completely appreciate this is a how long is a piece of string type question, but how long does it take a newly barefoot hoof to become concave?

My pony went barefoot in early August. He was sound straight out of shoes and we did lots of road work until early November when he was turned away. He is on 24/7 turnout and his field was a swamp. Although I was picking his feet daily, I couldnt see much for the mud.

I moved him 2 weeks to a new yard with no mud! There has been snow on the ground for 8 days now. Today I managed to get him on some hard standing to give his feet a good check. I was really surprised at how concave they have become! The back ones in particular look great. Big wide frogs and concave soles. I dont have any pictures unfortunately, but just wanted to know how the sole does this and anything I can do to help the process?

Thanks everyone xx
 
He only gets a small feed of fast fibre and last years hay at the minute. In the spring/summer he has restricted grazing and no feed. x
 
It isn't the sole that does it. It's the pedal bone.

A healthier foot holds the pedal bone tighter and at a better angle, and it is the pulling up of the pedal bone into the right place that allows the sole to become concave. It happens when you have about 1/3 of a new foot grown, so however long that takes is the time taken to concave up.

If it does not happen, then it's a diet issue. Though horses very wildly in how much concavity they have and smaller feet tend to be more concave than bigger ones because the depth is spread over a short area.

Your horse may lose some concavity in summer. You don't need to worry unless he also goes footie. One of mine was very flat footed in summer until I realised that I had a mineral imbalance in my grazing and corrected it, so if his feet go flat check for that as well.
 
The back are pretty much always more concave even when they are a finished article. They have a different angle from the front and are also normally smaller than the front. They also work hard pushing the horse along if it moves well and it's quite possible that they have a higher wear rate and therefore faster growth. Fronts often also have things like collapsed heels to rebuild, where back feet tend never to be so bad or have so much reconstruction to do before they can concave up.
 
Mine has done the same but she has always been unshod apart from 6 weeks when she was backed. I didn't do anything diet wise until quite recently so it seems to me it is being in work and bare foot which has changed her feet the most. She is 4 and was out of work for about a year when I bought her in October, cptrayes has seen the pics (must take some more as they have really altered again). She had flares and quite flat feet but the feet are much more concave now and it seems to me that the flares will have grown out when the new hoof meets the ground, they are definitely tighter.
 
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