Walrus
Well-Known Member
OK....I admit, I am coming cap in hand to the "barefoot taliban" asking for help. 
I'm not anti-barefoot in any way, however I've always been of the "my horse is unshod" camp. Pony in question is a native who has never worn shoes in his life (7 years) and is not intending to now if at all possible.
Pony's feet are rock hard, they get slightly chipped round the edge but nothing extreme, he is trimmed by a farrier every 8 weeks-ish and has never had a problem. (have noticed farrier has a tendency to trim his frogs??)
Recently I've noticed him being slightly footy on the chalk tracks we occasionally hack on - these tracks are rough chalk tracks with loose stones and rocks on them. He seems to feel these loose rocks. he is absolutely fine on hard / soft fields, mud tracks, tarmac, smooth tracks and in the school.
Routine is: out for approx 6 hours on a strip grazed field (unfortunately strip grazed is used in the loosest sense of the word as we need to move the fence by 1 fence post at a time (approx 12 feet) - I do this once a fortnight and the fist few days he is out for less time). Most of the time his field is pretty bald.
Weight wise he is pretty good at the moment, maybe slightly well covered but he is a fell and I'm definitely fighting nature here. Can feel ribs with firm (but not crazy) pressure.
He gets 2kg very fibrous old stalky hay when he comes in and 3-kg hay overnight.
feed: half a stubbs scoop of hifi lite, Spillers lite balancer, NAF D-Itch supplement and seaweed.
Exercise: exercised 6 days a week (well, that's the aim, 5 at a minimum) - combination of schooling, hacking and maybe one lunge per week.
Anything else I can do to help foot-wise?
I half think that one problem is that the rain has exposed more of the rock on our hacking tracks - but I can't really blame the ground!
Thanks in advance for your help.
I'm not anti-barefoot in any way, however I've always been of the "my horse is unshod" camp. Pony in question is a native who has never worn shoes in his life (7 years) and is not intending to now if at all possible.Pony's feet are rock hard, they get slightly chipped round the edge but nothing extreme, he is trimmed by a farrier every 8 weeks-ish and has never had a problem. (have noticed farrier has a tendency to trim his frogs??)
Recently I've noticed him being slightly footy on the chalk tracks we occasionally hack on - these tracks are rough chalk tracks with loose stones and rocks on them. He seems to feel these loose rocks. he is absolutely fine on hard / soft fields, mud tracks, tarmac, smooth tracks and in the school.
Routine is: out for approx 6 hours on a strip grazed field (unfortunately strip grazed is used in the loosest sense of the word as we need to move the fence by 1 fence post at a time (approx 12 feet) - I do this once a fortnight and the fist few days he is out for less time). Most of the time his field is pretty bald.
Weight wise he is pretty good at the moment, maybe slightly well covered but he is a fell and I'm definitely fighting nature here. Can feel ribs with firm (but not crazy) pressure.
He gets 2kg very fibrous old stalky hay when he comes in and 3-kg hay overnight.
feed: half a stubbs scoop of hifi lite, Spillers lite balancer, NAF D-Itch supplement and seaweed.
Exercise: exercised 6 days a week (well, that's the aim, 5 at a minimum) - combination of schooling, hacking and maybe one lunge per week.
Anything else I can do to help foot-wise?
I half think that one problem is that the rain has exposed more of the rock on our hacking tracks - but I can't really blame the ground!
Thanks in advance for your help.
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My friend had a footie pony and the farrier said all it needed was shoes. Later went down with full blown laminitis. I evented a horse that two farriers told me would never manage to work without shoes on. There isn't actually anything specific in the syllabus about keeping horses working hard with no shoes on. If they get that experience it's only because the master that they serve has some on his books, ie a sheer fluke.
