Advice on barefoot and bruising please!

Randonneuse

Randonneuse

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Hello,

My 14hh, 17 year old pony has been barefoot for now 5 years. He is ridden regularly since May 2010 as before he was in France (where I am from) and only brought him in the UK last year.
In the last few months he has "developped" bruises on 3 of his feet and my barefoot trimmer has noticed when she came last Friday he had bruises on his 4 feet.(she usually comes every 6 weeks but when she came last Friday it had been 12 weeks since the last time)
Unfortunately I couldn't be there (1st time ever so my sharer was there instead!) so haven't been able to discuss things with her yet.
Over the Summer when it got dark late (so until about 3 weeks ago) he was ridden as followed:-we only hack-
Saturday, ridden by me about 10/12 miles fast hack on grass tracks, trot most of the time and some canter with a bit of walk.
Sunday ridden by me about 1 hour, mostly walk, with some trot and maybe one canter.
Monday, ridden by me about 2 hours, bit of everything.
Tuesday, ridden in the morning by my sharer about 1 hour mostly walk, bit of trot, bit of canter/ riding after work by me about 30/45mins trot with bit of walk.
Wednesday, day off or sometime ridden by sharer about 1hour mostly walk.
Thursday same as Tuesday.
Friday, ridden by me about 2 hours same a Monday.

Now it's dark when I finish work I don't ride Tuesday and Thursday but the rest is the same.

We also do some road work every week to "wear" is feet down a bit.

Feed wise he only gets pretty bare grass and was in a mini Paddock paradise this Summer.
He doesn't get any supplement appart from Himalayan Salt.

Here are some pictures taken yesterday so only few days after his trim, any advice on what to do welcome please :-) -he is not lame in any way-

If you want more pictures I can put more on.

Thank you :-)

Back right

DSCF0989.jpg


Front right

DSCF0978.jpg


Back left

DSCF0974.jpg


All feet

DSCF0969.jpg
 
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I don't know much about this, I feel you should be asking the trimmer, if the horse needs trimmed every 4 weeks in spite of all the work you are doing, maybe you should do a bit more tarmac work to wear off hoof wall.
Or is the horse getting too much work which is causing problems, if so you can supplement and or use boots.
I have seen quite bad bruising when the farrier removes shoes and they trim out easily.
He is resting his hind legs, any problem there?
Are you checking his feet both after and before riding out? Stones are most likely to cause bruising, I would imagine.
 
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MrsD123 said:
I don't know much about this, I feel you should be asking the trimmer, if the horse needs trimmed every 4 weeks in spite of all the work you are doing, maybe you should do a bit more tarmac work to wear off hoof wall.
Or is the horse getting too much work which is causing problems, if so you can supplement and or use boots.
I have seen quite bad bruising when the farrier removes shoes and they trim out easily.
He is resting his hind legs, any problem there?
Are you checking his feet both after and before riding out? Stones are most likely to cause bruising, I would imagine.
Click to expand...

He needs trimming every 6 weeks or sometimes 12.
He doesn't need any boots as his feet are otherwise fine.
No problem on his hind leg, just having a rest!
I check his feet both before and after riding and pick any stones caught underneath!

I have emailed my trimmer and waiting for a reply now :-)

Thank you!
 
If the bruises are coming out in the hoof wall now, they could be caused by concission several months ago. Can I see a tinge in the back left? Could easily be from hooning around the field during this dry summer! Is he sore at all? If not then I really wouldn't worry at all - if he had black hooves then I bet you wouldn't even notice!

To ensure the laminae are as strong as poss then a close look at diet is helpful. We are just up the road from you in ciren and have had our grazing analysed - off the scale calcium and manganese, v low phosphorus/copper and zinc. I wounder if you are close enough to have similar grazing? If so then it is likely that your chap is low in magox/phosphorus/copper and zinc. Having those supplemented will make a massive difference (my girl was happily rock crunching anyway with magox added, but somehow she is even better now!).

Sounds a silly question - but how do his feet grow in order to need a trim, and what does your trimmer do other than the roll I can see on the pics? After a nail bitting 'don't touch' time, ours are now left alone and along with the growth slowing, they have grown their feet v slightly differently to support what goes above - with fab results! Worth a go? (btw, we don't have a track/gravel etc or ride anywhere that does, just a bit of roadwork (less than you I think!) and over the park).
 
These marks are actually pretty common in white feet and if the horse is sound I would check diet as above and forget them. I suspect most feet have them from time to time but they don't show on black feet. It takes on a tiny tinge of blood to make water look pink and I suspect the same is true of white feet and that marks like these are nothing much to worry about unless the horse is lame.
 
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