All these barefoot posts.....

[maisie06]

According to them I'm doing it all wrong!! Alf has feet of iron, good quality horn, which goes to show people who say white hooves are weak are talking crap! He is ridden on all surfaces without a problem, yet I don't go overboard with his diet - 1 scoop of marksway hoofkind twice a day, and hay and grass - and that's it!! Apparently I should be feeding loads of various supplements and having a "trimmer" out at £45 a shot!! Think I'll carry on as I am thanks!

 

[tallyho!]

Thats great maisie, you won't be the only one!!

My white-footed boy is a laminitic though and needs more care. Count yourself as one of the "normal" ones

 

[Goldenstar]

According to them I'm doing it all wrong!! Alf has feet of iron, good quality horn, which goes to show people who say white hooves are weak are talking crap! He is ridden on all surfaces without a problem, yet I don't go overboard with his diet - 1 scoop of marksway hoofkind twice a day, and hay and grass - and that's it!! Apparently I should be feeding loads of various supplements and having a "trimmer" out at £45 a shot!! Think I'll carry on as I am thanks!

You do want works for your horse its that simple.

 

[amandap]

Alf knows best.

The diet stuff gets serious when you are having problems if you're not don't worry just enjoy.

 

[JFTDWS]

which goes to show people who say white hooves are weak are talking crap!

I thought that was reasonably comprehensively proven to be a load of nonsense anyway?

I don't do anything special with mine either, they're all unshod and happy on any surface, even for epic 7 hour hacks. That doesn't mean all horses would be happy unshod and managed in the same way

 

[wellsat]

When have barefooters said white hooves are weaker?

Diet is individual to each horse same as with humans. Some humans can eat what they like and still be a size10, other people put on weight more easily and can't have certain food like wheat or dairy. If your diet is working for you then great but if people are having problems with their horse's feet then diet is probably a good place to start.

 

[dafthoss]

No special treatment for mine either but thats not to say that it wont help others and if people suggesting it on here means they can help some one elses horse become more comfortable then that cant be a bad thing.

 

[maisie06]

I thought that was reasonably comprehensively proven to be a load of nonsense anyway?

I don't do anything special with mine either, they're all unshod and happy on any surface, even for epic 7 hour hacks. That doesn't mean all horses would be happy unshod and managed in the same way

Cripes no!!!!! If I take shoes off my welsh cob he walks like a 50 year old, laminitic, arthritic 3 legged donkey!!!! He just does not cope so shoes it is!! Alf on the other hand is the one you would expect to need shoes with his white feet and little TB style feet??!

 

[Angua2]

no special treatment here either, as i ended up listening to the horse, rebalanced every 6 months by the yard farrier just to be on the safe side, but other than that I don't tinker!! Horse is happy and I am happy but have to say the knowledge base has been invaluble.

 

[debsg]

You're not doing it wrong if your horse is sound and you and he are happy
Fwiw my two are out 24/7, on grass, hay only when it snowed, no hard feed, no supps, trimmed by a farrier for £15 each, maintained inbetween by me, and hacked hard on all surfaces. One cob, one TB and me. All happy bunnies!

 

[bumper]

According to them I'm doing it all wrong!! Alf has feet of iron, good quality horn, which goes to show people who say white hooves are weak are talking crap! He is ridden on all surfaces without a problem, yet I don't go overboard with his diet - 1 scoop of marksway hoofkind twice a day, and hay and grass - and that's it!! Apparently I should be feeding loads of various supplements and having a "trimmer" out at £45 a shot!! Think I'll carry on as I am thanks!

Mine is unshod, and perfectly happy on £15 trims every 8 weeks by a good farrier, grass and hay. Nowt else. Best feet I've ever seen, and I can assure you I've had to deal with the Worst Feet Imaginable with my previous horse!

 

[Horseyscot]

My two , in my books, aren't barefoot, they're unshod. And fed and maintained as they would be if they were ( and sometimes are) shod. Who actually invented the whole barefoot thing??? it amazes me how so many are sucked in by new fangled terminology ... Never mind, I'll just go and crawl back under my stone

 

[dressagelove]

Well aren't you lucky. I'm sure if we could do it like that we would, but just because I can't do it that way with mine, doesn't mean I'm doing it wrong!

 

[Littlelegs]

Mine too are unshod & trimmed by farrier with no special diets or any supplements. But it doesn't mean all horses will be like that, & I don't feel criticized by not doing all the other stuff. Just lucky I don't need to.

 

[cptrayes]

Cripes no!!!!! If I take shoes off my welsh cob he walks like a 50 year old, laminitic, arthritic 3 legged donkey!!!! He just does not cope so shoes it is!! Alf on the other hand is the one you would expect to need shoes with his white feet and little TB style feet??!

Right, so the truth is that you have one of the many, many, many horses who do it easily and have no shoes on it.

And you have one who doesn't do it easily and you don't want to find out why, you just shoe him.

Doesn't sound so great to me, sorry

 

[maggiesmum]

Consider yourself blessed, I have a TB who needs very careful management to keep him barefoot and happy and another TB who needs no special management and does just fine, as someone pointed out diet is a very individual thing... for instance my OH loves garlic (no vampires in our house!) but I can't eat it, the slightest bit irritates my IBS and makes me very ill.

 

[Horseyscot]

Well aren't you lucky. I'm sure if we could do it like that we would, but just because I can't do it that way with mine, doesn't mean I'm doing it wrong!

If that was aimed at me, I never said anyone was doing it wrong, nor did I say how a shod or unshod horse should be managed. All I was really getting at was the whole barefoot thing, and when it became 'barefoot' instead of unshod, or no shoes on.

 

[cptrayes]

If that was aimed at me, I never said anyone was doing it wrong, nor did I say how a shod or unshod horse should be managed. All I was really getting at was the whole barefoot thing, and when it became 'barefoot' instead of unshod, or no shoes on.

For me it was when I wanted to stop talking about horses as though shoes were expected. Shoeless for me is a state where a horse who normally wears shoes has none on. Barefoot for me is where a horse will never have them on except for medical reasons. I get out of bed barefoot in the morning and so do my horses.

But it baffles the hell out of me why people get so hung up about the term instead of talking about the horses and what really matters.

 

[Horseyscot]

For me it was when I wanted to stop talking about horses as though shoes were expected. Shoeless for me is a state where a horse who normally wears shoes has none on. Barefoot for me is where a horse will never have them on except for medical reasons. I get out of bed barefoot in the morning and so do my horses.

But it baffles the hell out of me why people get so hung up about the term instead of talking about the horses and what really matters.

It baffles me why they have to be called barefoot as oppose to unshod or shoeless. Maybe we should just agree to differ?

 

[cptrayes]

It baffles me why they have to be called barefoot as oppose to unshod or shoeless. Maybe we should just agree to differ?

I don't care what word you use but shoeless to me means something else, and I want to distance myself from the time when it was believed that no horses could work hard without shoes - barefoot does that for me.

 

[Delta99]

Are you actually saying that none of your horses have thrush????!

When I look on the barefoot forum, it seems that every other barefoot horse has thrush!

Shod horses have this too, apparently, but it's hidden by the shoes...

I don't know what's more worrying, the idea that such a large number of horses actually have thrush, or the thought of what people are putting on perfectly healthy hooves to treat the perceived thrush?

 

[Goldenstar]

It baffles me why they have to be called barefoot as oppose to unshod or shoeless. Maybe we should just agree to differ?

It bugged me too now I am completly inconsistent and call it all sorts of things it does not really matter does it.

 

[amandap]

It baffles me why they have to be called barefoot as oppose to unshod or shoeless. Maybe we should just agree to differ?

Semantics to some extent but shoeless also implies that shoes are 'normal' which clearly they aren't or they'd be born wearing them. Not having a go, I suppose it depends what we as individuals see as the norm. Doesn't really matter to me but I'm used to the word barefoot...

 

[rhino]

Semantics to some extent but shoeless also implies that shoes are 'normal' which clearly they aren't or they'd be born wearing them. Not having a go, I suppose it depends what we as individuals see as the norm. Doesn't really matter to me but I'm used to the word barefoot...

But horses don't have feet, that's what people are getting at. They have hooves Nothing to do with the 'bare' part, just the 'foot' part

 

[cptrayes]

When I look on the barefoot forum, it seems that every other barefoot horse has thrush!
?

People only post when they have a problem. Do you expect me to post a thread saying "here are some barefoot horses without thrush?"

 

[cptrayes]

Shod horses have thrush too, apparently, but it's hidden by the shoes...

No, white line disease is hidden by the shoes and a huge proportion of shod horses have it.

Thrush is in the frog, not the sole or the hoof wall, and the treatments recommended are completely harmless if the horse does not actually have it, so better safe than sorry, in my book.

 

[amandap]

But horses don't have feet, that's what people are getting at. They have hooves Nothing to do with the 'bare' part, just the 'foot' part

Isn't part of the hoof called the foot? Can't remember exactly. I've got hooves (ok cloven) and a long tail actually.

Re thrush... often it's a case of recognizing it. Not as easy to see discomfort with shoes on as generally the frog is off the ground and the hoofs expansion and contraction is limited.

ps. Should we say barehoof then? lol

 

[Horseyscot]

But horses don't have feet, that's what people are getting at. They have hooves Nothing to do with the 'bare' part, just the 'foot' part

To be perfectly honest, I don't really refer to mine as anything, the farrier comes, trims hooves and goes. They are not barefoot though, they are just , well I don't really know, I do know though I don't get a barefoot blinking trimmer, my fully trained farrier does the job just fine .

 

[cptrayes]

But horses don't have feet, that's what people are getting at. They have hooves Nothing to do with the 'bare' part, just the 'foot' part

I've seen you post this often before Rhino and never posted, but I can't let you carry on, sorry

My horses all have four feet, which happen also to be hooves. My cats have four feet which happen also to be paws.

Horses have always been referred to as having feet. "No foot no horse". "Lame in the right forefoot". The question is always "which foot is he lame on" and never "which hoof is he lame on" etc etc etc.

So all our horses have feet - what on earth is going on with yours ??

 

[ester]

barehooved it is then, rolls of the tongue nicely

Delta99 my shod pony & horse never had thrush, because the frogs were heavily trimmed every 6 weeks by the farrier. Now one has had shoes off we don't want to trim them as we want them to grow and contact the floor so they have gone a bit bitty in the meantime. He has developed a bit of a pocket where his frog was making an impression on the underside of the bar shoe which poss got a bit thrushy while in the shoe and I am treating conservatively currently. I don't know but wonder if it is this sort of thing that is different between shod and barehooved

Eta he also had lovely bits of white line disease/black gunk under his shoes in all four feet.