alternatives to shoes?

A

amandaco2

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 November 2006
Messages
6,705
Location
sheffield up t'road
Visit site
i will have to do something with Bs feet- shes got quite low heels and her soles are sensitive so shes feeling the stones and hard ground

i am reluctant to put shoes on as i dont like nailing through the hoof wall as it causes cracks...... she hasnt got any cracks or splits in the hoof, shes just sensitive....
i have given her since april to harden up the feet..........but its going to start to impede her willing-ness if shes feeling the ground and prevent her natural forward going.

ive not had much experience with anything other than either shoes or naked feet....

ive heard of other things but not really had to use them as the others have always been fine

so has anyone any recomendations?
am thinking about maybe something like imprint shoes? or equicasts?

i have used hoof boots (equi and swiss) but found they are a bit clumpy....
i need to be able to compete in them too....(although horse is fine on a surface naked footed...........)

any info on price/ how durable?

she gets her feet done every 6 weeks. i asked the farrier if her toes were too long but he said they are ok (although he did seem to take them back more this time....)


some pics
Photo1745.jpg

Photo1744.jpg

Photo1743.jpg

Photo1742.jpg
 
You can use boots with pads if she needs them. April is not that long ago to expect her to of gone through a full transition though to be fair. My mare can still be footy with the right conditions and she had her shoes of in June last year!

I use renegade boots on the front when I am being considerate and she jogs along like a youngster in them. we even gallop. It's getting the balance right that is the hardest part of going barefoot and the feeling that your always getting it wrong, being unfair or even cruel to your horse. It would be soooooo much easier to hand it all over to the farrier and ask him to slap on the shoes, believe you me, I am often tempted.

It will get better and easier. You will learn how to manage her feet and you will eventally feel so smug as she improves and your horse foot knowlege excedes your ignorance, I now look at any horse from his feet up!!

Do lots of research and make a note of what works for you and her. It's not just the sole and frog your looking at but the contracted heel and the internal structures of the whole foot, as the tranition progresses. What has gone on before, will effect what is happening now.

Good luck.

boots001.jpg
 
I have to confess that I pushed the boat out somewhat and sent off to America for the Renegades! They cost a packet including the tax I had to pay at customs, but even so, much cheaper than having her shod every 6 weeks!

Amandaco2, I'd suggest you get her feet trimmed and balanced every 4 to 5 weeks at this time of year and get the farrier to knock the toe back, but leave the sole and frog alone and see if that helps. Shod feet are usually left with a stretched white lines where infection and small stones can get between, it needs to be encouraged to tighten up. Imagine your long fingernail being pushed back from the nail bed at every step OUCH!!! This is what they feel on a long toe. She also needs to be walking on her sole, not the wall. Horses were not designed to take all the weight on a thin oval wall as all the weight will push down through the middle where the sole is at it's highest. Her heels will lift, the soles will harden and will become concave with work and the frog will spread and widen. All the muscles of the foot need to be worked where as before they were not used and would of become weak.
I ride as much as I can as this helps loads. On the road she moves and sounds like she has been shod and she's a SFxID sportshorse. Very TB feet:eek:
 
I'd say hoof boots in the short term (my preference would be Easyboot gloves but we use Old Mac G2s cos my boys feet are too big for gloves). I'm not sure, outside of endurance, that you'd be able to compete in boots. Longer term you need to get her diet, exercise and environment right to get good feet under her.
 
Last edited:
do recommend the book Feet First by Nic Barker and co - it explains pretty much everything about barefoot stuff. I got it off amazon.

April really isn't very long, and the key to barefoot is diet, which I knew very little about, not having tried it before. And work - even just on very soft surfaces to start with, but you have to get those hooves working, to really start to sort them out (within reason of course !).

My boy 8 months ago arrived with awful feet, but the farrier passed them off as "excellent" last week when he had his trim, and declared that he probably won't ever need shoes - and yes, I cried ! Good luck sm xx
 
Im sorry but could you explain to me why you dont want shoes? Your horse NEEDS shoeing, so why are you trying to find a way around what everyone else does and it works for them?
 
Your horse's feet show every sign of the weakly connected, spreading feet of a horse who simply cannot manage barefoot on the amount of grass and/or sugary food that she is getting. They simply should NOT be so much wider at the base than at the coronet band than they are. And you are correct, her toes are much too long.

If you cannot restrict her grass intake and/or reduce the amount of sugar that she has in her diet, then to be honest I think that for her comfort you should shoe her.

Please read Feet First if you want her to continue barefoot, so that you can improve her nutrition to a point where the sides of her feet stop spreading out like they are now. If you can do that, then you probably won't even need boots, never mind shoes.
 
flamehead said:
Im sorry but could you explain to me why you dont want shoes? Your horse NEEDS shoeing, so why are you trying to find a way around what everyone else does and it works for them?
Click to expand...


"Everyone else" doesn't do it any more Flamehead. A growing number of us realise that if we can get the nutrition of our horses spot on (and that often means zero sugar and reduced grass intake) then we can not only improve the whole health of our horses (I own one who had "severe" sweet itch until his diet was corrected when it disappeared) but we can also go shoeless. I have a hunter and have previously had affiliated eventers with no shoes. It's a joy if you can manage it, not every horse/rider combination
can.
 
flamehead said:
Im sorry but could you explain to me why you dont want shoes? Your horse NEEDS shoeing, so why are you trying to find a way around what everyone else does and it works for them?
Click to expand...

'Everyone' else doesn't shoe! I use Boas, Old Macs and now Gloves (they've made them a bit bigger hooray) on my lot. The only competition you can't do in them is dressage - I've showjumped and xc'd in mine. You do have to make sure you get the fit right though otherwise they are a nightmare - if you go on the EasyCare site they have lots of information and printable measuring charts, and you can also hire a fit kit for the Gloves before you buy to make sure you get the size right. The pads are great too.
The UKNHPC website is a really good place to get advice and is full of people who believe that nailing something metal to their pet is an odd thing to do!
 
Dont know anything about barefeet, is the theory to be better for the horse or for economical reasons? i was told by farrier that my tb's feet would never do without shoes (he wasn't getting worked through winter and just in the field was going to just leave fronts on him)
 
Buzz there are plenty of farriers who think a TB will never manage without shoes. I'm glad they never told it to the one I took the aluminium race plates off, or the one I evented. They are WRONG.

I was also told by two farriers that another horse of mine would never work without shoes because he had to be shod one front foot at a time, he was unable to stand on one foot without a shoe on. They were wrong too. That horse evented affiliated at novice after nine months.
 
Sorry to disagree with OP above but she really doesn't want to be walking on her sole instead of the wall, she needs to be loading the whole foot equally, if she walks just on her soles then she will be very sore indeed.

You really have an awful lot of flare going on there with long toes and the start of her heels dropping which really won't help her at all as everything is being stretched and pulled forward.

This time of yr she should be stonking around on bare feet, the weather has been perfect for barefoot contrary to popular belief, the only real problem at the moment is soles aren't shedding as much as they usually do so a lot of concavity is being lost although those big thick soles are doing a lot of protecting for a lot of ponies............

What is she fed and what work is she doing on what surfaces because her diet really seems to be reflecting in her feet a whole lot?
 
Buzz1 said:
Dont know anything about barefeet, is the theory to be better for the horse or for economical reasons? i was told by farrier that my tb's feet would never do without shoes (he wasn't getting worked through winter and just in the field was going to just leave fronts on him)
Click to expand...

My farrier pushed his thumb into my mares soggy sole last year and said
"Nope.........no chance."

The same farrier saw her at my new yard this year, well 3 weeks ago. He was sitting in his truck and I rode Ellie up to his open window. He looked us up and down and said,

"That's not the same horse is it??"

And of course he then said,

"Well if they can go barefoot as good as that, then why not do it?" :rolleyes::rolleyes:

My horse.........my call I think;)
 
Boysy said:
Sorry to disagree with OP above but she really doesn't want to be walking on her sole instead of the wall, she needs to be loading the whole foot equally, if she walks just on her soles then she will be very sore indeed.
Click to expand...


Have to disagree with you there! All my high-performance barefooters walk on their soles and their frogs and heels. They have no hoof wall height to speak of. The only time they have any problems with feeling stones is if I let them get too much grass during the peak sugar hours of midday to 8pm. Other than that, they are rock-crunching with their sole-weightbearing feet. Sensitive soles are a sign of low grade laminitis - a sensitivity to grass sugars.
 
my last horse had terrible feet, largely caused the nailing, and also by my lack of knowledge re alternatives- and my farrier then never really discussed it with me. If only I could have tried barefoot with him. That experience made me wonder,especially as the boys never been shod, and now I don't have to nail into structures that were not designed to be nailed into, are complex, and a true reflection of the health of the horse in general. They grow at the rate they get worn down.. but I love the fact that it's totally natural.
 
Last edited:
elsbells said:
My farrier pushed his thumb into my mares soggy sole last year and said
"Nope.........no chance."

The same farrier saw her at my new yard this year, well 3 weeks ago. He was sitting in his truck and I rode Ellie up to his open window. He looked us up and down and said,

"That's not the same horse is it??"

And of course he then said,

"Well if they can go barefoot as good as that, then why not do it?" :rolleyes::rolleyes:

My horse.........my call I think;)
Click to expand...

I suppose he's not really going to encourage me to not have shoes at £65 a set bad for business, thanks for the food for thought :)
 
Can I suggest you find a qualified trimmer, rather than a farrier? They're trained to deal with all sorts of problems that a farrier doesn't have to deal with, including diet, environment etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top