Am I Mad?

Shavings

Shavings

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Ok
so as many as you know i own a 4 year old Tb gelding

we have been on the hoof supplement formal 4 feet since early October and although his hoof seems less "crumbly" i wouldn't say its doing all it can for him

he is bare foot on the hind legs and just shod in front, i would LOVE! for him to be bare on all four feet

but when we tired taking fronts of become he couldn't cope, couldn't come of the rubber mats in his stable and didn't even make it to the field! so farrier came back and put shoes on again!


has any one ever taken shoes form there Tb or finer type horse and been able to keep them off??

what do you lot feed for horses with "poor" hooves

Levi diet is currently, hand full of pony nuts and plain chaff morning and night, ad-lib haylage when in and grass wile out (although the fields are starting to go bare now so haylage is being put out with them)

he doesn't need any thing to add weight to him! he looks rather "well" and sure as hell does NOT! need any thing to "fizzy" him up

any help or advice would be lovely!!

any truthfully am i mad to think maybe one day he could be bare on all 4?
 
I've took them off mine. Yes he was a bit footy for a good few weeks maybe even months but eventually he was ok. With barefoot you have to have the right diet with as little sugar as possible and a hell of a lot of patience.
 
When I bought J I removed his shoes he could not make it to the field .
Within just under a year he was hacking out and jumping doing dressage very happily .
I kept him without shoes for eighteen months then shod him as I wanted to use studs .
He spends part of every year shoeless it does not mean all work stops I just use it as training time .
It was time consuming and hard work walking in hand etc etc I great support from the vet ( and we did use pain relief at first ) and a trimmer and farrier .
You need to get boots and pads if you try again and be prepared to use them at first .get the feet first book that helped me a lot it's an old book now so just disregard the stuff about feeding seaweed .
You need to be prepared to walk in hand / long rein.
You may well have to restrict grazing and stable during the day in summer .
You will probably spend six months just doing what the feet allow you to do .
Your horse is young it's worth the investment of time now for a sounder future .
 
Goldenstar said:
When I bought J I removed his shoes he could not make it to the field .
Within just under a year he was hacking out and jumping doing dressage very happily .
I kept him without shoes for eighteen months then shod him as I wanted to use studs .
He spends part of every year shoeless it does not mean all work stops I just use it as training time .
It was time consuming and hard work walking in hand etc etc I great support from the vet ( and we did use pain relief at first ) and a trimmer and farrier .
You need to get boots and pads if you try again and be prepared to use them at first .get the feet first book that helped me a lot it's an old book now so just disregard the stuff about feeding seaweed .
You need to be prepared to walk in hand / long rein.
You may well have to restrict grazing and stable during the day in summer .
You will probably spend six months just doing what the feet allow you to do .
Your horse is young it's worth the investment of time now for a sounder future .
Click to expand...

Thanks goldenstar thats a massive help!!

i dont mind the in hand walks or the long reining, i just enjoy his company more then any thing he doesn't answer me back ;) !
i am thinking of starting to remove them once the weather gets a little better as at the moment the place is a bog! and although we haven't (touch wood!) lost a shoe yet i don't want him in pain hoping about a slippy field!

so wish me luck!!!
 
I just whipped the shoes off mine but they're not TBs so not much comparison for you I'm afraid!
GS's post looks really helpful. You could also go in C&T and look at the posts by Nikkimariet - she has a barefoot TB she competes with regularly. Cracking horse and NMT is very open about his feed etc. - I always find her posts really helpful as they give me ideas for my own.
 
Supplements and diet change only affect the NEW GROWTH, so if it takes 9 months for your horse to grow a new hoof capsule, the horse needs to be fed it for 9 months before the new horn reaches the bottom of the hoof. There are better supplements than F4F out there eg Pro Hoof, Pro Balance, Forage Plus and Equivita.

Is the chaff plain oat straw or is it alfalfa based? Alfalfa doesn't suit all horses. Have you looked at the ingredients in the pony nuts? I know that many BF horses cope well on spillers hi fi cubes, so they might be an option for you.

Yes, i have had a BF TB and I currently have a BF anglo-arab who is 50% TB and her hooves were awful before the shoes came off. The old farrier had even stated that she would never cope without shoes due to her 'typical TB feet.' They live out all year (apart from horrendous weather) and I restrict their grazing in the summer with electric tape and they have a hay feeder in the field in winter. I found that roadwork on smooth tarmac is beneficial, but must be built up slowly (I started by leading out in-hand).

Don't forget that you do have the option of using hoof boots.

One thing that might be relevant is that when CM's shoes were removed, she had six weeks hoof growth and her hooves were not trimmed. She was fine on smooth surfaces, the sand school and in the field (there was a bit of 'give' in the ground) straight away.
 
I have not got thoroughbreds but one thing I found was winter stabling and less riding made the hooves softer so now I only bed or rubber mat half to three quarters of the stable with the hay and water on the concrete. It keeps the hooves in good condition for roadwork without having to hack out all the time.
 
No not mad at all, although if you do take your horse BF you might wonder if you are doing the right thing and for the horse, yes you are.
I had my old TB gifted back to me two years after selling him, his feet were horrendous, my very good farrier doubted being able to shoe him and said up front, my lad would be unlikely to hold his shoes, having typical TB feet, he lost his shoes quite quickly and I never replaced them, all mt horses were on a sugar free diet, my TB is 20+ yrs by the way, for 7 months he struggled, worked happily in his cavello simple boots, but going to and from the field along a gravel route, he was just not willing to risk it, nappies were a godsend, put a nappy on his feet and he would beat me back to the barn, the times I went to get him in and he refused to move till I went back and got the nappies, two years on and he still expects his feet to hurt, but thats his mental attitude, I just let him pick his route and insist he gets where we are going.
Sorry for the novel, but it is worth the effort
 
My sister has an 17.3/18hh tb who's always been bare behind, but is shod in front due to spread when the ground gets hard. His are whipped off with no difference to him at all. In fact 2 summers ago he did an ODE barefoot...he pulled one overnight, so just took the other one off! Not on any kind of special diet or management, but i think we must be lucky with our grazing as we have 3 others completely bare, and another only shod in front.
 
My previous TB worked unshod. The new one has been shod due to footiness, while new hoof grows. It would be unfair to force it on him before his feet are ready, and he's had some problems with boots. I haven't had a shod horse since 2008 so I don't take it lightly but some horses take time. Once new hoof has grown right down I will start transitioning him, despite my vet's never ending "assurance" that TBs can't go without shoes! But I don't believe in making them hobble around in the meantime.

Btw, Pro Balance has worked well for my lot.
 
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