Nickles1973
Well-Known Member
I have posted before about my beautiful boy and his many issues ranging from a hoof imbalance and most recently the early signs of arthritis. (and he's still only 9 years old)
About 8 weeks ago I took a look at my boys hooves and decided that something had to be done about them. I admit to being very much a novice when it comes to recognising the signs of a bad shoeing job but I just had a sinking feeling when looking at his hooves that they were not healthy. And the so called remedial shoes weren't making his hooves better but worse. The farrier had not had any hoof to trim since March so in spite of all the expensive feed and supplements his hooves were not growing at all. What's more when the farrier came to shoe him his legs would shake and he would almost fall over if when he was left to stand without a shoe on while the farrier lifted his other hoof. It was a heartbreaking sight
And so began our journey. I first of all found out as much as I could about the best way to transition my boy by researching on the internet. Straight away I replaced his top spec balancer and alpha A with fast fibre, graze on and micronized linseed. Over the next couple of weeks I sourced the other supplements recommended for healthy hooves and by recommendation found myself another farrier.
When the new farrier came to see G's hooves we together devised a plan to get him out of his shoes and growing a healthy set of hooves.
This involved using a relatively new and unknown product to construct him a shoe made of plastic which would act in the place of his steel shoes with a few crucial differences. They were not nailed on, and as the plastic would act as part of his hoof it would allow for expansion in a way that steel shoes never could.
As his hind hooves had only recently been shod we decided to leave these in place for a while to allow for any growth that might occur. His situation was also made more complex by him being lame behind which was being invesigated by the vet. I didn't want to add to his issues behind by making him uncomfortable on his hind hooves so to leave the back shoes on was really the only option.
Fast forward 6 weeks. The vettec shoes were not without their problems. They did chip off several times which required virtually weekly unscheduled top-ups by the farrier. But the changes that have already started in his front hooves are amazing. And even more impressive is the amout of growth. From the measurements my farrier took he grew an amazing 20mm of strong hoof in 4 1/2 weeks!!
So yesterday we took the leap of taking his back shoes off and chipping off the remaining vettec shoes from his front hooves.
The horse that 8 weeks earlier had struggled to even stand up without front shoes quite comfortably walked across our stony yard and down to the field completely barefoot.
I know that the journey isn't over. In fact it's really just beginning. He was not so happy to walk back down to the field today as I am sure his back hooves have "woken up" today and he had a sachet of bute in his brekka so he would be more comfortable moving around. (Our fields are rock hard at the mo) I have bought a pair of hoof boots so that once he looks comfortable enough on his hinds we can start walking around our fields.
This ended up being longer than I'd planned!!! But I also wanted to add my thanks to Oberon and CPTrays as without their pm's at the beginning of my investigations and their support since I might have had second thoughts and bottled out!
About 8 weeks ago I took a look at my boys hooves and decided that something had to be done about them. I admit to being very much a novice when it comes to recognising the signs of a bad shoeing job but I just had a sinking feeling when looking at his hooves that they were not healthy. And the so called remedial shoes weren't making his hooves better but worse. The farrier had not had any hoof to trim since March so in spite of all the expensive feed and supplements his hooves were not growing at all. What's more when the farrier came to shoe him his legs would shake and he would almost fall over if when he was left to stand without a shoe on while the farrier lifted his other hoof. It was a heartbreaking sight
And so began our journey. I first of all found out as much as I could about the best way to transition my boy by researching on the internet. Straight away I replaced his top spec balancer and alpha A with fast fibre, graze on and micronized linseed. Over the next couple of weeks I sourced the other supplements recommended for healthy hooves and by recommendation found myself another farrier.
When the new farrier came to see G's hooves we together devised a plan to get him out of his shoes and growing a healthy set of hooves.
This involved using a relatively new and unknown product to construct him a shoe made of plastic which would act in the place of his steel shoes with a few crucial differences. They were not nailed on, and as the plastic would act as part of his hoof it would allow for expansion in a way that steel shoes never could.
As his hind hooves had only recently been shod we decided to leave these in place for a while to allow for any growth that might occur. His situation was also made more complex by him being lame behind which was being invesigated by the vet. I didn't want to add to his issues behind by making him uncomfortable on his hind hooves so to leave the back shoes on was really the only option.
Fast forward 6 weeks. The vettec shoes were not without their problems. They did chip off several times which required virtually weekly unscheduled top-ups by the farrier. But the changes that have already started in his front hooves are amazing. And even more impressive is the amout of growth. From the measurements my farrier took he grew an amazing 20mm of strong hoof in 4 1/2 weeks!!
So yesterday we took the leap of taking his back shoes off and chipping off the remaining vettec shoes from his front hooves.
The horse that 8 weeks earlier had struggled to even stand up without front shoes quite comfortably walked across our stony yard and down to the field completely barefoot.
I know that the journey isn't over. In fact it's really just beginning. He was not so happy to walk back down to the field today as I am sure his back hooves have "woken up" today and he had a sachet of bute in his brekka so he would be more comfortable moving around. (Our fields are rock hard at the mo) I have bought a pair of hoof boots so that once he looks comfortable enough on his hinds we can start walking around our fields.
This ended up being longer than I'd planned!!! But I also wanted to add my thanks to Oberon and CPTrays as without their pm's at the beginning of my investigations and their support since I might have had second thoughts and bottled out!
Hope you can sort out the lameness and start riding again. I never heard of a horse whose hoofs didn't grow at all. Sounds like he's making up for it now though.
