Any one else's unshod/barefoot horses feeling their feet in this weather?

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ETS: the sizing is how it's uploaded from my phone... not sure why! Side on photos to follow, hopefully ;)
 
Fantastic frogs BBH and nothing in the rest of the photos to explain why you are having problems. I can only echo that my boys don't go out until 7pm either, so maybe it is that. I hope so, it would be a shame for you to have to shoe those!
 
Right, well I'm testing the grass theory having put my lad out tonight at about 9pm, so hopefully completely safe timing ;) I even rode him to the field in just a headcollar which could have been a mistake with a rather round hogged cob but luckily he's too much of a gentleman to throw me on the floor :o

Only trouble is I can't put him out this late every night because I have other commitments, usually with my daughter, a few nights a week so not sure what I'm going to do. I've asked the yard to turnout as late as possible but since they were all gone when I got there at 6.20 I don't think it'll help. Any suggestions?
 
I know, I'm gutted! I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but whilst he does go out from about 4/5 to 7/8 there are other horses out in the same field during the day? However having said that he has been out 24/7 every summer up until now.

I am squirting hydrogen peroxide (not neat obviously!) into the grooves next to the frogs, and will do for the next week at least to see if that makes a difference. Also the mag ox and brewers yeast should start tomorrow.
 
We need muzzles with a timer that makes them drop off at midnight, and has a homing system so we can find them again!

Hopefully the BY and Mgo will make as big a difference to him as they do to mine and my friends' BHB . We all have footie horses without those two things.
 
BBH - have you tried Pro Hoof from Progressive Earth? My TB mare is 8 months into barefoot (although the first four months were in a field) and I noticed a big improvement when I started using this. Mine is out 24/7 in a fairly lush field but her feet are doing brilliantly - this morning I got her out of her field with soaking feet, towelled them off an and then took her long-reining for 45 minutes. There is quite a bit of gravel on the roads and some stonier areas as well, but she never broke stride and I was nearly having to jog to keep up with her walk. I can only put it down to the Pro Hoof and the Field Paste which I put on her soles every few days.
 
How much of each do you feed? I got my MgO from Pro Earth on Ebay who says 15mg but I also emailed Nic at Rockley who said I need to feed 50mg? Also with the 2HO treatment and supps do you think his feet will be ok in 6 weeks when the shoes come back off? Will it do much damage having shoes on for 6 weeks or would you do less? Farrier comes every week to the yard so can be flexible.
 
Go with Nic. I feed about 40g at the moment. It is a safe thing to feed because they don't store it, they just flush out whatever they don't use in their wee.

I gave mine 50g of Brewers Yeast too, but now I use 15g of yea-sacc, which is a live yeast so you do not need so much of it.
 
No, sorry :D One or t'other not both! I got a batch of BY mine would not eat (it varies depending on what drink was made with it) and had to give it up. Yea-sacc has never had anything made with it and is more consistenly palatable.
 
ditto, we are on about 35/40 g of mgox,

one or the other BY/YS

my boy will not eat the BY, I'd happily send you some to try (have a whole sack sat in a bin :mad:) but am not at the horses for 2 weeks now!
 
Thanks ester but we have a small pot of the feedmark stuff which should be here tomorrow. I'm not too worried though - this is the pony that eats bonios!! :confused:
 
ah you might be ok then, mine is very fussy for a cob :p. We did try adding it very slowly and covering it with cider vinegar but not happening.. and put him off eating any of it for a few days so figure best he gets the rest atm! CP I'm assuming the YS smells yeasty? I'm not sure he would eat that either, thought I might certainly give it a try. Am just working on getting all the other supps/minerals to become 'normal' ;). I think he does it just so he can still have some pony nuts to tempt.

The yellow one will eat it up, though she has shoes on ;).
 
It hardly smells at all. The problem with BY is that an alcoholic drink has been made out of it and then it is collected and dried to a powder, concentrating the smell. Yea-sacc is "virgin" yeast, if you see what I mean. Nothing else has ever been made with it, it's not been made to ferment, and it smells a lot less. It's a while since I bought it by itself, but I can't remember it smelling much at all.

I feed it because mine go footie without it, and I think that is because it has two beneficial effects on the gut. It suppresses something that causes inflammation, and it encourages something else that suppresses inflammation. I cant' remember all the long words, but we had a gut specialist on here a year back who wrote it all in a post.
 
My lad has the 50g of mag ox as suggested by Nic, and it really does make a difference. Some of the manufacturers will tell you that their mag ox is purer than others and so suggest you feed less but from what Nic said this isn't the case. All mag ox is about 50% magnesium no matter what type you buy so to feed 25g of magnesium you need to feed 50g of mag ox. The only difference between mag ox from progressive earth and cal mag is that the cal mag is far cheaper and therefore less palatable. Luckily for me my boy will happily eat cal mag so I pay about £17 for 25kgs, which should easily last us a year.

If anyone wants Nic's words on the subject I'll happily go back through my emails as my memory of it probably doesn't make much sense!
 
It may be the photos, but it looks like the frog has been trimmed a bit? If so, maybe try leaving it untrimmed in future, see if it makes a difference?
 
Right guys update time!

Pony is now due to see the farrier again and I was thinking that we'll take the shoes off and see what happens. He's been on MagOx and BY for nearly 8 weeks now and is not feeling his back feet at all so hopefully it's taken effect! However we are now in hunting season, and whilst he'll only be out once a month he will need to be kept fit due to our land (hills!). So do you think I should keep shoes on until spring or will he be OK in full work from the get go? Quite happy to stick to the roads but worried about wear.

Also the MagOx has nearly run out so I was thinking that instead of using BY/MagOx separately I'd get some ProHoof instead? He's also now on Pink Powder which apparently has yeast in it so should be covered now with the PP and PH?
 
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Broke_But_Happy said:
Right guys update time!

Pony is now due to see the farrier again and I was thinking that we'll take the shoes off and see what happens. He's been on MagOx and BY for nearly 8 weeks now and is not feeling his back feet at all so hopefully it's taken effect! However we are now in hunting season, and whilst he'll only be out once a month he will need to be kept fit due to our land (hills!). So do you think I should keep shoes on until spring or will he be OK in full work from the get go? Quite happy to stick to the roads but worried about wear.

Also the MagOx has nearly run out so I was thinking that instead of using BY/MagOx separately I'd get some ProHoof instead? He's also now on Pink Powder which apparently has yeast in it so should be covered now with the PP and PH?
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If you look at the ingredients of PP - it's BY, magnesium, whey protein powder (like the bodybuilders use), salt and glutamine.

The PH contains magnesium, glutamine, yea-sacc (the live version of BY) as well as zinc and copper.

You could either buy the magnesium and BY separately or pick up some PH instead. PP isn't necessary.
 
I could squash my oldies feet at the moment with my hands they are that soft and on surface/grass/soft ground hes fine but even on flat tarmac hes feeling them. Has only had the shoes off about 5 weeks but he was sound from the word go last year when they came off.

Feet are also in some state with cracking and chipping but nothing really farrier can do as nowt there to rasp or trim off :(

Hoping his stable will be sorted in the next few weeks so as I can get him in for a bit during the day.
 
cptrayes said:
That isn't normal even in this wet summer. Has he been tested for Cushings or Insulin Resistance?
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Not recently but shows no other signs of either, his health, weight, temperament, appetite, activity, habits are all normal.

Farrier looked and said just too much wet but being honest everything is soaking up here and the ground isnt the best draining but all I have until stable is ready :( Been walking him up and down the lane daily to the stables (grown over hardcore) and a hack a week to the forest (over tarmac to soft/grass lanes) to try to harden them up.
 
Hi Oberon, PP was as a general vit/min supplement rather than for his feet - would you say one of the balancers instead or is PH a balancer as well? He's on such restricted rations that I feel he needs a vit/min supplement of some kind :)
 
Are his feet that bad in winter? If not, I would, at his age, test for Cushings. Sometimes the feet can be the first sign. I have a friend who tested her Arab for it because of sensitive soles, no other symptoms, and the Vet was very surprised it came back positive. A tiny dose of pergolide has sorted him out completely.
 
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