Anyone barefoot?

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holdtight

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My lovely boy has been having lameness issues for the first time in the 11yrs I have had him. We have been working through them with my vet and on Monday he is having his front feet nerve blocked and xrayed.

My gut feeling is that he has foot balance issues. His feet have been looking v poor for months now and each farrier I have had over the last few years tells me he has under run, contracted heels but these never seem to be corrected. The foot balance seems to be getting worse. His stride is getting shorter now culminating in him being v uncomfortable on hard ground the last couple of days.

So I have started to research going barefoot. There seems to be at least two trains of thought, barefoot trimming and applied equine podiatry. Does any one have experience of either? Any thing i should discuss in particular with a practitioner before taking the plunge? I am in Berkshire, any recommendations?

I changed his feed about 8 months ago with a view to going barefoot after the summer, when the ground is more forgiving. He is now sugar free and eats kilos of hose hips a week to try and strengthen any new hoof growth.

I figured why wait til the autumn, he clearly needs help now and his shoes will be coming off on Monday anyway!!

He is now 13 yrs old and I have had him since he was 2. He has regular physio, just had saddle checked etc.

If anyone has anything helpful to pass on I would be really keen to hear what you have to say. I am already beating myself up for letting his poor feet go apparently unbalanced for this long so please, no destructive or unhelpful advice. I am trying to do what is right for my much loved horse.

Thanks
 
I've got one lami horse bf, you will find loads of help on here.

But I will say one thing, not everything works for every horse, my bf lami in turned out and ridden in boots as that his need.

I would look at getting some hoof boots and pads, the new cavello treks are fab and easy boot foam pads with the easy boot gaiters all of which you can find on the saddlery shop web site.

Feeding wise keep it simple, forage based try not to add in too many things for hoof growth at once as my lami can't take linseed or too much mag ox so he is just on heathy hooves and pro balance plus.

Also I use my farrier for trimming as he is very good with there feet and the one trimmer that comes to my yard does nothing but slate farriers in a loud voice so has put me off. Don't do too much trimming in the first few weeks, just let it grow.

Hope that helps and someone with more experience than I will be along soon
 
My mare has just gone barefoot. She really struggled in the beginning; ended up with vet visiting and on one and a half bute twice a day, boots and pads for turn out and foot thick shavings bed when in. Using Kevin Bacon hoof oil, global herbs supahoof supplement. Now down to one bute a day - still using boots to turn out and the thick bed.
Horse is retired. If she wasn't I would not have been able to ride as she was way too foot sore.
Farrier is pleased with how things are going. I'm persevering but it has been hard! I can see her hooves getting slowly better, she is certainly more comfortable now but that is with boots and a thick bed!
She is a tb, with flat feet. The cavello boots have been great, but their pads are very thin. I use the easy boot soft pads which are working well.
 
Until you see the xrays you will not know what is going on, your vet is likely to suggest some type of remedial shoes so be ready to stand up to him if you prefer to go barefoot but they are not all easily persuaded.
Your farriers may have tried to help with the inbalance but without seeing what is actually going on inside it can be hard to get right and without xrays they cannot fit remedial shoes so it can be a vicious circle with the feet getting continually worse despite their best efforts so don't rule out keeping your farrier for corrective trimming once he sees the xrays he will no longer be working in the dark as far as balance is concerned.
 
Look up the Rockley site, they have a wealth of info on there.
My5 year old cob is barefoot and rock crunching. He is out at night and in by day, grass and hay is all he has apart from a salt lick and a Rockies mineral block. We hack out 5/6 days a week, I only have the farrier to tidy his hooves up twice a year maximum, roadwork keeps him self trimming. I know all horses are different but keeping a horse shoeless isn't rocket science.
 
OK, the basics.

You must get the food right, and for some horses that means additional minerals to balance what is wrong with your grazing and forage, and can mean very restricted access to grass, especially if the horse has any metabolic issues. A safe place to start is a balancer from either progressive earth on eBay or online from forageplus.co.UK

Note that other balancers contain iron and manganese, and low levels of copper and zinc and magnesium, both of which are very unhelpful with most UK grazing.

Rehash need work. Removing the shoes is not enough for most of them. Be prepared to do miles of walking, on foot yourself if you have to. Walk the feet into health, as much as they can cope with. Don't do too much until the foot landing is flat, because a toe first landing causes ddft damage in the foot. Once it's flat, then heel first, you're away.

Your trimmer can be a farrier. Basic no nos are trimming sole, trimming anything but ragged frog, trimming bars that extend up the side of the frog (because it's there for support for a weak hoof). And before anyone removes flare, be very, very sure that it's not a deviation put there by the horse to balance a less than straight leg.

I hope your vet will tell you that navicular bone erosion, of you see anyon the x rays, has a VERY poor correlation with soundness and does not mean that your horse will not recover. Spurs are more of a concern.

Your trimmer does not need to trim to the x rays, if you walk the horse on abrasive surfaces he will rebalance his feet for himself. If you see negative coffin bone angle, which you may with low heels, the answer is NOT to drop the toe, is to work tie heels until they get higher, as they will.

Take lots of photos, you will be stunned by the rapidity of the changes that you will see.


You've chosen far and away the most likely way to get your horse sound again, congratulations! I have done two long term lame shoot/retire cases and both came sound as soon as they grew better feet.

If you have problems, come back to us.
 
My 4 year old is barefoot and always will be unless advised not to by vet/farrier. She is fed alfa-a oil and pasture mix, her hooves are done every six weeks by the farrier and they are as hard as rock! I know some people who have transitioned who have found hoof boots very helpful when on hard ground or hacking out for the first few months. It may take a while but it's worth it! She also has Kevin bacon applied every day.
 
I bought my boy knowing he had crap feet and expecting to take his shoes off, but like you planning on waiting till winter. Fast forward a 6 weeks and I looked at himm, lame over stones in shoes and off they came. I started his barefoot diet as soon as I got him. Pro Hoof, linseed, salt, and mag chloride. He started growing load of hoof and mane and tail :D I got an EP out. His feet are terrible :( Navicular syndrome, horrible thrush infection, white line, seedy toe and literally no heel :( One foot has actually twisted round inside the hoof. He has no hoof wall, stretched white lines and his frogs were very proud of his shoes. He has literally been walking on his toes and frogs, which were so shrivelled and infected it must have been agony!

His shoes have been off a fortnight now and I've got him boots and pads. Hes sound apart from on gravel/stones, but he gets better every day. When I look back hes been in pain for a long time. His old owner used to laugh about how he hated the drive which was gravelly and how he used to spend a lot of time laying down. He had a lameness work up 8 months ago and nothing was found, no one ever mentioned his feet! I moved my boy rather than face his old owner and other liveries who kept telling me how good his feet were!

Mines 13yr old and I'm not sure he will ever be rock crunching but boots are great and really easy to put on. I'd rather he wore boots for riding and wasnt shod 24/7. I think another 6 months and he'd have been PTS with full blown navicular, instead I hope to keep him sound for a long time :) And this was an award winning farrier! To give him his due he deserves an award for keeping shoes on those feet!

The EP spent over 2 and a half hours trimming and treating his feet, and the difference is almost unbelievable!
 
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I recently took my boys shoes off- he has a few problems including with the coffin joint and tradtional approaches did sod all.. so, shoes off, with the rationale that he was likely to be retired, and if he improved I would bring him back into work. He did improve hugely and we are now back in work! He had his first proper trim today and farrier said his feet looked the best they ever have, and he was very happy with him.
 
I've got a 7yo cob cross mare. I bought her just after she was backed age 5, she had a surprise foal so then a bit of maternity time off..! She hasn't got many miles on the clock! She has never worn shoes and as we haven't done a lot this hasn't been a problem. I went on an amazing riding tour in Iceland this summer though, this inspired me toget her fit! So have been out most mornings. She's gone a bit footy on the extremely stoney track. I thought about shoes but then saw some boa hoof boots on our local equestrian swap shop for twenty quid. Amazingly they fit! She's been through mud, rivers, over stones, boulders, down exceptionally steep tarmac road, all good! Had a few centers they haven't flown off and no rubbing so at the moment I think they're great! Apparently takes 7 months for hooves to catch up with workload so going with the flow for now, happy little mare and we both love our Dawn patrol outings!
 
Thank you all so much for your advice and for sharing your experiences. A gold mine of information.

Fingers crossed for answers on Monday. Lots to consider and research in the mean time. Thank you so much.
 
I bought my TB with terrible feet .
I took his shoes off and it took time and effort but he was transformed by over a year without shoes .
I give him regular shoeing breaks now and the farrier is very careful he wears natural balance type shoes when shod and does very well in them .
I recommend the feet first book to get you started .
Remedial shoes will not work for this issue IMO .
 
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