Anyone with barefoot horses.........

Jinete12

Jinete12

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........ how are your horses coping with this dry weather and hard ground? My TB has been out of shoes since last August in an attempt to grow some decent quality horn. Unfortunately he's going to have to go back into shoes as being barefoot isn't a long term solution for him, but the farrier wants to give him another couple of months and his feet are breaking up dreadfully :(

Until recently he had no cracks or bits broken off his hooves, but in the last couple of weeks they're just getting worse and worse and I can see it causing a set back in shoes going back on. Any recommendations for a good hoof cream or something to stop the hooves drying out so much?
 
My mare is barefoot and hasn't had any problems related to the ground.

She has been barefoot for 2 and a half years, in that time she has competed in sjing, dr, ODE, showing, done a 10mile road ride to a show etc.

She is being fully shod this week though because apparently her feet need support as she does not weight bear on them correctly and shoes will help this. She has had a mysterious issue of bucking in to canter and refusing to jump with lots of people out to see her and no problem found, except this so this.

I have never used any hoof treatments/ointments as have never had any hoof quality problems that have needed addressing so cannot help you there. If they're drying out, a hoof moist could be useful. I know nothing on the matter though!

Good luck barefoot/shod!
 
My four barefooters are loving the dry ground. The only horses feet I have ever had crack on drying out have been too long and the horses wanted them shorter. Are you sure you don't have fungal infection between the inner and outer hoof wall, which causes the outer hoof wall to peel and/or crack off? Are you sure that they weren't actually too long and he is trying to make them shorter - barefoot feet are VERY short compared to shod ones, where there is usally very little height to the hoof wall because the horses walk on their frogs, heels and a ring of sole callous.

Failing that, quality of what is going in his mouth is more likely to be your issue, not what gunk you may put on the outside of his feet. Lots of barefoot horses do badly if allowed too much spring grass. Many of them don't do well unless their minerals and vitamins are properly balanced and too much iron/manganese in grazing is a common one that causes hoof quality/sensitivity issues. So does mollasses in feed.

tobysg I'd love to know how your farrier explains this one:

"She is being fully shod this week though because apparently her feet need support as she does not weight bear on them correctly and shoes will help this."

He is going to take the weight off the sole callous and frog where it should be, and distribute it instead around the outside of her foot only and that will "support" what exactly?????

I suspect he may mean that she looks like she grows wonky feet without shoes? It so, that may be the foot she knows she needs to suit something less than straight, but invisible, higher up in her leg and shoeing her to look more balanced may be a risky thing to do. Have a look back a couple of days postings on Rockleyfarm.blogspot.com for a perfect example of what I mean - a horse with a perfect looking foot with a shoe on, but with xrays showing that inside that "perfectly balanced" shod foot is a completely wonky set of bones.

Bucking into canter and refusing to jump sound more like kissing spines than unbalanced feet, has she been checked out for KS???
 
My horse's tale would completely hijack this post so don't want to type it all out.

She is medio-laterally imbalanced behind so yes, she has a medial flare and laterally mor eupright hoof wall, I suppose. I am no expert, I have just listened to what people have told me.

The long and short of it is she has had a physio, vet, farrier, saddler, another saddler, another farrier, mctimoney man and another mctimoney person since November.

She is going nicely at the moment but on a close watch for any 'issues'.

Going to shoe her then if horse becomes symptomatic of any pathological issues, knowing all other routes have been taken, she will be towed to the vets for a full set of xrays, nuclear medicine, and whatever else they deem necessary.
 
Both my brefooters feet are better than ever! no chips/cracks and soles getting more concave with the help of the right minerals and diet :) they are both out 24/7 on spring grass ( albiet limited ) and are having no problems with that so far.

I don't use any cream/lotions, I think the only thing I would do if I had one is let them stand in a running stream!
 
My barefooter's (7months) hooves are rock hard in this weather but looks dry and plenty of crackling and crumbling!!!! Around the edge where it needs to imo. CPTrayes talks a lot of sense and it maybe that your horse needs a trim. My horses heels grew so fast that he was peripherally loading causing chips. We've sorted it now and his spring growth spurt has been filed down to a more comfortable level and his heels and frog are now touching the ground.

He is a bit sensitive on out sharp track but he's been forced 24/7 turnout (with muzzle) as we are on a cattle farm and nearly out of hay and not sure with this weather if we'll make enough for winter. So, not surprising really. Need to get some calmag from somewhere today and sort him out.

I dream of a little plot of my own... I'd Jamie Jackson it right up!
 
My three are doing fine, the ground going hard seems to help to be honest, I have more problems in wet weather. If any of mine start to struggle I'd put boots on, because it would only be a temporary situation.
I think Cptrayes is talking a lot of sense, as usual. Rather than putting shoes on I'd be inclined to get a second opinion from a good barefoot specialist. I'm sure people would be able to recommend someone.
Jinete 12, I'd suggest that it depends how much you want your horse to be barefoot. If it's important to you then maybe consider boots and definitely get a second opinion. If it isn't important then stick with the farrier's opinion and put shoes back on. (I'm suggesting a second opinion not as a farrier vs trimmer idea, just because it sounds as if a second opinion would be a good idea).
 
My 2 boys (1xTB and 1xFell pony) are both barefoot, and are both looking better than ever at the moment... i'm using Kevin bacon hoof treatment 4/5days a week as they look a bit dry, but no cracks or chips and both are in work on roads and stoney tracks...
 
tobysg said:
She is medio-laterally imbalanced behind so yes, she has a medial flare and laterally mor eupright hoof wall, I suppose. I am no expert, I have just listened to what people have told me.
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tobysg I realise that you are between a rock and a hard place with the expert opinion you are receiving, but if your mare is not foot-lame then please do a bit of reading (not much, I promise) before your farrier shoes her. Some of the permanent hunters at Rockley are there because Nic Barker was given them because they were impossible to keep sound in shoes. Out of shoes, they grow absolutely astonishing deviations to compensate for their mediolateral imbalances, but are sound. They look like they have very odd feed, but they are unsound in shoes and sound (and hunting) without them. Rockleyfarm.blogspot.com has a full set of photos of several of these horses and if you scan back a month or two you will see both the horses she owns and many of the rehabs with "wonky" feet.

If your horse is not currently foot-lame and your farrier shoes her "balanced" then I worry that you really do risk laming her. It's none of my business of course, but please don't go into it without looking at the pictures.

It still sounds to me like xrays of your horse's backbone for kissing spine and and an expert search for hind limb suspensory desmitis (which can be difficult to diagnose, and assuming that simple and common hock spavin have already been ruled out) would be a better option than shoeing. Unless she is foot-lame I think your experts may be searching around for an answer and blaming what seems to be obvious - that she has no shoes on. It seems to me, knowing how barefoot horses sculpt the feet that they know they need, that her wonky foot loading behind is more likely to be a symptom of her problem and not the cause.

I know my poking my nose in here is probably very annoying to you after all the investigations you have paid for, and I am sorry for that. But other people read this forum and there are some vets around who leap to the fact that the horse has not got shoes on and other people may need to know that they are not necessarily getting best advice if they are unlucky enough to have a vet who believes all working horses need shoes.
 
None of mine have shoes...the latest one to have them off only had them taken off 10 weeks ago and he is fine also. I use Kevin Bacon hoof dressing on my farriers advice to keep the hoof flexible and avoid chipping- certainly none of mine are cracked/chipped- even the latest one hasn't cracked up to his old nail holes.....

Have to say- I'm loving the fact my horses are no longer shod- they seem to move differently and their feet look so much better. Yup.....I've moved to the dark side;)
 
My TB has always been barefoot (well she has been for last 5 years dont know where she was before that) shes almost 8 now. Ive just noticed last week one of them is starting to crack. Shes not in work shes just a broodmare so I wont be getting her shod but ill have to speak to farrier see what he suggests.
 
Water ! every day - just wet the feet with a sponge once or twice a day


It has gone really dry form really wet very quickly - my mare has struggled a little but is better when we get a little rain

I ditto re doing some reading up before you put her shoes on ... what made you take them off in the 1st place ?
 
Yes - I have 5 at the moment, including one professional and one recreational laminitic. All bare, and all doing well on the dry ground at the moment.

The best thing for them is the morning dew, failing that a hose. Water is the only thing you should put on hooves - not lards or greases. They just block up the hoof's porosity and make the problem worse - yes, they look better, but that's cosmetic.

The hoof hosts a moisture gradient across the wall - that is part of the damping and shock absorption mechanisms of which there are many. Interfere with them at your own risk :)

As for the OP's horse - why not pop onto the UKNHCP forum and ask the same questions there. Your answers will be much more around diet and you'll get good feedback.

CP is spot on - asymetry is there for a reason - you have to start with the question of "why is the hoof not perfectly symetrical, why is the frog not centred, why is one wall steeper than the other - what makes my horse load that hoof in that way?"

Then you will come to the conclusion that forcing it into a proper shod shape is going to shift the stresses elsewhere.

I have a horse with what was quite bad spavins at one time - they are fused now and he's sound - but one back foot is quite upright lateral and flared medial. The frog deviates laterally. If I look at him from behind, the central sulcus is smack in line with the centre of his canons and fetlocks, but from behind there is ever so slight a difference in the angle of the muscles of his bum - thisside is rounder than the other. I take that flare away, I have an unsound and sore horse.
 
danni3 said:
My TB has always been barefoot (well she has been for last 5 years dont know where she was before that) shes almost 8 now. Ive just noticed last week one of them is starting to crack. Shes not in work shes just a broodmare so I wont be getting her shod but ill have to speak to farrier see what he suggests.
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I honestly wouldn't worry too much about that - often these are only surface cracks and unless it is causing her trouble, it's nothing to worry about.

Disclaimer: Of course if any horse's feet are long and it's mechanical leverage then it needs seen to. :)

I have one that looks as if there is a big crack runnning down his near fore - I've chased it out and it's actually only a mm or so deep and more of a fold. he's bashed his coronary band at one time and that's just how it grows.
 
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