Bare foot, not working for me :(

I stress I am not responding to the poster she says diet is fine and I believe her, I stress that some horses on certain terrain will not cope well with 'barefoot' and I believe she has made a sensible decision, and a responsible one.
 
mik said:
I stress I am not responding to the poster she says diet is fine and I believe her, I stress that some horses on certain terrain will not cope well with 'barefoot' and I believe she has made a sensible decision, and a responsible one.
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Lol Mik my post was not aimed at you :)
 
thatsmygirl said:
I would love to have all mine barefoot and have 3 bare foot and 3 with front shoes but bare behind. The 2 in question had suitable diets, the pony having Allen and page L mix which forms a mash ( cereal, molasses free and 3.75% starch) with half a cup off micro linseed, brewers yeast and mag oz with vit/min supplement. Weight wise he's right and can feel his ribs easily. The other was on a similar diet but with speedibeet and more linseed. I think the thing that doesn't help is how wet the field is. They are stabled at night so dry out. They seem fine with no backs and hopefully will keep this going but more than the footyness it's the temperment change I couldn't believe, the pony has never been so grumpy and unhappy and now back to ears forward and happy again. It's just a shame as I really wanted it to work for all my horses not just half, no I haven't had my grass etc tested because I felt I couldn't leave them so grumpy for any longer. But I must say I would like to try again some time but will prop get my grazing and hay etc tested before I do
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Excellent post. Nice to see you are open minded and avoid a blinked approach by ensuring your horse's comfort and well being comes before extremist views.
I'm sure if we all have the terrain, life style and climate Mustang horses have, we'd all be trotting round happily shoeless. Sadly, here in England, we have to make do with what we have. If the horse is too uncomfortable to be ridden unshod, using shoes to maintain fitness and condition has to be the sensible option.
Small boggy English fields in winter are not the unshod horse's best friend.
 
I have one about 2 and a bit months into working without shoes he's doing fine I came to it from noticing that when I removed his shoes when he needed a enforced break that it seemed to make no difference to him so as I knew when he came back to work I would only have him in light work for a while I thought I dip my toe in and see how it went . It's a steep,learning curve and you need an open mind. They all have a forage based diet so I did not have to think about big changes but am now just changing some supplements and things to see how it goes, I will change the whole yards diet at the same time .
OP did not give the full details of what she had done to help her though the change over in terms of controlled assess to different surface types neither does she say ( unless I missed it ) what ground conditions the horses are kept on.
I agree it's odd that both the TB and the pony where not coping that would tend to point to a management reason but barefoot is not for every horse/ owner / situation, and it's better to put the shoes back than let the horse be visibly miserable.
I read all the barefoot threads on here and have learnt a lot from them,but not every horse will be made lame by shoes and not every horse will be better barefoot and it's important to respect everyone's views.
 
Personally I would be very concerned if hoofboots (which the OP tried) did not make my horse comfortable when barefoot, that would suggest it had real problems to me.
 
thatsmygirl said:
I would love to have all mine barefoot and have 3 bare foot and 3 with front shoes but bare behind. The 2 in question had suitable diets, the pony having Allen and page L mix which forms a mash ( cereal, molasses free and 3.75% starch) with half a cup off micro linseed, brewers yeast and mag oz with vit/min supplement. Weight wise he's right and can feel his ribs easily. The other was on a similar diet but with speedibeet and more linseed. I think the thing that doesn't help is how wet the field is. They are stabled at night so dry out. They seem fine with no backs and hopefully will keep this going but more than the footyness it's the temperment change I couldn't believe, the pony has never been so grumpy and unhappy and now back to ears forward and happy again. It's just a shame as I really wanted it to work for all my horses not just half, no I haven't had my grass etc tested because I felt I couldn't leave them so grumpy for any longer. But I must say I would like to try again some time but will prop get my grazing and hay etc tested before I do
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Clearly you've done the right thing to shoe them, and equally clearly they are two horses who need an environment which is more difficult for you to supply than some other horses manage with, which is a shame for you. It sounds like they don't do well with restricted movement and neither do they do well with wet feet. You're caught between a rock and a hard place with that one.

I know that my boys would not be as good as they are if they were stood in mud all day and night, but neither would they be as good as they are if they were in stables more than half the day either. I am blessed with a barn where they live together at night which is big enough for them to canter in, just, and I spread their food around four wall racks so the dominant one keeps people walking half the night too as he moves them from one rack to the next :p

We aren't all that lucky, and for some people shoeing is the only option.
 
Clava said:
Personally I would be very concerned if hoofboots (which the OP tried) did not make my horse comfortable when barefoot, that would suggest it had real problems to me.
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Mmmm, it could be deep central sulcus thrush though. It's so often missed.
I also think op has done the right thing. Learning as much as possible in future will help generally though. Getting grass analysed is a good idea. Something could be very low and need extra supplementing. Zinc, magnesium or copper are common examples which may need individual supplementation if very low rather than a general mineral supplement. The sugar spectre can also be a bigger problem than usual in some fields or forage.
 
Clava said:
Personally I would be very concerned if hoofboots (which the OP tried) did not make my horse comfortable when barefoot, that would suggest it had real problems to me.
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Agree with this. I have never had even the footiest horse fail to be happy in hoof boots. It suggests either dead flat feet and thin soles presing on the hoof boot bottom, or leverage at poorly attached laminae from weak feet flexing. Either would normally be dietary, and in two horses of such different types I would be looking for a serious mineral imbalance in the hay/grazing or the presence of steroid-bearing (St john's Wort??) or poisonous plants (eg acorn), which I believe can produce the same effect.
 
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