GermanyJo
Well-Known Member
Hi
thought that some of you kind bare foot experts might like to have a look at our progress so far .. I have been lurking on here for the last few months picking up valuable tips on how to try to get this progression going well .. my picture 'protocol' is not great , but to start with I was just taking pictures to try to see the changes in his frogs .. he has some interesting bar 'stuff' going on which initially I was a bit worried about, but having done some reading , it seems I did the right thing to let him get on with sorting his feet out himself. He has never had back shoes on, the front shoes came off in September 2013 due to him having to have an enforced holiday as i was on the sick list. I have never been that happy with his front feet and when I bought him he had very bad thrush on all 4 feet , and small (for his size) feet with narrow heels. Due to his enforced holiday he is now on a different yard where he is on 24 hour turn out , so I figured when I got the go ahead to ride again, we would try to see if we could manage without shoes
He was trimmed beginning of Nov 2013 but not a barefoot trim and he was sore for a week or so afterwards :-( .. all winter he has been on a winter paddock, which has fairly hard footing, and he seems to have done a great job of self trimming ... I bit the bullet and decided to let him get on with it himself. I got him fitted for some boots about 6 weeks ago and that was the first time anyone had done anything to his feet .. the trimmer just 'tidied up' the frogs a little and did a very little rasping of the wall edges. He confirmed what i had read on here and various other sources, that we should simply leave the bar growth.. to quote him , he said 'he is growing it because he needs it, it will go away when the foot is improved'
sooo.... here are the pictures from Dec .. am kicking myself for not taking pictures earlier , as the frogs were already improved (believe it or not !) in these pictures .. sorry they are soooo big .. I am a bit of a computer dummy and could not get them to resize ....
Dec 2013
March 2014 - much improved frogs ... still treating for thrush though .. you can see the bar development clearly on these pictures .. you can't see that clearly here, but the feet are still very flat
This week - the colour looks a bit strange as I had hosed his foot off , so it all looks a bit wet - but the frog is now 'open' in the middle and dry .. I am still cleaning regularily and using red horse field paste at the moment to ensure no pesky thrush gets set in again .... FINALLY (and I must say, it seemed to happen almost from one day to the next) . the foot is showing some concavity (is that a word ?? ) ... the hinds have also suddenly , in the last week started to look less flat.
and here are some other views from this week .. the left fore is showing a much straighter 'hair line' .. the right fore still has a 'wave' ?? you can just see at the very bottom of the foot the different angle growing out , at the toe it is gone, but that was what encouraged me at the very beginning when the shoes came off that you could almost immediately see the different growth angle ....
I have been walking him in hand alot on the tracks around us and have finally seen a marked difference in how he is coping with different surfaces the last couple of weeks, we hacked out for the first time without shoes on in front tonight .. went on a fairly 'easy on the feet' ride (we have quite a few sand tracks near us) and he coped really well with it. My plan is to alternate using the boots and going without , as and when I feel it is necessary.
I have managed to get some Pro hoof sent over here .. did not think they posted to Germany, but managed to get a not too expensive postage quote and ordered in bulk so he has been on that for about 2 weeks now .. prior to the he was on linseed oil (tricky to get micronized here) .. sugarbeet and low sugar/low starch mix and oats.
Any comments / feedback are very very welcome as I am very new to this bare foot thing, but am already encouraged by what I am seeing (hopefully I am right and they are heading in the right direction? )
thought that some of you kind bare foot experts might like to have a look at our progress so far .. I have been lurking on here for the last few months picking up valuable tips on how to try to get this progression going well .. my picture 'protocol' is not great , but to start with I was just taking pictures to try to see the changes in his frogs .. he has some interesting bar 'stuff' going on which initially I was a bit worried about, but having done some reading , it seems I did the right thing to let him get on with sorting his feet out himself. He has never had back shoes on, the front shoes came off in September 2013 due to him having to have an enforced holiday as i was on the sick list. I have never been that happy with his front feet and when I bought him he had very bad thrush on all 4 feet , and small (for his size) feet with narrow heels. Due to his enforced holiday he is now on a different yard where he is on 24 hour turn out , so I figured when I got the go ahead to ride again, we would try to see if we could manage without shoes
He was trimmed beginning of Nov 2013 but not a barefoot trim and he was sore for a week or so afterwards :-( .. all winter he has been on a winter paddock, which has fairly hard footing, and he seems to have done a great job of self trimming ... I bit the bullet and decided to let him get on with it himself. I got him fitted for some boots about 6 weeks ago and that was the first time anyone had done anything to his feet .. the trimmer just 'tidied up' the frogs a little and did a very little rasping of the wall edges. He confirmed what i had read on here and various other sources, that we should simply leave the bar growth.. to quote him , he said 'he is growing it because he needs it, it will go away when the foot is improved'
sooo.... here are the pictures from Dec .. am kicking myself for not taking pictures earlier , as the frogs were already improved (believe it or not !) in these pictures .. sorry they are soooo big .. I am a bit of a computer dummy and could not get them to resize ....
Dec 2013
March 2014 - much improved frogs ... still treating for thrush though .. you can see the bar development clearly on these pictures .. you can't see that clearly here, but the feet are still very flat
This week - the colour looks a bit strange as I had hosed his foot off , so it all looks a bit wet - but the frog is now 'open' in the middle and dry .. I am still cleaning regularily and using red horse field paste at the moment to ensure no pesky thrush gets set in again .... FINALLY (and I must say, it seemed to happen almost from one day to the next) . the foot is showing some concavity (is that a word ?? ) ... the hinds have also suddenly , in the last week started to look less flat.
and here are some other views from this week .. the left fore is showing a much straighter 'hair line' .. the right fore still has a 'wave' ?? you can just see at the very bottom of the foot the different angle growing out , at the toe it is gone, but that was what encouraged me at the very beginning when the shoes came off that you could almost immediately see the different growth angle ....
I have been walking him in hand alot on the tracks around us and have finally seen a marked difference in how he is coping with different surfaces the last couple of weeks, we hacked out for the first time without shoes on in front tonight .. went on a fairly 'easy on the feet' ride (we have quite a few sand tracks near us) and he coped really well with it. My plan is to alternate using the boots and going without , as and when I feel it is necessary.
I have managed to get some Pro hoof sent over here .. did not think they posted to Germany, but managed to get a not too expensive postage quote and ordered in bulk so he has been on that for about 2 weeks now .. prior to the he was on linseed oil (tricky to get micronized here) .. sugarbeet and low sugar/low starch mix and oats.
Any comments / feedback are very very welcome as I am very new to this bare foot thing, but am already encouraged by what I am seeing (hopefully I am right and they are heading in the right direction? )
