BARE FOOT?

[Daisychain]

Thankyou spooky pony! Im glad you remembered my case.

One other thing that springs to mind is this, when i was a child i had a pony with very poor feet, everytime he was shod his feet would break off around nail holes etc.

I remember him having his shoes off at one particular time and i remember thinking how good his feet had become, no more chipping cracking etc.... At that time noone had ever heard of horses going without shoes, so i didnt think twice when he went back into work with shoes on, and his feet started breaking up again!

So then he started having biotin etc....

When infact all he needed was no shoes!

By the way i am not anti shoeing at all, purely making an observation. My other horse is shod.

One thing i do think though it is definately important to give them a few moths off without shoes every now and then to really allow the foot to expand and contract properly, so the inner structures are kept strong.

 

[Kallibear]

Echo gedenskis_girl - so many owners have little or no knowledge of feet other than they need to see the farrier every now and again. The vast majoirty couldn't even tell you if their farrier is doing a good job or not.

I don't doubt that most farriers have an excellent working knowledge of feet and everything hoof related. But in my experince of farriers, the vast majority (i.e every one I've met!) have little interest in barefoot and the work needed in maintaining a barefoot horse. How many farriers offer advise on the best way to keep the hoof in good condition? In feeding? In booting up? Yes, most do a decent trim (a trim is a trim and unless they'd doing something drastic, the exact 'type' the farrier does doesn't matter, as the horse sorts it's own feet out) but offer no further advise on how to improve the foot further. Doesn't mean they don't KNOW it, it's just they don't offer it.

That's the reason there is such a huge gap in the market for 'trimmers'. I suspect that most people who much prefer the advise came from a farrier, but it's not offered so they need to look elsewhere.

Coen - eductate yourself so you can make informed decisions about your horses feet. There is plenty of information out there. Then you can decide for yourself who's right or wrong and not just rely on other peoples opinions.