Barefoot Aficionados, Your Thoughts Please

J

JessandCharlie

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Just wrote out an essay, and deleted it :rolleyes:

Ok, little Ozz has been without shoes for roughly 8 weeks now. All is well, he's a little footy of really stony, rutted ground, but not too bad at all, and it's improving all the time :)

I've noticed, however, since he's had his shoes off, the new growth around the coronet band is markedly different to the rest of the hoof on all four, and I wondered whether it is good/bad/indifferent really. This is coming from somebody who hasn't ever had a horse unshod before :o

He's worked 4 times a week, for 30-45 mins, mix of schooling, jumping, road work and work in the forest, he's 4.

Out 24/7 on bare-ish grazing, fed Fast Fibre, Happy Hoof and since he's had shoes off; Rosehips, Brewer's yeast and MagOx

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Hind
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And soles of fores, just for any other comments :p
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Comments on general condition etc welcome too :) They aren't great quality, sorry, I was trying to juggle horse/camera/hoof pick/brush etc. and the begger kept fidgeting, so wasn't stood square for a few of them :rolleyes:

Thanks

J&C
 
panic ye not-apparently its normal when you go barefoot for the new growth to look a bit different. my horse's growth since having his shoes off is now almost at the bottom and his new hoof looks to be more upright and tighter (for lack of a technical term).
 
I am not an expert - just someone who is trying to learn due to problems with a bad farrier.

To me, it looks as if the new growth is how the hoof wants to grow and looks a much better angle than the old growth below, which shows alot of 'flare'.

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^ You can really see the change of angle here and how the old growth flares out.
 
Faracat said:
I am not an expert - just someone who is trying to learn due to problems with a bad farrier.

To me, it looks as if the new growth is how the hoof wants to grow and looks a much better angle than the old growth below, which shows alot of 'flare'.



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Exactly what i was going to say!! It looks like your horse, bless him, is just growing his hooves how he wants/needs them to be without any interference from shoes. shows that he wasnt getting the correct hoof shape when shod
 
The growth from the coronet is true growth. It's the ideal angle that your horse is now free to grow. The deviation is actually the lower half. It will grow out over the next few months.

You can see a decent pic here
http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/2011/03/oscar-and-angle-changes.html

If you continue to get rings in the wall from that new angle - it means your diet is too high in sugar.

IMO, I would cut out the HappyHoof. It's feeding nothing worthwhile - the Fast Fibre does the same job better and the alfalfa and molasses in it generally does more harm than good.

It'd be better to add a barefoot friendly general supplement rather than rely on the little amount of minerals in HH.
 
Also - please make sure there is no thrush hiding under those frog flaps. You can scrub with salt water and a brush and rub some sudocrem on 'suspicious' areas.
 
Thanks all! I thought as much, but thought I'd check :) I'm finding all of this very interesting and planning on taking the shoes off my other horse next time the farrier's out :)

Interesting about the happy hoof, I didn't realise it had alfalfa and molasses in! In all honesty I just bought a couple of sacks from the local feed store to last until I got winter feed delivery in, I'm planning on feeding plain oat straw chaff.

J&C
 
Will give him a good scrub tomorrow, I certainly haven't noticed any thrush, but I will double check, thanks :)

Brucea, that's interesting, I was under the impression that it was bruising growing out, could you explain please? Thank you

J&C
 
The bumph from the company is that
"A unique blend of oat straw, alfalfa, grass, mint, garlic and soya oil with added vitamins and minerals."

When emailed, they denied the use of molasses but admitted using 'Molglo' which is basically sugar
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There are feed ing added here on a bunch of feeds
http://uknhcp.myfastforum.org/about1218.html

I mention because I fed HH for a few years and was shocked by the improvement when I dropped it. Then I fed alfalfa cubes - and was shocked again when I had even more improvement when I dropped that in favor of Fast Fibre and minerals.

There's so much sugar in the grass already - adding any more via buckets is often just too much even for a 'normal' horse like mine.

And don't get me started on alfalfa.....
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JessandCharlie said:
No, no please start on alfalfa! I'd love to learn :)

J&C
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I'm not an expert, but I've seen improvements since cutting it out and feeding Fast Fibre and balanced minerals instead (my elderly horse has huge bucket feeds due to dental issues).

My grazing is 200% calcium, high in protein and lower in zinc and copper.

Alfalfa is also high in calcium and protein (it's a legume, so a pea's cousin), so added to the grazing = diet too high in protein and too high in calcium, which robbed the little zinc and copper my horses could absorb. So everything went 'out of whack'.

Obviously each land is different, but UK's grazing seems to be consistent in it's deficiencies and excesses.

Feed companies are just starting to cotton on and offer alfalfa free chaffs now - finally!

To me, hay and straw based chaffs are more helpful to the horse, or even Readigrass if the horse needs something to chew on.

No shame in just feeding slop though ;)
 
I see, so swapping to an alfalfa free chaff might well be a good thing :) I want to perfect little Ozzy's management before taking len's shoes off if I can, in the hope that it will be the best starting point for him. I would feed just fast fibre, but they won't eat slop on its own :rolleyes:

J&C
 
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