Barefoot and snow!

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TandD

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With Christmas quickly descending on us.... It may mean that we have snow soon! And I do like to get them out every day, even in the snow (much to my insanity)

First time I will have a horse with no shoes on in the snow.... This may seem a silly question but....how does it affect them? With shoes on of course it balls up and creates 'heels'....generally end up either falling over or it drops out eventually!

will hooves get very cold and turn 'footy'? Does it ball up? Do I need to watch out for anything? Unfortunately mare doesn't have the best hooves.... Rather flat and lacking heel (will blame the thoroughbred in her!).... But I'd rather be prepared now!
 
Mine has never been shod and is always turned out in snow! I have noticed it balls up so do pick it out before you put them to bed but I find putting vasiline on the inside of the hoof helps to stop the snow sticking. Other than it balling up I have never had a problem.
 
You will probably find that your horse is more surefooted than before, that there won't be any balling, and that it will want to kick its heels up and go for a hooley! :D Snow is awesome on a barefoot horse. :D

Just watch out for ice, but one does that anyway.
 
Hi,

I had one barefoot a few years ago in the VERY cold winter, and it worked out just great. Less snow build up and he was surefooted. I did ask my farrier about the effect of the minus degrees on a barefoot horse, and he pointed out that a strip of metal did not keep the foot warm (!).
I think you will find it a lot easier and safer.
And no, I am not a "barefoot fanatic" my current horse suits normal shoeing and is shod up. :-)
 
IMG_5885.jpg


My exracer says 'You'll be fine' ;)

If the snow is a little sticky, a spray of WD40 works best we find.
 
The only two really viable safe winter options for horses in Canada are shoes with snowball pads/rims and borium or corks or shoes off. We always took shoes off in the winter, even for horses that continued to compete, and left them off until the snow cleared if at all possible. The only times that gave any trouble were super icy periods with no snow, when the ground is like rutted concrete but shod horses struggle with that, too, and you're just not going to see ground like that in the UK.
 
Last year my lad was one of about 4 horses out of 20 who didn't need to have his feet picked out after being turned out in the snow due to being barefoot, I didn't use any grease/vaseline etc :)
 
Fabulous snowy photos!

My unshod pony has no trouble in the snow. It doesn't ball up like it does on my shod one. They both like rugs off and roll time!
 
It's usually fine, although I'll admit to riding in the snow when she was shod as well. We used to go galloping about the bridleways :o
We did have a bit of trouble last year when as well as snow we got bitter winds, as we've no shelter up at the fields and are high up, so this made the snow freeze into their feet and we used to have to take the hoof pick up to the field when we got them in and dig out chunks of ice. Would have been a nightmare if they were shod!
The rest of the time it was fine :)

IMG_6863-1.jpg~original
 
Where I live in NZ, snow is relatively rare, but winter before last we had two big dumps. Because we are not used to it, driving to work becomes a H and S issue, so lots of places (mine included) shut.

Only one thing to do in the snow when you have BF horses and that's go riding ! Barefoot totally rocks in the snow, becuase of the hooves flexion it just pops out rather than packing in. I had a ball and just loved how the snow changed the local country side so much.
 
North of scotland had some lovely horizontal snow and more gales today...fun! :/

Shod hooves in snow is the pits, I have a hoof pick made from half a shoe (courtesy of the OH :)) and was having to try and crack the ice balls (I call them "stilts" :o) before I could manage to pop them out the last couple of years, so glad my boy is barefoot all round this year!

Also love seeing the snow that falls out of hooves when it keeps the shape of the foot, if I could preserve it I'd keep one, am I a bit mad? :o
 
Nope, never had any problems with mine. I actually find that shod ones struggle the most as the snow does pack into the shoes and they end up on stilts, with barefoot, it usually falls out far easier. I've normally had my shod ones shoes taken off every winter to give their feet a break and I'm so glad I don't have to try and hack bits of solid ice/snow out of between their shoes.
 
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