Barefoot and wet field!

pines of rome

pines of rome

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 December 2010
Messages
1,586
Location
West Sussex
Visit site
Romeo had been doing really well until this wet weather, I don,t know if its because he has been tearing round his field or because his soles have softened
but now when I bring him in at night he has gone footy walking over the concrete!
Just wondered if anyone else is having problems in this wet weather?
 
In my experience, footiness after heavy rain is more to do with what the rain does to the grass (low magnesium, high potassium plus rapid growth) than due to the soft ground.

Seem to have avoided the footiness this spring despite the squelchy ground by feeding extra salt and mag ox ;)
 
agree with the others, no problems with mud and wet here, it's what it does to the bloomin' grass that is a pain! Can you restrict grazing and feed soaked hay instead to reduce the impact it has?
 
He does have restricted grazing, soaked hay and he is getting extra salt and magnesium alongside speedibeet, micronised linseed, yeastsac and charcoal.
I had this problem when I tried to go barefoot before that was in 2010 and he coped through that very cold winter, but when it went wet in Fedruary he went footy!
My trimmer says his soles are still thin so maybe his galloping full speed round his field has caused some bruising as the footy problem does seem to happen after this!
 
POR, sometime horses do go footy and if your horse was fine before on this regime and the only thing that has changed is the rain, then I will have to blame the small amount of grass. Hooves are not as porous as our own nails are as the structure is so dense.

Staying on this point... Why would your horse be so sensitive to such a change? Even small amounts of grass change in ph and phos levels and also NSC in spring but to me, there suggests an underlying issue as to why there is such a high level of sensitivity. You are supplementing on mag... Over supplementation can cause a deficiency in calcium but is rarely reported. What is the wee colour like? Is it cloudy? The thin soles suggest low calcium... Is there a sign that the kidneys and liver are sluggish?

What I would do...? 10 day detox. Stabled and exercised with boots on and start a process of elimination. Cut out the mag and grass and oils. Back to basics. Work from there. The thin soles is a sure sign of low calcium. Speedibeet is good so stick to that for now. While he is on the detox, get a forage analysis. The best detox is from Roger Hatch.
 
I have handled 40 to 50feet a day for thirty years in all weather conditions and management regimes all over the world. It can make them soft if its wet and muddy, the ground can etch the soles. In dry weather the feet can go as hard as glass and a new rasp will bounce off it.
While i dont dispute what you guys say turn a horse out in mud without grass and it can go footy.
Its not all black and white and only one thing.
Some horses will of built up and retained some sole and the wet will have less effect.
Im interested in the diet but there are other factors.
 
I have just had the grass tested and it is low in calcium, Lucy is currently making up his minerals for him, meantime I have been giving him surelimb and strongbone, don,t know about the hay as I have changing supplies of that!
Interestingly enough he has a bit of a wee problem which Global Herbs Eazipee sorts out, but they said could be caused by calcium deposits in his urine!
If I try and stable him he will go nuts so I think if anything I will go back to turning out in hoof boots as he is fine in these until Lucy sees him in a weeks time!
 
Seems you are in good hands but definitely think you need to clear his system... Something somewhere is tipping the balance.
 
Yes, my boy is notably more footy when the ground is wet (even in winter when 'spring' grass isn't an issue)

He was terrible on our hack yesterday and gets a lot more wear on is feet when they are wet.

A lot depends on our ground as well... ours is very stony / gravell and does seem to cause my boy some problems... even having adressed dietary issues :(
 
A Guilding said:
I have handled 40 to 50feet a day for thirty years in all weather conditions and management regimes all over the world. It can make them soft if its wet and muddy, the ground can etch the soles. In dry weather the feet can go as hard as glass and a new rasp will bounce off it.
While i dont dispute what you guys say turn a horse out in mud without grass and it can go footy.
Its not all black and white and only one thing.
Some horses will of built up and retained some sole and the wet will have less effect.
Im interested in the diet but there are other factors.
Click to expand...

I have to agree. In winter when it was wet and muddy - and believe me there was NO grass, my mare was extremely footy and her feet softened. Come the dry sunny weather and she was rock crunching (well not quite - but nearly!). Wet weather has returned - and they are still in the field with no grass, and she's gone a bit delicate over the concrete again. I use Red Horse Products Field paste all over the frog and sole before she goes out when it's muddy and it does seem to help.
 
Research has shown that the hoof takes in moisture from outside only to a depth of 2mm. The hoof's hydration comes mainly form expiration(internal)
Therefore one must assume that wet ground is not the cause of the problem. It is more likely to be other factors. Metabolic changes,hormonal changes which occur with coat change(which tend to coincide with new grass growth!) and bacteria/fungus thriving in warmer moist conditions.
 
In the NW, my horses see plenty of wet weather - and the hoof does soften in wet conditions.

But they never become lame as a result of it.

Linseed is a polar lipid - it maintains the moisture balance in the hooves by repelling and sealing in water. Perhaps that helps my horses?
 
abitodd said:
Research has shown that the hoof takes in moisture from outside only to a depth of 2mm. The hoof's hydration comes mainly form expiration(internal)
Therefore one must assume that wet ground is not the cause of the problem. It is more likely to be other factors. Metabolic changes,hormonal changes which occur with coat change(which tend to coincide with new grass growth!) and bacteria/fungus thriving in warmer moist conditions.
Click to expand...

Id like to read that research if you have it handy.
As you probably know the arrangement of the horn tubules in the sole is different to that of the wall and it will adsorb water, any living tissue will, my hands are waterproof but they sure as hell go soft doing the washing up.
I have trimmed horses in the States where there feet were so wet they were like sponges. I have trimmed horses in the desert in California and North Africa where they are rock hard, One climate they are wet one climate they are dry, is it not reasonable to assume that moisture content is variable, whether that is through diffussion active transfer or osmosis, It is also reasonable to assume that the yield of the sole and the horses ability to cope with this will also vary. All im saying is it possibly isnt just the diet.
 
A Guilding said:
It can make them soft if its wet and muddy, the ground can etch the soles. In dry weather the feet can go as hard as glass and a new rasp will bounce off it.
While i dont dispute what you guys say turn a horse out in mud without grass and it can go footy.
Its not all black and white and only one thing.
Click to expand...

Have to agree with this.

Have had several barefoot horses,and yes diet plays a massive part in foot health (I have an appy who is very,very sensitive to changes in grazing and always shows in his feet first),but wet weather and ground can affect it as well.

Mine have suffered before with soft frogs from constantly being out on wet ground,and this has made them footy and uncomfortable over certain types of terrain.

Am pretty sure one developed soft heels as well,but could be remembering that wrong as was a while ago.

Only answer is to get them off the ground that's causing the problem OP,but appreciate that's not always possible.Has been rubbish lately with all this rain,but hopefully should improve soon and feet should toughen up a bit!!
 
I have a problem believing that a horse who goes right the way through a winter sound and goes footie in spring is not affected by the grass. Surely nowhere in this country is actually dry in winter, at the very least the ground is damp? I guess the test would be to take the horse off the grass and keep its feet wet - tether it in a stream :D ?

I do agree that wet can affect some horses though.
 
Last edited:
Just to add that my boy,s shoes only came off in January he was getting nailbind when he was shod, he has navicular so this isn,t just a case of just of wanting to go barefoot!
He was so sore when they came off that for two months he had to be turned out in boots and pads, this helped him no end, he has until this rain been able to do 15 mins of in hand walking on the road 3or 4 times a week without boots quite happily!
I do use the field paste and I put alot on last night, this morning he went out a lot better. I have walked round his field and have noticed that where he has torn round, divots and skid marks every where there are quite a few stones thrown up, so maybe if he has galloped over these he could have some bruising!
 
Just to muddy things further (sorry).

What I seem to find is that if horse is nutritionally ok, metabolically ok and working their pants off, then wet is not so much a problem. But rock one of these boats and there can be issues.

I used to have 3 living in what over winter was little more than a marsh (in parts) complete with natural springs. They did ok, but they also did an hours road work most days. The very 'metabolic' one did at one stage have thin soles that bruised easily, but they never went particularly soft. Bruising and thinness resolved themselves when we sorted the diet.
 
whilst the wet softens the feet perhaps it is the quality of the feet that matters. Mine soften ie. they are easier to rasp whereas in summer they are impossible. I live in a pretty wet area and have no problem with the wet although I do with the grass.
Some of the people posting on here who have no problem I suspect have good feet and are working them hard producing even better feet. I guess some of them also do minimal trimming ie little flare removal possibly as they have the diet under control and little flaring anyway. Most do no sole or bar trimming which along with riding may thicker tougher soles that are more resistant. Many who are riding regularly also have little need to trim the walls as they have self trimmed level with the sole. So perhaps less rasping the surfaces helps ?

Their frogs are trimmed/abraded by constant riding on stones/tarmac.
I wonder if some of the horses with foot problems in the wet have thrush/fungal infection which is simply not obvious to the owner?

I don't know if linseed helps with any waterproofing but since using it our coats have become more sort of slightly greasy/oily so perhaps it helps the feet as well.
 
Agree with Paddy555 - when I say we've had a wet spell, that's relative. This is the west of Scotland. It rained pretty much constantly between October and January this year. The field squelched. Horse had abscess in October due to me messing up on supplements, but recovered and then lived out as normal the rest of the winter, in the squelching field. He did have a bit of thrush back in October that I then fought with all winter.

At no point did he have soles that could be described as soft, and he kept up his roadwork with no noticeable extra wear (not shod). Field dried out in March for the first time in 6 months, and then we had heavy rain again the last two weeks, returning the field to squelchy underfoot. If the "wet hooves are soft" theory was all there was to it, I should be having ongoing problems with excess wear and tender feet due to soft soles. We walked out of soggy field this morning and rode up a hard core surfaced track with no problems. There's more to it than wet making horn soft, IME.
 
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/130/1/121.full.pdf

The above could help anybody interested in hoof keratin...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22369538

Above is a study which tries to demonstrate differences in hoof & sole hydration.

http://www.hphoofcare.com/dressing.html

Above, a reason why one shouldn't waste money on hoof dressings.

http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/ajvr.2002.63.1140

More above on hydration.

Just a google search as you can see. The one I want to find is proving elusive. I read a few years ago a study done by a lady vet with actual pictures of the hooves she soaked. I'll keep searching...
 
Thing is, you would not want the hoof to hydrate beyond its capability to weight bear. Otherwise, there would be horses walking around on squelchy soles and pruned walls. Not a pretty sight and I can imagine it would hurt a wee bit.

This is why I think that if a horse is footy in wet conditions, it's leads back to diet 100% of the time.

You cannot alter quality of hoof horn once it has formed as you can see from those studies. So, what keratin grows has to be good quality in the first place. Whatever sole that grows has to be good quality too so that it is an effective barrier and can repel moisture and not slough off or soften at the first sign of rain and cause footiness.

So, if it isn't diet... What is it?
 
Well I have just been up the yard to bring Romeo in as the rain has been heavy all morning, there are pools of water all over his field and he has walked in fine, so I really don,t get it?
So maybe my theory of him galloping on some stones the other day was right and that is why he has been a bit tender footed? I despair!!!!!!
 
pines of rome said:
Well I have just been up the yard to bring Romeo in as the rain has been heavy all morning, there are pools of water all over his field and he has walked in fine, so I really don,t get it?
So maybe my theory of him galloping on some stones the other day was right and that is why he has been a bit tender footed? I despair!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Is he doing any work yet?
 
We are just walking out in hand on the road for about 15 mins in boots and sometimes without for 10 mins, I am letting him guide me as too how much he is happy to do!
I don,t want to overdo it, all the time he is striding out, he must feel fine, but if he starts walking back a bit slowly, I leave it a day or two!
 
pines of rome said:
We are just walking out in hand on the road for about 15 mins in boots and sometimes without for 10 mins, I am letting him guide me as too how much he is happy to do!
I don,t want to overdo it, all the time he is striding out, he must feel fine, but if he starts walking back a bit slowly, I leave it a day or two!
Click to expand...

Sounds very sensible.

I reckon when he is up to more work, his hooves will blossom. You'll find them more resistant to environmental changes.

You're on an upward spiral rather than a downward :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top