Barefoot gurus - can you please tell me what you think about these hooves?

[BlairandAzria]

So i bought my little horse for the princely sum of £10, the girl who i bought him from couldnt afford him, had racked up livery debts, wasnt feeding him and had taken off his shoes a year previously. He had been in a field for 2 years previous to that, and then spent the year without shoes in a field and doing a little bit of schooling in a sand paddock with a 12 year old.

When i bought him he was footy, his feet were over-grown and needed trimming badly, it was my intention to get him trimmed, get him shod, get him sound, get him ridden.

Well my farrier came, gave him a trim and said, to be honest hes got pretty good feet, i wouldnt be rushing to shoe him if i were you

To me this was a revelation, id always been a 'if its in work it needs shoes' kind of person. Cue much research, reading, and scouring the interweb. I had a friend at an old yard who i knew had rehabed her horse from potential pts through to being sound enough to hack out, so i got in touch with her via fb for some good reading material. Although the barefoot reading was really interesting , and im geeky enough to be fascinated with it, i also found it pretty intimidating and i felt unrealistic for me (track systems / mineral testing my grazing hay etc)

So a year on into my ownership, he is sound and in full work, and a just all round brilliant horse. I have taken bits and pieces from what i have read and seen on here and manage him as best i can, however, and i still look at his feet and think, oh they look pretty decent , but i just dont have the knowledge to go much further than that. I read other threads people have done like this one, and find them really informative as to what to look for when looking at my own horses hooves, so thought id ask those far more enlightened than I for your opinions, so i can really *see* what i am looking at? : so if any of you very knowledgeabe folk could cast your educated eye over his hooves and tell me what you think, id be extremely grateful

Hes currently out from 7am- 6.30pm on poor grazing, in at night with ad-lib hay and gets 2 feeds of soaked grass-nuts, light chaff (leigh senior), micronised linseed, and equimins meta-balance with some sneaky carrots sometimes. (Although he has been on Alltech Lifeforce supplement for the past 6 weeks courteousy of Slinky Unicorn). He is sound (*touches wood madly*) at the moment, and gets worked 5/6 days a week, with one hack , one dressage lesson and one jumping session a week if hes lucky, the rest schooling all our hacking is road work (And i hate it).

So can you give me any advice/ tips? how are his feet looking? Anything i should be doing but am not currently?

Left fore:

Right fore:

Right hind:

Left hind:

 

[Mellis]

I would certainly continue unshod. Especially as your farrier sees strong feet. I prefer unshod if possible and his feet look strong, well balanced and well trimmed.

 

[trefnantblackknight]

Those are some brilliant looking hooves!!!

 

[Brightbay]

Serious hoof envy here

 

[metalmare]

They look very good!

 

[BlairandAzria]

Hurrah! im so glad you think his hooves look okay, i was afraid it was just me seeing what i wanted to see

Anymore bf taliban peeps?

 

[Shysmum]

Look really good to me

 

[Meowy Catkin]

The hooves look convex. My chestnut mare grew convex hooves for a while. I didn't spot it until it was pointed out by CPT. I fiddled with the diet (cutting out sugar was the main thing and added the required supplements) and now she is growing straighter hooves.

ETA. it's easy to see how convex the hoof was in this photo.

^ See how the hoof look convex here too?

 

[Oberon]

Your horse is sound = you are doing everything just fine

Well done .

If it's any help, there are many questions I ask myself when I look at a hoof.......

First thing is to assess the wall, how long or short it is. In nature a wall would usually be around 3 inches in length at the toe.

You can't really get a wall too short unless it's been done by tools or too much work too soon (either way the horse will be unhappy).

I commonly see the whole hoof and walls long. You will often see some signs of stress such as ripples (although this may be metabolic in cause also), flaring (again - can be metabolic), bull-nosing, cracks (esp around the quarters), misplaced tubules. The biggest hint tends to be at the coronet - you may find it uneven and also lumpy and uneven above the coronet.

Is the wall straight all the way down or is the first inch from the coronet a steeper angle than the rest?

Then I look at the heels. Are they tin can long? Or nice and short? Are the tubules running under the hoof? If the heels are running under then you can bet the frog is unhealthy and the heels contracted.

Looking behind - is the frog able to touch the floor? Are the digital cushions plump and robust or can you see the V of lateral cartilages above the hoof?
Is the hairline even at the heel bulbs? Are both the heel bulbs even?

Looking from the front - is the wall flaring anywhere? Does the hoof look even on both sides (you also need to look above the hoof to the pastern)?

Looking at the sole - is the frog healthy and big enough? Does the tissue look muscular and dense or raggedy and weak? Is there a pinched, deep sulcus? Does the frog point to one side more than the other? Are the heels contracted? Are the bars growing around the frog?

Is the white line thick? Is there excess wear at the toe? Does the wall deviate anywhere?

It's very difficult to see on a 2D image - but does the sole look pancake flat? Can you see the coffin bone pushing down? Are there lumpy areas to the sole?

The picture altogether will often give clues as to what is going on with the horse.

It is important to note, though that if a horse is sound and happy IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THE HOOVES LOOK LIKE .

It is very easy to pick fault when looking at hooves - but you have to take into account the individual needs of the horse. Many horses motor around on hooves that look anything less than textbook . The important thing is to watch how they are loading those hooves before we consider them pathological.

 

[cptrayes]

Great feet, still too long, get 'em working! The frogs aren't making much, if any, contact with the floor and the best way to try to put that right at this stage is to get out on roads if you have any daylight. If you don't, I'd be looking closely with your farrier about whether those heels can lose any more height.

Great farrier, by the way.

FF is quite correct, I can see one bullnose too. It could be a trick of the camera, but if you can see it in real life, then work and a spot on diet should resolve it pretty quickly.

Lucky old you, those feet for £10 !




ps, peeps don't be fooled by the "shoe" in the right hind. Some people are delighted to see a false shoe like that, but it's more often symptomatic of a horse with a sensitive sole trying to lift it off the floor. In most barefoot horses you will see a much smoother graduation into the hoof wall than that and nothing that looks like the horse is building itself a shoe.

 

[BlairandAzria]

Thank you for your responses FF yes I saw that bullnose in the pics last night - I hadn't noticed it in real life before but I will check tonight. So would you say that is a sugar issue?

Oberon thanks so much, I have read and re-read your answer a few times and it's exactly what I need, I think it's going to take a while to get through my noggin though - silly question maybe but what's a tubule?

CPt when you say there could be some sensitivity in that right hind what exactly do you mean? Can it /should it be remedied?

When he's been coming in recently because the ground is so wet, when he comes in onto his dry rubber matting I've been having a look at his imprints and it seems like the frogs ate definitely touching and taking pressure there is a definite hoof wall , frog and callus marks ? Could it be as you say that his frogs still aren't taking the pressure? Is this improved by more exercise on the roads?

Diet-wise in aware his diet has more sugar than most bf's would like - I did have him on speedibeet rather than the soaked grass nuts but I (possibly wrongly) thought the gn

 

[BlairandAzria]

Had more calories in them? And he's not a great doer, also I found the meta-balance more palatable if fed in gnuts, is there an alternative which is also something which would give him energy too?

Again thanks so much for your comments, its really interesting stuff

 

[cptrayes]

Thank you for your responses FF yes I saw that bullnose in the pics last night - I hadn't noticed it in real life before but I will check tonight. So would you say that is a sugar issue?

They normally go when you address the sugar, so yes. On back feet they can take a long time to resolve. Two horses I've had them on took six months or more.

Oberon thanks so much, I have read and re-read your answer a few times and it's exactly what I need, I think it's going to take a while to get through my noggin though - silly question maybe but what's a tubule?

Not Oberon , but it's what the hoof is made of, like loads of stuck together strands of hair. They run from the coronet to the floor, should be parallel and straight. If you pick up a hoof clipping before the dog eats it, you can see all the tiny little circles made by the cut off ends if you look close.

CPt when you say there could be some sensitivity in that right hind what exactly do you mean? Can it /should it be remedied?

Your diet changes will correct it, don't worry. If your horse is sound and still has them after a few months, then it may be natural to him for that foot, so don't try and change it.

When he's been coming in recently because the ground is so wet, when he comes in onto his dry rubber matting I've been having a look at his imprints and it seems like the frogs ate definitely touching and taking pressure there is a definite hoof wall , frog and callus marks ? Could it be as you say that his frogs still aren't taking the pressure? Is this improved by more exercise on the roads?

This sounds good. I hope you have bed for him too, because there is some evidence (Bowker told us at a UKNHCP conference) from using doppler ultrasound that blood flow is reduced when standing on rubber matting alone.

 

[BlairandAzria]

What diet changes would you recommend?
Oh yes he has quite a big shavings bed too, not just rubber, this is the monster: http://instagr.am/p/S58fz2Ciiw/

Thanks again I'm in a rush off to the yard now but will read everything again when I get back

 

[cptrayes]

If your horse is currently sound on all surfaces, none, you are doing great

If not, I'd recommend no molassed feed at all.
No alfalfa, or Top Spec, there are too many horses that are sensitive to it.
One of the balancers developed by barefooters, probably Pro Hoof that you can buy on eBay.
Yeast if is not already in Pro Hoof, I'm not sure.
No seaweed unless you are low in iron and iodine where he grazes.


Hope that helps.


Nice horse for a tenner !!

 

[BlairandAzria]

Thanks cpt I'll cut the carrots for a start

He's currently sound on all surfaces, but I don't want to get complacent about it!

Thanks i think so he was a risky bargain pony - but i tell him its just aswell since he's now spoilt and pampered within an inch of his life x

 

[BlairandAzria]

Thank you oberbaubles for the pm - cant reply on my phone

 

[fishy]

I'm no expert on feet, but they look pretty good to me. We bought my daughter a little cob last year and he had no shoes on (and by the look of his feet hadn't for some time) I was interested to see if we could keep him barefoot and was overwhelmed by the amount of information out there and the amount of reading and research available. My biggest concern is that we are on a livery yard with very limited winter turnout and daytime only through the summer. However 18 months on he's still barefoot and his feet are doing great (so my trimmer tells me) He has adlib hay/haylage and a small feed of fastfibre and a few hi fibre nuts sprinkled in for a bit of crunch. I now feed my ISH mare the same and took her back shoes off in the summer. Interestingly she had convex feet and my trimmer felt that it was because she had had shoes on. On her last trim she pointed out to me how they were now growing straight and there was just a small section of convex at the bottom of her hoof. Sorry this has turned into a waffle Anyway keep up the good work because you're obviously doing something right xx

 

[TwoStroke]

They look pretty good . And I agree that if he's sound and happy, that's the best standard to judge by.

From the photos, though, I'd just check that he's landing heel first on the fronts, as the back of the hoof looks a little weedy to me. If he is landing heel first though I wouldn't worry about it too much... maybe up the roadword .