Barefoot gurus - opinions please

[Fides]

Be as harsh as you like - I want the best for my mare...

Background - 6yo, owned from 18m, lives out 24/7, schools, hack, jumps, never been lame or footy even over stony ground.

She is trimmed every 8 weeks give or take depending on what she needs and I tidy any flares or chips between visits. She has always been done by a sympathetic farrier not a barefoot trimmer.

She lives out 24/7 and is given nothing extra but a general supplement. She has a large handful high fibre nuggets in a treat ball if she has worked. She is out 24/7 on long, but mature, fibrous grass and the fields are rotated so they never see the young shoots.

So here are her feet which I would like opinions on. She had an abscess in her hind which slit through the coronet band and is now growing out. I know she is cow hocked - she has always been this way but it doesn't affect her in any way.

It has been 3 weeks since her last trim and I haven't done any tidying up.

The pictures are taken straight from the field and I'm sorry but I haven't even picked them out.

So the pictures (sorry she isn't dead straight)

Fronts

Rears (cow hocked )

Front near

Front off

Rear near

Rear off (the one with the crack and burst abscess). The frog is peeling on this one but hasn't finished shedding yet but has on the other hence the difference.

I said you can be harsh but don't make me cry...

 

[JanetGeorge]

lol, why should we be harsh? His feet look adequate. Yes, you can pick irregularities - the fronts look a bit toed-out - with a bit more flare on the outside of the near side foot. The near-sided hind looks lnger and narrower - and the frogs could do with a bit of a trim or you'll risk infection in them.

I should add I'm not a barefoot guru - I like my working horses shod - but his feet look healthy enough!

 

[LittleBlackMule]

They look absolutely fine to me.. although you can tell they are trimmed by a farrier because they just can't stop themselves rasping away the hoof wall.

 

[Fides]

Thanks both

I know she doesn't have terrible feet but I have never had her trimmed from a barefoot 'viewpoint'. All my horses have been previously shod and she only isn't as she never has been and had coped fine.

Seeing all the threads lately about things going wrong I though I would see if there is anything I can do to improve things.

They look absolutely fine to me.. although you can tell they are trimmed by a farrier because they just can't stop themselves rasping away the hoof wall.

The problem with her feet are that if they don't do that they crack and chip. They don't crack when the edges are rolled.

 

[samlf]

I dont think LBM was referring to the roll on the wall - if you look at the hoof you can see rasp marks more than halfway up the hoof, which is unnecessary at best.
They look reasonable, and if they are functional (she can move well over all terrain by the sounds of it) then that is the main thing.

However improvement wise, I would say her fronts are a little bit contracted, and hinds are a little run forward.

 

[Fides]

ain thing.
However improvement wise, I would say her fronts are a little bit contracted, and hinds are a little run forward.

I know what you mean about the backs - that will be sorted (she's only seen this farrier once and he seems to agree with me on this - old farriers x3 never dealt with this).

What do you mean though when you say her fronts are contracted? There is nothing to contract them as she is barefoot. I'm confused

 

[cptrayes]

I know what you mean about the backs - that will be sorted (she's only seen this farrier once and he seems to agree with me on this - old farriers x3 never dealt with this).

What do you mean though when you say her fronts are contracted? There is nothing to contract them as she is barefoot. I'm confused

If your horse is sound over all surfaces then I think her feet are just perfect

Barefoot feet can contract if they are weak, when the heel sometimes closes in because it makes it stronger to have the forces coming downward rather than outward.

Having said that, I don't think hers are contracted, and neither do I think her frogs need any trimming.