Barefoot Help!!

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Caritas

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Ok so my horse has been barefoot for about 9 months now and was doing really well. The last few days he has started to become footy, now i have recently changed farriers and my old farrier used to trim a lot of sole so as to have a more concaved hoof, so when my horse walked over gravel he wasnt walking directly on the sole but my new farrier doesnt do this!! Could this be the reason my horse is footy, or could it be the time of year with the sugars in the grass etc, would be interested in hearing peoples views please. I would just like to add that my horse is footy even trotting up on a hard, flat surface so im not really thinking it can be down to the way hes trimmed!! Thanks for reading
 
There's a good possibility that its grass related, I have just moved my TB from the field to his bare 'sin bin' and the others have turned into loons in the last few days, can you cut/restrict his grazing?
 
The sole in a barefoot horse should not be trimmed except under exceptional circumstances and that does NOT include trying to cut concavity. Concavity builds from inside you cannot just cut it in from outside - it's a measure of how high the pedal bone is sitting inside the hoof capsule, and you can't cut sole to achieve that. Barefoot horses should walk on their sole callous and it should be thick enough to do it safely. I'm surprised that you got away without your horse being footie before.

My guess would be that the new lameness is grass related and if he is unsound on a flat hard surface he sounds as though he is well on the way to a critical bout of laminitis. I'd get him off grass pronto until you prove it's not that, if I were you, before you have an emergency on your hands.
 
Sounds grass related to me. Have you checked his digital pulses? Take him off grass asap and see if that improves things. If his digital pulses are pronounced then removing from grass is a matter of urgency. I'd also look at the rest of his diet - if he's getting anything high in sugar/starch remove that too.

Sounds like your new farrier is an improvement on the old one and he's doing the right thing by leaving the sole alone - you should never try and trim concavity into the sole. The only time you touch sole is to remove flaking/dead/compacted stuff, which you almost never see on hooves in this country anyway. Live sole should never ever be trimmed. The hoof will develop it's own concavity in time - given the right diet and environment.

Good luck with him and keep us posted.
 
mrdarcy yur barefoot knowledge amazes me. Infact when ever i see the word barefoot and that you have commented i go read it. I am trying my mares barefoot so i find your advice very helpful
 
Thanks Gleek - happy to help if I can, as are all us barefooters on here. Good luck with your mares - just post or PM if you have any questions. Love the username btw - assume you're a Glee fan!
 
My TB is barefoot. Farrier came last night & said he had had a lot of his barefoot horses owners ringing up in the last week complaining of footie horses. Obviously there is the possibility of it being grass related - and I would certainly take him off it just in case but he said the weather we are having currently is playing havoc with feet & most have settled down again.
 
Got to agree with CPTRayes and Mr Darcy here. Grass is the most likely culprit, the same thing happens to shod horses, except that the shoes disguise the sensitivity (I consider it to be an advantage of bare feet - the footiness is an excellent early warning system that things are not quite as they should be, whereas the same things might be going on with shod horses, but the owner does not see the early indications and doesn't have a chance therefore to put things right). Agree also that the soles should never be trimmed. They will exfoliate naturally and with time and decent management will form their own natural concavity.
 
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