Barefoot hooves really not coping with hard ground...

J

Jericho

Well-Known Member
Joined
26 February 2008
Messages
2,568
Visit site
That or she is very sensitive to the grass... Either way I can't watch her feet deteriorate any more. They are chipping and cracking and flaring and there seems to a vertical line right up the centre of each hoof wall as though the hoof capsule is prising the hoof wall apart just very slightly, and its more obvious after work on roads. it's only a tiny line but neverthe less not right. She isnt particularly footy and her minerals are all balanced and very little hard feed with no nasties in them.

It's just not practical or fair on her to have her in and off the grass full time but I think the sudden flush is causing havoc so have cut her right back so sadly farrier is coming next week to see what he thinks with the view to putting fronts on again just over summer, if only just to stop the chipping and to give a bit of stability to the foot.

Plus she is slipping and sliding all over the place on grass and I can't risk another fall.

Damn horses....
 
Nothing wrong in shoeing if she needs it, you can always take them off again come the winter. :)

I'll bet my bottom dollar that it is the grass growth though, it seems particularly bad here with showers and then plenty of warm weather.
 
My mare gets like this, she is a rock cruncher all winter and can be hacked on anything and everything but as soon as she goes out 24/7 in the summer for the first month or so she is very very sensitive to rocky/hard ground.

I think it is all the sugar in the grass to be honest, and the lack of it in the winter meaning it is quite some transition from one extreme to the next (especially this winter just gone)

My mare is on a barefoot diet and hasn't a lot of grass (enough to graze, but not enough to gorge) but it has shot up with the recent warm weather and showers.

This year I bought her some hoof boots which she wears every other time she is ridden when she is sensitive as we hack most days and that seems to do the trick! I also use Keratex to help which might be worth looking in to! Works for us :) It has mostly warn off now, so I think with mine it is just like a sugar rush!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top