Barefoot horse needing shoes?

ApolloStorm said:
To answer all queries, she is fed only grass, no hard feed, the pasture she has come from was like a flat soft meadow, whereas she has moved to more sparse hilly dry, significantly less lush. I am only concerned because her front toes are wearing significantly, and her soles are developing a pink hue, she is actually being worked less than at the previous yard, so she would need to wear boots in the field and I don't know of any boots suitable for that, besides she's shire x and has dinner plates so the boots would need to be massive. I personally prefer barefoot, but i would also say surely its better to "slap some front shoes on" for 2 months over the summer than have a sore horse?
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If the toes are wearing then they are too long. Sounds like the horse is doing a good job of sorting that out for itself :). When my mares toes look worn I know it's time to trim as the rest of the hoof is getting long.

Pink is nothing worry about as whatever it is , is about 6 months old. There are no blood vessels in hoof sole or wall.. That's how long it takes for a sole to grow down so if you see pink now, it was blood anywhere between 6 weeks to 6 months ago up near the bone.

My mares work anywhere between 9-12hrs a week and I stil have to trim every 4 weeks in the summer no matter where I take them.... I only have have tarmac or gravel. I prefer gravel as it chips off the overgrown bits for me if I'm over trim time. you should see some chunks....! Last one I forgot to trim 2 weeks and they looks horrendous and had to take off about 5cm each side before they looked anywhere near tidy. And that's all i really is... tidy, all the function is there if the balance is right and only the hoof will tell you what that is.
 
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If your horse is sore( i.e. footy) then you need to protect that foot- either by avoiding that surface , shoeing, booting or pain relief - nice as it is to have the idea of none of the above the horses comfort comes first.
 
I may have the grass and hay analysed (hay I'm less sure of as it comes from different fields) in autumn when I plan to take the shoes off anyway. And then try to keep them off as long as poss....

However, I still need shoes for grip for one horse jumping on grass over summer, spring, autumn....she has previously never been shod, 10yrs old, very good feet but no grip on grass....affecting her confidence jumping...prior to last yr we had only done dressage plus a tiny bit of jumping and it hadn't been an issue.

I am very pro naked feet....but my two shod are much happier, more confident shod so I am happy to manage them in that way. They go out competing regularly and often the car parks are covered in stone chips...one is awful over stones, the other very footy..im usually alone so hoof boots just wont work.....
They have had work built up gradually and are still not happy on stones so I've accepted for the way I can manage them, they need shoes....

I do think a shoe break is a good idea so I shall be doing that....
 
tallyho! said:
It's worth it for sure. I have mine tested. I used to have to do separate ones each time a batch came in (I missed a few sometimes!!!) but I asked farmer if I can have his and he agreed. ryegrass unfortunately but at least I know where I stand...

turns out, this is a high molybdenum, iron, calcium and cobalt region. All I needed was copper and magnesium. turns out though she is deficient in a couple of vitamins (just genetics) so I add in B1 and B6 with some brewers yeast. Her liver seems so much better.Wee is clear and tummy has reduced significantly. Probs wasn't tummy trouble but liver I hypothesise.

My conclusion is it's worth the cost of a test for what you save on expensive wee :)
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Would mineral balance drastically change comfort on rough going? I always thought pro balance was a decent supplement?
 
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amandaco2 said:
Would mineral balance drastically change comfort on rough going? I always thought pro balance was a decent supplement?
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It is! It's a great supplement... However if you are not getting good results then there's either an over-topping or under going on, so it would be worth seeing why that is. It could also just be that there is an intolerance somewhere.

Testing and being more specific made a difference for mine. On a more general mix she goes footy. No one else does so there is just something sensitive about her metabolism too which makes sense as she has such a history of tummy problems which thankfully this summer is the best she's ever been touch wood.
 
amandaco2 said:
Would mineral balance drastically change comfort on rough going? I always thought pro balance was a decent supplement?
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It is but mine need 50% more copper, and therefore more zinc, and half the selenium. It works out cheaper for me to give individual bits. Might be worth testing, cheaper than shoes :)
 
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