Barefoot horses living out 24/7

julie111

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Just wondered how their feet are doing with all this rain! We wanted to keep our two out 24/7 but have ended up bringing in at night:(
 
Absolutely fine. Farrier came on Thursday and said they both looked fab. I dont tend to pick them out as often in the muddy weather either. No thrush or anything.
 
I have 2 living out 24/7 my Dales youngster and my WB - both of their sets of feet are faring well. I didn't expect the WB to do so well as we really have deep mud and their only respite is the field shelter. I am very happy that they haven't got mud fever.
 
This has probably been our best ever year in terms of horse's hoof comfort - he's lived out year round for the last 7 years.

Despite it being horrible weather, and very muddy, I finally seem to have got the forage/minerals stuff working for us, and he is stomping around the roads when out, and this has been the first year thrush free :) ETA - his feet never dry off in winter - we don't have hard standing, so he is either in the field, or out hacking. And it's rainy Scotland :) I used to worry, now I don't, and this is also the first year I haven't obsessively picked hooves and sprayed once a day.

Hurrah for forage testing/mineral balancing!
 
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Ditto fine and ditto best year which I put down to a combo of shallow soiled rocky mountain pasture, non fertilised, forage plus winter balancer...farrier said before Christmas their feet are the best they've ever been....plus tho rain is bad, it's still not nearly as bad here as when OT rained virtually all year the year before.
We're also not in the low lying clay bog hell we were last year, thank god.
 
It's great to hear your horses feet are doing well. The big field we can turn out in is very muddy around gateway but the field slopes down so drains quite well, it also has quite a bit of grass still. We hack out on the roads c. 4 times a week so hopefully that will keep their feet in good shape:)
 
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