Barefoot - Hows it looking now...

[rlhnlk]

So my girl has now been barefoot since 10th January so just over 10 weeks now and I'm just wondering what you think of them now. Also massive kudos to cptrayes and A Guilding who both pinpointed a bad back as the cause of bullnosed feet, in particular A Guilding who pinpointed it to tighness just behind the saddle. I didn't believe them at the time but having just had a mctimoney out she was just a bit tight through nearly all of her muscles but in particular behind her saddle.

So photo's now, sorry her feet aren't scrubbed but I think you can still see her feet alright.

Offside hind

Nearside hind

Also thank you for the recommendations to put her on brewers yeast, no idea if it's affected her feet yet but she's a different horse on it - much much calmer!

Any thoughts welcome

 

[amandap]

They look fantastic to me.

ps. Hows she doing work and comfort wise? The bull nosing has nearly dropped out if I remember your previous pics correctly.

 

[rlhnlk]

Comfort wise she's great, she's jumping again and is fine, stoney ground isn't a problem either. Farrier has been once and looked and said he wouldn't touch them as they were a nice shape and could do with the growth instead. Work wise she's back up to full work, hopefully this will be better following mctimoney treatment.

Now contemplating the fronts coming off in a few months

 

[Tiffany]

All sounds good Not sure what you mean by bullnose, do you have a piccy please?

 

[cptrayes]

All sounds good Not sure what you mean by bullnose, do you have a piccy please?

Look at the second photo. You can see an outward curve in the profile of the hoof. That's a bullnose. It generally signifies that the heels are low in relation to the toe and the pedal bone is slanting backwards and pressing out at the front where the bulge is. It's often seen in horses that don't digest carbohydrates well, which is why the brewer's yeast is helping this horse's temperament - it's hind gut was irritating it and has been soothed by the anti-inflammatory properties of yeast. It is also generally associated with back pain because of the incorrect angle of the bones in the foot.

Well done OP, it looks like things are really going well.

 

[rlhnlk]

This is 11 days after her shoes came off:

The line of her hoof wall drops off towards the bottom, this is known as a bull nose. These can be caused by farriers, or it can relate to conformation and how the horse moves. Someone else might be able to explain this in better detail than I can.

 

[Tiffany]

Look at the second photo. You can see an outward curve in the profile of the hoof. That's a bullnose. It generally signifies that the heels are low in relation to the toe and the pedal bone is slanting backwards and pressing out at the front where the bulge is. It's often seen in horses that don't digest carbohydrates well, which is why the brewer's yeast is helping this horse's temperament - it's hind gut was irritating it and has been soothed by the anti-inflammatory properties of yeast. It is also generally associated with back pain because of the incorrect angle of the bones in the foot.

Well done OP, it looks like things are really going well.

Makes sense now - thanks for explanation.
My girl had the same over a year ago when farrier I used to have insisted on putting toe clips on

 

[Tiffany]

This is 11 days after her shoes came off:

The line of her hoof wall drops off towards the bottom, this is known as a bull nose. These can be caused by farriers, or it can relate to conformation and how the horse moves. Someone else might be able to explain this in better detail than I can.

Thanks for photo, much clearer on that one.

 

[cptrayes]

Makes sense now - thanks for explanation.
My girl had the same over a year ago when farrier I used to have insisted on putting toe clips on

That is more likely to have been caused by your farrier wanting double clip shoes so that he could rasp off the toe. True bullnoses often metabolic in origin, and come out from inside, they are not rasped into shape. Rasping off the toe is not a bad thing if it gets the breakover back further under the foot where the horse would put it for itself if it had no shoes on.

 

[rlhnlk]

I honestly don't think it was my farrier in this case, I know others may disagree, but I think it related mostly to her movement, the surfaces she works on, and the effect of shoes on her feet. They do seem to be starting to grow out though thankfully

 

[cptrayes]

I honestly don't think it was my farrier in this case, I know others may disagree, but I think it related mostly to her movement, the surfaces she works on, and the effect of shoes on her feet. They do seem to be starting to grow out though thankfully

NO, I don't either. The key for me is how high on the foot the "bump" is. On feet where it is rasped in, it is about the 1/3 off the floor mark and on feet where it is the pedal bone causing it, it's about half way up, and yours were half way up. The improvement, rather than just growing down, also suggests you have got the real cause of it sorted. Well done!


You may find that her action changes markedly for the better once you have got rid of them completely. I hope you can still sit her improved suspension

 

[rlhnlk]

I may be buying superglue then! Her trot is a lot bigger since the mctimoney lady came so I may need the help if it gets bigger still It's nice that they seem to be self trimming properly too, no sharp edges, cracks, weird bumps or lumps etc so it's possibly going to be very minimal work for my farrier to do in future. He may sulk if (when) I take the front ones off if he has nothing to do!