Barefoot is hard work! Feel bad

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JVB

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Sorry, need a moan.

TB who was starting to show signs of better landing, being more comfortable is now on three legs in the field, I'm stuck with work so friend is bringing both mine in.

Hope it's just stone stuck or bruising, but he was bit sore yesterday too.

Other horse also injured, not badly, but feeling very fed up today and just want to be at the farm.

Other barefooters, please tell me it's often one step forward, two back and quite normal!

Thanks for reading
 
You are not alone, I have been at it for a year with my boy, he is up and down like a yoyo!
ATM he is not great, his soles are not as thick as they should be and I don,t know if this is the change of grass or a metabolic issue, I have got the vet coming next week to do some blood tests.
I have to say I feel the whole barefoot thing is taking over my life and makes me quite depressed at times!
 
Glad I'm not the only one, I suspect it's a repeat of what he had in Dec which turned out to be soft tissue damage, same foot, same symptoms, ho hum back to poulticing and pads, joy
 
TB's feet are so poo arent they :( we took our girls racing shoes off last Oct and next day couldnt walk ... so front shoes went on and shes been fine BUT they wont stay on .. farrier only came last week, went up last night both been sucked back off - may try barefoot again as she didnt seem so bad coming in :o
 
Mine is an ex racer ,he kept losing shoes, in the end they had to come off as he had no foot to nail too!
He was also crippled the next day bare, I got round this by putting boots and pads on his fronts for turnout until he was comfortable enough to do without!
 
Why is your horse barefoot? Sorry, I am a fan of barefoot, but if the horse is struggling with it and going lame regularly, I'd be putting shoes back on.

Hope all works out for you either way :)
 
KatB said:
Why is your horse barefoot? Sorry, I am a fan of barefoot, but if the horse is struggling with it and going lame regularly, I'd be putting shoes back on.

Hope all works out for you either way :)
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While I agree with the sentiment (that there's no "shame" in going back to shoeing; what exactly would putting shoes on fix?

There has to be an underlying issue, or issues, if the horse is footy and at best shoeing will mask this short term.

I'd imagine for the majority that transitioning doesn't happen overnight; more so if you've decided to go barefoot because of poor foot health when shod. Personally I'd check diet, get boots with pads and get the horse moving comfortably. Remember that diet changes do take a while to kick in and if you know you're looking to go barefoot it's suggested that diet changes are made at least 6wks prior to pulling the shoes (if possible).

I do fully appreciate that while on livery it's not easy to manage grazing, have pea gravel and a suitable variety of surfaces hence having to do the best possible (with high risk of driving yourself mental trying to balance everything!).

Like I said, there's no "shame" in going back to shoes IMO; sometimes there are just another tool that we need to manage our horses within the lifestyle that we can offer.

I am genuinely interested in what you think putting shoes on would fix though and/or what you think would be wrong that shoes would alleviate?
 
Barefoot is the ideal, yes. However, we don't keep horses in a natural manner, and therefore sometimes we have to deviate from the ideal when it isn't working!

Ultimately, we keep horses because we enjoy riding them, doing things with them, etc etc, and as much as we owe it to them to keep them the best way possible, we also owe it to them not to cause them discomfort to conform to what WE perceive is best for them.

Yes I agree we need to be more aware of what we feed horses, and I think one of the best things that has come of out the "Barefoot trend" is an increased awareness to what we feed our horses. We also need to be aware of foot health and balance, but that should be the samwe regardless of whether its got shoes on or not.

At the end of the day, if we are doing everything we can for the horse based on our commitments in life, the way we have to keep them, and they are still having problems without shoes, there is no harm in putting shoes back on, as long as we are still conscious of feeding/balance/health and are even more aware of the horses feet because they are NOT so aware of them when they have shoes on.
 
I've just put front shoes back on my TB mare after a year, including 6 months where she was on loan to a very knowledgeable barefoot enthusiast, I felt like a bad owner but it is nice to see her striding about confident in her world instead of worn down by constant low level pain and confined to a yard unable to graze with her friends because any grazing appeared to make her footy.

If the horse has a metabolic issue of course shoes aren't going to fix that but at least she can be comfortable instead of lame all the time and unable to graze. I admit, since becoming more aware of barefoot management I am amazed at the sheer number of metabolically challenged horses, particularly TBs, there appear to be in this world, I guess when most horses wore shoes we never knew!
 
skint1, yes very true! But then we breed them to do a job, and often being suitable to stay barefoot isn't part of that job...which is why I do believe unfortunately shoes are a necessity for a lot of horses.
 
Thanks for your answer KatB ;)

I do, by the way, agree with what you've said. So many people shoe without knowing why or what's going on inside and putting their trust in the "expert" that they are paying to do this; even paying vets to over see that it's being doing correctly. I should know as I was one of them!

Having found out (properly and thoroughly) how the foot actually works, what it consists of and what shoes do to it at least now any decisions are informed ones. Previously it was just because that's what I've always done and all horses in work, especially anything not a pony or a cob, NEED shoes.... You live and you learn!
 
I agree wholeheartedly TPO, and tbh the way a LOT of farriers shoe horses makes my skin crawl. But it also frustrates me when owners make no effort into looking into how they manage their horse, and then wonder why it breaks! I would like to see a lot of horses go barefoot, but equally, I hate to see horses be in pain because the owners insist what they are doing is right and every horse CAN go barefoot... it's not fair on the horse or the owner :(
 
The transition with my TB seemed to take forever! it was only 9 weeks in total before she was sound over the stones that seemed to gravitate to her (we were always sound on concrete/tarmac/field/school) but we did seem like it was 3 steps forward and 2 back and I did wonder what on earth I was doing.

Sounds like your lad has a abcess brewing
 
Hi, I have thought about shoes but I believe he will get there barefoot, diet is correct for him, altho may still be lacking enough protein but he's so much better than he was.

I just need light nights to build up hacking to work his frog, he's still a bit toe first but on good ground he walks out great.

I think the lameness is due to tweaking something in the mud. Having seenhim shod and how bad his were it's not something I would rush back to.

On phone so can't link but a previos thread I did shows his barefoot journey so far. Think I'm just having a bad week, thanks for replies
 
pines of rome said:
You are not alone, I have been at it for a year with my boy, he is up and down like a yoyo!
ATM he is not great, his soles are not as thick as they should be and I don,t know if this is the change of grass or a metabolic issue, I have got the vet coming next week to do some blood tests.
I have to say I feel the whole barefoot thing is taking over my life and makes me quite depressed at times!
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To be honest, on the basis of this information I think you should shoe for the sake of both of you.
 
Maybe cytrayes, I am going to wait and see what his blood tests come up with and what my vet thinks, before making any drastic decisions as it would be a shame to shoe him if it is avoidable!
 
Will you let us know? I am fascinated by how many of these difficult ones turn out to have underlying metaboilc problems. What things is he being tested for?
 
siennamum said:
Maybe horses don't thrive in a natural environment, maybe lots of wild unshod horses are lame/laminitic/have excessive wear and would be better off with the sort of management we subject our shod horses to. This research is interesting:

http://www.wildhorseresearch.com/
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From the report:


Conclusions: Given the moderate evidence of sub-optimal foot health, it may be inappropriate to judge the feral horse foot as a benchmark model for equine foot health.
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I don't know anyone on this forum or any trimmer who uses the feral hoof as a benchmark model of equine foot health.

For those who don't want to bother to read it, the report says that feral equines are subject to laminitis when calorie intake exceeds need just like domestic horses. Surprise surprise.

And that sometimes feral horses have insufficient wear if they are not moving enough (because they have food and water to hand) and sometimes excessive wear if they are moving too much (to find food or water). What a shock.

The report, I'm afraid is pretty much irrelevant to keeping a domestic barefoot horse in the UK.

Can I ask what point you were trying to make?? That some horses in some situations need shoes? Correct.
 
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cptrayes said:
Will you let us know? I am fascinated by how many of these difficult ones turn out to have underlying metaboilc problems. What things is he being tested for?
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Yes I will, on the advice of my trimmer he will have test for liver and ACTH test and tape worm as well while we are at it!
 
I agree that unless environment, diet and movement are optimal, you are likely to see hoof pathology of one sort or another. But that goes for feral horses, paddock pets and competition horses.

I also don't know any barefooters that "sculpture the foot in the shape of the popular hoof model". I do think that that criticism could be levelled at some farriers though.
 
I don't find it hard work at all. Why is that? I have two in hard work with no shoes. Maybe I will be taking that back when the grass comes in although I had one of them in full work from July last year and she has had no problems.

If the horse has "tweaked something in the mud" well shoes would have made no odds there...

It's worth having boots for the just in case moments but I wouldn't let it take over my life.
 
Well having seen him last night he really isn't that bad, bit ginger on it but not lame as such, so I'm feeling much better about it all. I'll give him bute and rest for a few days and see how he's looking. I don't think what he's done is related to being barefoot now, I'll research soft tissue damage (suspect related to ddft) in more detail and take it from there....

Thanks for replies
 
Don't give him bute!

If he has an abscess brewing you could suppress it and make it encapsulate and hang on for ages before it resolves.
 
cptrayes said:
Don't give him bute!

If he has an abscess brewing you could suppress it and make it encapsulate and hang on for ages before it resolves.
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I really don't think it's an abscess though, since he had the soft tissue damage in Dec he's been a bit short on that leg, I've got the physio coming out on Tues to make sure nothing is going on further up in shoulder etc.

I *think* that since his feet were so god awful, long and underun when he had shoes on, and are still a bit long now, that combined with poor frogs and walking toe first is putting strain on his ddft so as soon as he does something daft in the field he's tweaked it again.

Planning to see how he comes in tonight, if still looking ok then will walk out in hand and stop the bute. I suspect yesterday was a one off incident, if he was that bad on it then 1 bute wouldn't have made much difference.

Will be taking more pictures tonight though so will compare and check for heat/ bruising anywhere

Thanks
 
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