Barefoot Problem

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LauraL23

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My horse is shod infront and barefoot behind at the moment and although the backs seem to cope relatively well with being barefoot (ie not footsore and they don't wear too quickly etc) the problem i am having is that seems to get little pieces of grit stuck in the groove around the outside of the sole. It is normally quite easy to remove with a hoofpick but sometimes out hacking he will get a bit stuck and as he walks on it it gets pushed further into the hoof.

Is there anything i can do about this? As yet he has not had problems with abcesses but i am worried this may happen, and when mentioned to farrier i was told he may need back shoes put on which i do not want to do as apart from this problem his back feet have adjusted very well to barefoot, if anything i want the fronts barefoot aswell not more shoes!
 
Your farrier would say that lol!

My girl gets that quite a lot and it doesn't seem to bother her. I find the more road work we do the tougher the hoof is and it happens less.
 
I used to worry about this when my horse first went barefoot, but 8 or 9 months down the line, he hasn't had a problem. I used to pick all the little bits of gravel out but don't bother any more. Just a quick brush after riding.
 
Barefoot is far more than just not putting shoes on as you may have gathered from the numerous posts on here about it.

The fallacy of shoeing is that it protects the hoof. It doesn't, it takes away feeling so minor injuries and disease fail to register. It causes thin soles so that injury becomes more likely. Because they cannot feel the horse fails to look after their own feet.

The pros and cons are endless, and eventually comes down to the mindset of the owner as to whether you shoe or not.

As far as a horse which is half shod, predominantly horses have shoes on the front which are normally more problematic than hinds, and the hinds are left to take care of themselves.

The problem of small stones becoming embeded in the hind hoof is less in horses with good feet which stems from being treated as barefoot horses where all the other factors are in place, such as proper diet, appropreate exercise and trimming.

Your farrier is probably right in saying that it will need shoes if you are not following a proper barefoot regime. This of course begs the question why put shoes on the front if you do follow that regime.

Even barefoot horses get these little stones occasionally, but with better hoof quality are less likely to cause problems.
 
My mare occasionally gets this - I just run the edge of the hoofpick gently round the edge of the hoof. They've not to date caused any problems, although, like you, I was worried at the beginning. Follow a good low starch, low sugar, high fibre diet and the hooves will improve. Good luck!
 
rather than use a hoof pick I use a normal cutlery knife as the edge is narrower it is easier to flick the little gritty bits out and saves digging into the white line as much. His line has definitely gotten tighter over the last couple of months though :)
 
I use a show nail To gently remove any little stones wedged in the white line or a gentle brush with a wire brush
 
*whispers*.. what's one of those an would I be likely to loose it (the show nail that is!) I'm safe with gert big knife.. and can assure you that yellow hoof picks and straw are a bad mix ;) :D
 
Laura, I'm so pleased you posted this, you've described exactly what is happening to my girl. She's been shod in front and unshod behind for at least 10 years (since I got her), but noticed this year she's been getting these little stones jammed in the edge of her hinds. Unlike yours, she's also a little footy on the gravel which frequents our roads, fine on tarmac, grass etc.

I moved yards in February, and to be fair she is a bit overweight. She's worked everyday and is now on a restricted paddock (can't stable her). I'm thinking that maybe the grass is richer here, and it's affected the quality of her hooves. She's munching 2 cups of Baileys Lo Cal Balancer and a tiny bit of Purabeet. Just thinking aloud really as I've never had trouble with her feet before, just since moving here. Sorry, seem to have hijacked!
 
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doh, yes of course goldenstar I should have worked that one out!

swc, franks hinds are fine apart from dealing with those annoying bits of stone on a solid surface (which got worse due to road flooding). he is better on our hardcore/down the rough track we do sometimes. I think because if you think of the physics of it a small stone/grit on a solid, unyielding surface like tarmac is what is going to create the biggest pressure point. At a random guess if she wasn't getting them stuck before has her white line got a bit wider? poss cos of moving yards?
 
Thanks ester, glad it's not just me. Should also have added that my sister's NF pony (Misty) is also feeling footy on the road gravel, though no signs of the gravel getting jammed in the hoof like Saf. Also Mist has very few front teeth, so definitely isn't overweight (we've started feeling adlib hay but the footiness started before the hay), she's unshod all round.

It's got to be due to the move, we were at our last place for about 8 years and as mentioned before, no problems. Is there anything I could feed to help improve quality? I assumed the balancer should be giving her everything she needs for healthy feet.

Incidentally, I would love to lose Saf's front shoes, might pester the farrier to take them off over the winter (less riding) and see how she gets on.
 
I'm only a newbie to it sorry! We analyse our grass as we take our hay crop off of it and feed minerals accordingly. I don't think balancers always do supply everything they need. Stick another post up with what you are feeding on it, am sure oberon/cp will help you out. Here is also useful for info and def worth joining :) http://phoenixhorse.myfastforum.org
 
LauraL23 said:
My horse is shod infront and barefoot behind at the moment and although the backs seem to cope relatively well with being barefoot (ie not footsore and they don't wear too quickly etc) the problem i am having is that seems to get little pieces of grit stuck in the groove around the outside of the sole. It is normally quite easy to remove with a hoofpick but sometimes out hacking he will get a bit stuck and as he walks on it it gets pushed further into the hoof.

Is there anything i can do about this? As yet he has not had problems with abcesses but i am worried this may happen, and when mentioned to farrier i was told he may need back shoes put on which i do not want to do as apart from this problem his back feet have adjusted very well to barefoot, if anything i want the fronts barefoot aswell not more shoes!
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What you are describing sounds like grit in the white line.

The white line is the visible bottom of the laminae.
SolarConcavity.jpg


Ideally, it should be no thicker than a credit card and resistant to small stones. Can you see how nice and tight it is in the above picture?

I defy anyone to produce a tight white line in the UK at this point in time :p

Our horses are looking more like this :eek:
stretchedwhiteline.jpg


This indicates some flaring and it's because of the grass (well, the NSCs in the grass). The laminae becomes stretched and therefore so does the white line.
It's not the sign of a truly healthy hoof.

But if your horse is sound, then note it and exercise caution with diet...but continue to ride as exercise is great.

You can smother the white line with Red Horse's Field Paste before you hack and then brush off with a wire brush afterwards.
Go easy on digging into the white line :eek: :D
 
SaffronWelshCob said:
Thanks ester, glad it's not just me. Should also have added that my sister's NF pony (Misty) is also feeling footy on the road gravel, though no signs of the gravel getting jammed in the hoof like Saf. Also Mist has very few front teeth, so definitely isn't overweight (we've started feeling adlib hay but the footiness started before the hay), she's unshod all round.

It's got to be due to the move, we were at our last place for about 8 years and as mentioned before, no problems. Is there anything I could feed to help improve quality? I assumed the balancer should be giving her everything she needs for healthy feet.

Incidentally, I would love to lose Saf's front shoes, might pester the farrier to take them off over the winter (less riding) and see how she gets on.
Click to expand...

It may well be a combination of the time of year, the rain causing the grass to grow and also the move.

The balancer may/may not be giving them everything they need - depends what's in your grass.
I'll bet high iron, low copper, low zinc and possible high calcium and magnesium.
Does your balancer compensate for that?
 
SaffronWelshCob said:
Thanks oberon, thats really interesting. I know nothing of the grass in my field (its a livery yard), how can i find out?
Click to expand...

You can have it analysed
http://shop.forageplus.com/epages/e... horses forage to determine nutrition needs."

Or you can try one of the generic supplements that have been compiled from the most common traits found.
Pro Hoof, Pro Balance +, Equimins META Balance or ForagePlus Balancer.

I had my yard's forage analysed last year. I found that I was feeding a good, healthy and sensible diet - but it was all the wrong things for my yard's forage :o

But taking a punt on one of the above supplements is worth it. The worst report I've heard was, "No change."
 
A forage analysis would tell you what minerals your grass has or is lacking in.

My lad recently came home from Rockley and before he left Nic made a point of showing me how small pieces of gravel can get stuck in the white line separation. Nic also said that they should be removed regularly but not to worry because they won't travel up the inside of the hoof wall. In our case she said this is because my lad is growing a much better connected hoof so as we work the white line separation will improve.

I'd suggest making sure your feed is helping your horse and then hopefully you'll end up being able to grow out the separation.

I'll take some pics of Dom tomorrow, it's quite interesting to see with him that his hinds are so much better than his fronts. Hardly any white line separation at all and the hoof feels really solid and tough too. The fronts, which had been shod most of his working life though show much more white line separation. Must be a connection somewhere I think! ;)
 
Thanks all, would quite like to try Equimins Meta Balance as have had great results with Equimins Flexijoint with Misty and would like to try another of their products. Am I losing the plot though, as I can't for the life of me find it on their website?? I usually buy Flexijoint directly from their site but can see Meta Balance anywhere?!
 
SaffronWelshCob said:
Thanks all, would quite like to try Equimins Meta Balance as have had great results with Equimins Flexijoint with Misty and would like to try another of their products. Am I losing the plot though, as I can't for the life of me find it on their website?? I usually buy Flexijoint directly from their site but can see Meta Balance anywhere?!
Click to expand...

For some reason it's not on the website, but you can ring them for it :)
 
Thanks everyone, as far as i'm aware his diet is not too bad. I am very cautious of laminitis so he has restricted grass/soaked hay and a token feed of happy hoof each day.

There isn't really a huge gap around the white line to be honest, admittedly there is a slight groove but only enough to wedge very tiny pieces of grit into! He is due for a trim soon so it may just be that his feet are a little long.

As for the question of why he is shod infront and not behind... In all honesty i have always had my horses shod allround due to heavy road work/needing studs etc. It is only with this horse who has bone spavin that i decided to remove his hinds to see if it helped which it does appear to have done. My plan is to remove the fronts eventually but i am doing it gradually to give him time to adjust, the backs have been off about a year now and i will probably have the fronts removed after this summer.

Thanks again :)
 
SaffronWelshCob said:
Thanks all, would quite like to try Equimins Meta Balance as have had great results with Equimins Flexijoint with Misty and would like to try another of their products. Am I losing the plot though, as I can't for the life of me find it on their website?? I usually buy Flexijoint directly from their site but can see Meta Balance anywhere?!
Click to expand...

The ratios of copper/zinc/iron in the META balance were created after a bunch of nutritionally savvy barefooters harrangued poor Equimins guy into it :D.

It's a great product and it has been very successful - but it is not following the standard mineral balancing software and I *believe* they avoid blatantly advertising it on their website in case the EU Daily Mail types get wind of it and get funny about Equimins trying to poison horses :rolleyes:

So it's an 'under the counter' thing ;):)
 
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