Barefoot Problems

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NoniMouse

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As a first time owner, I wondered if I could tap into the vast experience of HHO!

My horse has been barefoot behind for 5 months now, and barefoot infront for just under 4 months. Until now we haven't had any issues, he was marginally footy for about two days and since then has been completely fine until about two weeks ago.

I notice his feet had started chipping around the bottom, which I thought was weird for his feet to be getting worse, not better, especially after so many months of him being perfectly fine. So had the farrier out the other day. Cracking farrier, supported me in going barefoot in the first place and has a very good reputation. I wasn't able to be there, but he said to my YO that seperation had occurred in the wall of the hoof, and whilst its not urgent at the moment in the long run he thinks that my horse will need shoes back on as there's a risk of infection. I will do whatever is best for my horse, and trust his judgement I don't think he would say put shoes back on if it wasn't necessary. So I have been scrubbing his feet daily with salt water to prevent any infections, and shoes will be going back on, which isn't the end of the world as I would like to event him so may need to stud up anyway. I feel pretty terrible for not picking it up myself, but as I said I'm a first time owner so haven't really had to deal with this sort of thing before.

So I'm on a mission to educate myself. I did some googling and the only thing that came up was white line disease? Does this sound right, I read a couple of articles and wasn't sure it really fitted with how his feet are. I need to phone the farrier to speak to him, but I thought in the mean time any experiences people have had would be useful? Is it a management thing, is there something I am doing wrong or something he is lacking? He is otherwise completely fine in himself. The farrier didn't mention anything about white line disease, just said that the hoof wall was seperating.

I'm a bit disappointed about having to put the shoes back on, but as I said his well being is the important thing, and I'd just like to educate myself so I know what to look out for in the future! So any infomation would be great :)
 
Is the hoof wall separating from the white line, or is the inner hoof wall separating from the outer hoof wall? They are two different conditions and treatment depends on which one it is. Some photos would let us help you identify the problem.
 
OK. Does your horse have Connemara genes, as this is a known genetic issue in Connemara horses? Google hoof wall separation syndrome, HWSS.

It's not an issue of infection in those horses, and the recommendation is to keep the horse's feet damp, not normally a good idea!

In horses where it is not a genetic defect, plenty of us have examples which have been corrected by mineral balancing, using one of two supplements formatted for barefoot horses, though good for all horses, Forageplus or Progressive Earth.

Don't forget this problem is because of the diet at least five months ago, not now, so if you have improved the diet meantime, you may well be on top of the issue.

It's not, in my opinion, a reason to shoe. At this time of year you will see plenty of horses with shoes on doing the same thing and barely holding onto their shoes.
 
NoniMouse said:
"I will do whatever is best for my horse, "

"I notice his feet had started chipping around the bottom, "
Click to expand...


In that case don't rush to put shoes back on.

Does your man rasp a barefoot roll around the edge of the wall? Not only will this prevent cracks and chipping, it will reduce leverage from the ground surface pulling the wall away from the sole (or the outer wall from the inner).

If you are handy with a rasp you can do this yourself or dress it back between farrier/trimmer visits.
 
As I haven't seen the horse in question, I'm going to ask this - was the hoof wall getting a little long? Are the chips therefore the long wall breaking off?

I have three BF horses and they all get chips when I haven't given them enough roadwork and are due for a trim. It looks scary to people who've only had shod horses, but the horses are sound and once the farrier has been their hooves look grand again.


Also had the old nail holes fully grown out? Chipping up to the nail holes is very common.


If the horse is sound, I wouldn't rush to shoe again (and farriers do - for many reasons - shoe horses that don't need them every day), if the problem is horn quality, that can be improved by diet. It will take several months to grow out a full hoof capsule as the better diet only affects the new growth, which then grows down.


It would be very interesting if you would put some photos of your horse's hooves on here.
 
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