Barefoot questions.

[ameeyal]

I know there is a lot of talk about barefoot lately, but it shows people are interested. It has also interested me {im bitless and treeless so i might as well go the whole hog } The horse in question is 16 years old and has had shoes on all his life he is an arab so he has good hard feet, five years ago he had a bad case of laminitis resulting in the front toes/laminie being damaged. 8 months ago he came down with bad laminitis because of cushings, his laminitis is nearly healed 95% and he is still wearing heartbar shoes on his front, and no shoes behind. He is only allowed 2 hours turnout a day or else he becomes footy, would taking his shoes of be good for him, if he should become lame from laminitis again does he need any support on his feet, or just put a thick bed down for him, would taking his front shoes of cause him to become foot sore, by standing in his stable on the concrete, or have i got to put a full bed down for him again {ive only just removed the full bed}, When he is ready to be ridden i will put boots on him, will he need boots to go out in the field? Will boots support his feet like heartbar shoes? How will the damaged toes/laminie cope with out support from a shoe? I look forward to your replys.

 

[cptrayes]

You need to get a paid, experienced barefoot trimmer or barefoot-believer farrier to come and assess your horse, especially as it has Cushings and previous laminitic damage. If you google "barefoot" you will find that there is lots of information online.

 

[Zuzan]

both ponies I know that came down with Laminitis the farrier kept barefoot.. they were unshod.. can't quite understand how you can shoe a laminitic when their laminae are inflamed.. I would imagine rather painful... as above you need to have someone who knows what they are dealing with.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

mine is barefoot

farrier trim is totally different to a barefoot trimmer .

Barefoot trimmer will take photos gives marks for structure of the foot look at the balance white line structure the sole a complete examination

Having had a farrier do it I would recommend a barefoot trimmer if the horse is still in work, if retired a farrier will be ok

I would also say take the back shoes off first let him get used to that first before you go the whole lot. I use old macs in front when hacking out the rest of the time he is barefoot.

 

[classicalfan]

We have a number of laminitic-prone horses, three of whom have Cushings. All became barefoot the day they arrived. None (touch wood as don't want to tempt provenence) have had laminitis since being here with us. Being barefoot (when done proeprly) allows the foot to function properly, thereby less congestion and hence less prone to laminitis.

 

[Oberon]

I took my beloved Arab's shoes off when he was 17. He's 25 now.

But then, he never had any pathology.

The heart bar's function is to attempt to engage the caudal part of the hoof. Barefoot does the same thing more successfully and much cheaper

You would get a much quicker warning of Lami with barefoot, so less likely to get full blown Lami if you heed the early warning signs.

I think it is a great idea to remove the shoes and allow the foot to develop to be properly weight bearing rather than peripherally.

HOWEVER

If your horse is so sensitive to grass, you would likely need to keep him off it most of the time to keep him comfortable. Do you have the time and facilities to do this?

It would be essential to get the diet 100% - this would mean analysis and mineral balancing to give him the best chance. Just buying feeds that say, "Laminitis Trust approved" won't be good enough. (although you may well find he can handle grass much better with more copper on board).

You would need the advice from someone who knows how to rehab a horse with pathologies and arm yourself with as much info as possible.

I believe Jaime Jackson's 'Founder - Prevention and Cure' is a good read. As well as 'Feet First'.

It would be less traumatic on you both to wait until the autumn before you try it. This gives you plenty of time to research and get his diet right.

At the moment, if he is still on grass, he may find it too much to remove the shoes and you won't know if he is gimping on stones - or if he is Lami-ish.

 

[cptrayes]

farrier trim is totally different to a barefoot trimmer .

I'm sorry but this is not true. There are farriers who can do a great trim for a working barefoot horse and there are trimmers who aren't any good at what they do. There is no "barefoot trim" there is only the right trim for that foot on that horse.

Barefoot trimmer will take photos gives marks for structure of the foot look at the balance white line structure the sole a complete examination

Only EP's "score" the foot out of ten. The rest of the barefoot world (the majority) think it's a pretty useless thing to do, because we are aware of many horses performing way beyond what a score of their foot would suggest they are capable of. There are also horses who require very unbalanced looking feet to compensate for lack of straightness in their body somewhere, who would score badly but have the best foot for their own conformation. Horses are not interested in scores, only in whether or not they are sound.

Good farriers will also look at the foot structure and some bad trimmers wouldn't know poor or good foot structure if it hit them between the eyes. It is not helpful to generalise about trimmers or farriers.

OP - pick someone who is recommended by his/her clients, who has experience of HARDWORKING barefoot horses and preferably one who also has experience of rehabbing laminitics. Farrier or trimmer makes no difference.

 

[Oberon]

In answer to a couple of your questions,

Yes, horses CAN go out in boots, but it is rarely necessary if the proper background work is done.

In order to be comfortable and successful a horse needs (in order of importance)

1) Correct diet (laminitis isn't a foot issue - it's a gut issue)

2) Movement (as much as possible over different surfaces WITHIN THE HORSE'S COMFORT, so that may mean an inhand stroll up the road and back at first)

Movement stimulates growth and strength

3) A SYMPATHETIC trim. (Less is more - no knife wielding allowed)

The shoes don't support his hoof in the way you think. They simply lift the hoof away from the ground and stones. The horse's weight is still on the feet - shoe or not.

With shoes, instead of the horse bearing it's weight over the large surface of the whole hoof, it is bearing on the narrow band of the shoe area only. The rest of the hoof is suspended.

 

[LucyPriory]

OP - I wouldn't wait until autumn - because your horse has cushings so you will have two things working against you - the autumn flush and the cushings which is implicated in some cases of autumn lami.

You are already restricting grass intake so that is a good thing. You don't say what time of day but I presume you are going for as early in the morning as possible?

Soaking hay etc I am sure you know the drill. Also I am sure you will have been on both the www.ecirhorse.com site and joined the ECIR yahoo group. The latter has lots of good advice in the files section about managing cushings horses.

If the cushings is under control the lami should be less of a problem. Excepting you have an Arab and these can be terrible for it.

Once sound and comfortable you need a graduated work programme to 'retrain' newly bare hooves. This is where an experienced barefooter pref one with prior knowledge of taking cushings and/or IR horses bare will be an invaluable resource.

I had a lami prone arab and she was fine so long as I managed her diet meticulously and worked her butt off. I struggled to find anyone who knew how to trim her properly though (as in no one) so ended up learning how to do her myself.