Barefoot/remedial shoeing people...

[Tr0uble]

I need a bit of a sounding board I guess…Horse is currently barefoot and has been for over 3 years, having had his shoes off as a 3.5 year old and never footy or sore a day in his life. Horse is 7 year off 17.1hh ID gelding who was competing successfully (ish) at Novice level dressage, we were looking to make the move to Elementary when he went lame with a hind suspensory injury.

This was 8 months ago, he had PRP, shockwave and a lot of box rest/hand walking. A week ago he was signed off as sound by the vet, scans look ‘amazing’ with fantastic fibre pattern and the small boy changes had completely reabsorbed along the Sesamoid.

He’s been back in gentle rehab work for a little while, with very regular physio due to lots of upper body muscular tensions where he’s been compensating for the bad leg.

It was said to me yesterday that I might want to consider shoeing him as his work load increases – not because he’s not suited to barefoot, but because a hind shoe with a small lateral extension will offer the hind legs more support on a school surface, and help to support the leg as he starts to take more weight behind.

I like barefoot, I’ve had all my horses barefoot, but if shoes are going to help the horse, then that’s what I’ll do – my problem is that I’ve had shoeless horses for so long that I don’t know enough about the benefits of this type of shoeing!

Any thoughts?

 

[cptrayes]

Ask the horse

Get him doing work on hard surfaces so he self trims, leave his feet alone, and if he needs a lateral extension, he'll grow one.

 

[Prince33Sp4rkle]

i dont think shoes will help really.

how is a sticky outy bit of metal going to support anything, in the grand scheme of half a ton of horse.

and lets face it, when we say take more weight behind-its not like all of a sudden ther hind legs are taking 10x as much weight, its a slight variance (again in the grand scheme of half a ton!)

honestly i think he's better off BF being allowed to grow the foot he needs.

 

[Tr0uble]

i dont think shoes will help really.

how is a sticky outy bit of metal going to support anything, in the grand scheme of half a ton of horse.

and lets face it, when we say take more weight behind-its not like all of a sudden ther hind legs are taking 10x as much weight, its a slight variance (again in the grand scheme of half a ton!)

honestly i think he's better off BF being allowed to grow the foot he needs.

That was exactly my thoughts....glad I'm on the right page at least!!

He DOES swing that injured hin in a bit, and he does have a slightly boxy opposite fore.....but in general the feet are good and have plenty of heel.

I'll carry on as I am - thanks for the input! Box ticked....lol

 

[Prince33Sp4rkle]

i had a similar sort of wobble the other day, i suddenly started to wonder if i should be shoeing CS now, if it would help with anything at the level he's at etc.

but was just a mid level crisis i think lol, after logically thrashing it out with NMT we came to the conclusion that unless they are sore (and work/diet etc cannot be altered for whatever reasons) or have some kind of serious deformity, the horse is probably better with what its body tells it to grow! rather than being dictated to by the shape of the metal wedged on it foot!

ive no doubt that altering shoes/using different shoes etc can help rehab horses, alter the way they move, or keep a bit of a dodgy one sound........................but so often BF is NOT tried in these cases so we have no idea if the same result could have been achieved without shoes. in many cases i think it could have been.

 

[Tr0uble]

i had a similar sort of wobble the other day, i suddenly started to wonder if i should be shoeing CS now, if it would help with anything at the level he's at etc.

but was just a mid level crisis i think lol, after logically thrashing it out with NMT we came to the conclusion that unless they are sore (and work/diet etc cannot be altered for whatever reasons) or have some kind of serious deformity, the horse is probably better with what its body tells it to grow! rather than being dictated to by the shape of the metal wedged on it foot!

ive no doubt that altering shoes/using different shoes etc can help rehab horses, alter the way they move, or keep a bit of a dodgy one sound........................but so often BF is NOT tried in these cases so we have no idea if the same result could have been achieved without shoes. in many cases i think it could have been.

Yeah I think this is a wobble!

I've never had any reason not to continue barefoot....but I did feel the need to explore the idea of it to make sure I wasn't missing something fundemental!