Barefoot Thoroughbred just stuck 2 hooves up to a disbeliever

Nickles1973

Nickles1973

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With all my horse's current issues (Psd, arthritis, s/i issues) there haven't been many things for me to smile about lately.
However, today the farrier that used to shoe my horse was on the yard to see to my yard owners gelding.
Back story so far.....
My horse had numerous things wrong with his hooves which I had begun to question whilst under the care of said farrier. The main one of which was that he was completely unable to stand up on his bare hooves if the farrier removed more than one shoe at a time. He would be horribly lame if he threw a shoe which he did annoyingly often and he was labelled by all as a horse that could never go barefoot. Most annoyingly by my farrier who I trusted implicitly to be doing the best for my horse.

Cue a lot of research and a couple of requests for help to the lovely Oberon and CPTrays. They helped point out some of George's other issues and gave me the kick up the butt I needed to employ the services of a new more understanding and pro barefoot farrier.
After the required dietry changes and a tricky transition period using a new type of plastic constructed shoe my horse finally went totally unshod 2 weeks ago.

Fast forward to today. Old farrier arrives on yard and I am just finishing up having a long reining lesson in the school. George strides around the school looking annoyingly very sound (Annoying because of his other problems)
We walk from the school over the stoney yard and up to his stable over the concrete yard.
Old farrier looked dumstruck!!! You have no idea how much I smiled to myself when he asked what I'd put on his hooves to get him to be able to cope with all that :D
What really made my day was when he asked about the diet he was on as he has a couple of ponies with soft hooves!!
 
Nickles1973 said:
With all my horse's current issues (Psd, arthritis, s/i issues) there haven't been many things for me to smile about lately.
However, today the farrier that used to shoe my horse was on the yard to see to my yard owners gelding.
Back story so far.....
My horse had numerous things wrong with his hooves which I had begun to question whilst under the care of said farrier. The main one of which was that he was completely unable to stand up on his bare hooves if the farrier removed more than one shoe at a time. He would be horribly lame if he threw a shoe which he did annoyingly often and he was labelled by all as a horse that could never go barefoot. Most annoyingly by my farrier who I trusted implicitly to be doing the best for my horse.

Cue a lot of research and a couple of requests for help to the lovely Oberon and CPTrays. They helped point out some of George's other issues and gave me the kick up the butt I needed to employ the services of a new more understanding and pro barefoot farrier.
After the required dietry changes and a tricky transition period using a new type of plastic constructed shoe my horse finally went totally unshod 2 weeks ago.

Fast forward to today. Old farrier arrives on yard and I am just finishing up having a long reining lesson in the school. George strides around the school looking annoyingly very sound (Annoying because of his other problems)
We walk from the school over the stoney yard and up to his stable over the concrete yard.
Old farrier looked dumstruck!!! You have no idea how much I smiled to myself when he asked what I'd put on his hooves to get him to be able to cope with all that :D
What really made my day was when he asked about the diet he was on as he has a couple of ponies with soft hooves!!
Click to expand...
LOL, but at least he is open to ideas, farriers are trained to shoe horses, but not how to keep horses feet healthy.
 
Fantastic :D.

Here's hoping that farrier realises there's something in it and gives it some proper consideration, now you've shown him how it's done!
 
Brilliant to hear! Really glad George is doing well without shoes on

We can do it! He doesn't ask about my mare but she was strutting her stuff in the field when he came to me on Monday to trim the Shetland

Mine hacked in her boots to a show the other weekend and came 5th in her breed class barefoot :) My old boy is also doing very well showing barefoot!
 
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Lovely to hear him doing so well :)

Remind me what is it you changed the diet from and to?
 
His original diet was,
Dengie alpha A molasses free, Spillers original balancer, and Bearts horse and Pony nuts. He also had Maxaflex joint sup (Alph-alpha based) Naf pro feet sup and feedmark magnesium.
On the face of it it didn't look to be too bad but it was obviously not quite right for growing the best hooves.
He is now fed
Allen and Page fast fibre,a handful of graze-on, Pro earth pro balance+, Pro earth magnesium, micronised linseed and Equimins fibre digester. I still give him a joint supplement but now I use Equimins superjoint HA and he has been on a trial of a new hoof supplement called 4feet. (from the makers of prokalm) I also top his brekka with a mug full of spillers high fibre nuts 'cos he likes 'em :D
So far it seems to be doing the trick!
 
He may not need the magnesium as well as the Pro Balance +.

What is in the Equimins Fibre Digester? I've never heard of that :o.

Edited to add - found it...it's Yea-sacc ;) £25 for a kg....cheeky :o
 
That's great, go you! Love it when your horse proves them all wrong!

Oberon said:
He may not need the magnesium as well as the Pro Balance +.

What is in the Equimins Fibre Digester? I've never heard of that :o.

Edited to add - found it...it's Yea-sacc ;) £25 for a kg....cheeky :o
Click to expand...

Oberon I feed Pro balance + and mag as Dom seems to need both the pro balance and the magnesium, as there isn't a great deal of magnesium in the pro balance + anyway, and according to Nic it should be fed at 50mg per day. Dom got very footsore when he didn't have the extra magnesium (because I hadn't been able to get it!) for a week and is back rock crunching happily again :)
 
I had thought I was doubling up a bit with the magnesium and will probably reduce it as we go into the winter. George is a very stressy boy, even more so now he's doing very little work because of his multitude of physical issues. The only way I can just about keep a lid on him is to allow him 24 hour turnout. I know this isn't ideal so I am working on the assumption that extra magnesium could help on both accounts. (the stress head bit and the grass)
The Equimins fibre digester should be very ecomomical as you only feed a tiny amount per day :D
 
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