barefooter's, Faracat? Ester? advice please

[katymay]

Jesters shoes came off yesterday, he is field sound and quite comfy, took him for a little walk on the road in hand today and he was a bit sore, happy to walk on but you could tell it was uncomfortable and every so often when he walked on a stone it was more apparent, now my question is do I continue to work through it and walk in hand daily or do two weeks field rest then try again? I know it's going to be a long slog but already the weight is piling on so will invest in hoof boots thanks

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I would try to find a surface that he's fully comfortable on as he's so freshly out of shoes and walk him on that. If you can find a stone free area of tarmac (I have been known to sweep the road just outside the driveway ) that would be ideal, if he's happy on tarmac. You might just want to walk him for 10 mins to start with. As his hooves get healthier he will cope with more challenging surfaces, but a big, sharp stone on a hard surface is the most challenging IME. With CM she quickly progressed to happily walking over small stones, but for ages I would just steer her round big ones. Some I actually moved out of the way if I did the route regularly. Boots are a good option to get him walking out confidently, if he needs them.

 

[ester]

I did joke about sweeping the road, unfortunately for us they also resurfaced one of our main routes and made it really gritty. Sharp stones on hard surfaces are an issue even for the most rock crunching and in some ways I'd be worried if mine didn't gimp on the odd one .

It is hard to say OP, I think you need to play it by ear a little bit. I started with 5 min and built up and if he was more sore the day after, dropped back again but did try and make sure he got some road work in even when we were using boots - we weren't too bad until the 6 week point when he was ready to go a bit further but he started to feel his feet a bit more.

Unless you think he is very uncomfortable - though he sounds like he was happy to walk on, just a bit careful? I would err on the side of keeping up the walks but not for too long and on the best bit of road you can find .