Barefooters - what do you think of these feet?

only_me

only_me

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Horse who is usually shod had his shoes removed today as is on his holidays so complete break, what do you think?
On the sole picture that is the foot which the nail went in (he stood on a nail) at a sort of 45* angle into the wall of the frog. There are a couple of ridges where he changed diets as well :)
Honest opinions welcome, I can take it :p

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Interested to hear what you think :)
 
Sorry will only be brief reply as rushing,but they really don't look that bad condition wise and I can't see you will have too many problems transitioning him.

The angle is not great at the back but hopefully that will be addressed with decent trimming and natural wear etc,hard to tell from pics mind so it may not be that bad.If he's not in work then hopefully can sort that out before it becomes an issue anyway.

I would perhaps start soaking/washing once every other day or so (there are lot's of different things people swear by to clean with so have a google and take your pick!!) just to ensure no infection takes hold in the nail holes.

Get a good trimmer,be careful with diet and get him out and about as much as you and he are able would probably be the best advice I could give.Start off slow on surfaces he is comfortable with and build up from there.

Good luck!!
 
Not really intending on transitioning him, as he will be in a field for 2 months :) He will get shoes back on when he comes back into work.
I have tea tree hoof oil which I use, great stuff :)
He lives out 24/7 so hopefully diet won't be an issue.
Was just wondering what barefoot people would think of his feet, as they are shod regularly and are only being unshod for 2 months :) I use a farrier, as I wouldn't trust a trimmer here as far as you could throw him! too many cowboys :p
 
Oh I see so what you really wanted was an opinion on how good his feet are considering they are shod??
Apologies thought you were wondering if he could cope barefoot and concerned about his foot health.

Would say much the same though really,careful with diet (especially if he's out 24/7 TBH,grass is the worst culprit for sore tootsies!!),still try and keep him walking on different surfaces as is good for hoof health and growth generally (putting shoes back on or not some decent growth now will only do him good),keep nail holes clean and he should have a healthy feet,for a while anyway until the shoes go back on;):p Sorry couldn't resist

Agree on the farrier,if all he needs is a pasture trim then no point wasting your money on a trimmer.

Hope he enjoys his shoe free time,sure he will:)
 
They are typical shod feet. Underrun heels, thin hoof wall, rotted and stretched white line, asymmetric (flared to the left hand side on the sole photo), long toe, flat? (difficult to see concavity on a sole shot but it looks pretty flat?) and pared off frog.

On the plus side the frog shown is nicely developed and it is obvious from the first half inch of hoof growth that he is keen to grow in a foot at a steeper angle if you leave the shoes off.

I'd say that they look like great prospects for barefoot, but since you intend to shoe him again you'll never find out what a beautiful set of feet he'd probably grow if you didn't.
 
lol devonlass, when you say grass are you talking about the sugars in grass? He has lots of surfaces to walk over, a concrete yard, woodbark/stone area and recently dug clay (he helped...!) so nice variety, which should hopefully keep them healthy :)

Has got pretty strong feet actually :) Wouldn't have said his walls are that thin either, white line isn't rotted he normally gets hot shod and that is the mark from hot steel :)
Nice concave soles, it is difficult to tell from photos :)

Pared off frog is actually due to him standing on nail, poulticing, and fine, but the "dead" bit of frog from the nail started to come off and has been coming off from the heel across to mid frog - you can see a diagonal line of darker frog in the pic :)

I can see what beautiful feet he has even with shoes on ;) I can see past the metal :p We event and use studs, so going barefoot is not an option, especially considering the amount of road work we do :)
 
urgh

You have already attracted some of the barefoot clan

These toesies look fine. I took the back shoes off of my TB and I still schooled him so don't worry!! Back out and about now so he has a full set on :)


One of the horses on our yard has a serious stifle injury and he went from being fully shod to no shoes. Been like that for 4 months now and he has great hooves.
 
I'm no expert so i won't comment but i would ask that you post pics of his feet just before the shoes go back on. I love seeing the changes that the foot goes through when barefoot and find it fascinating! When i discovered the rockley farm blog i was sat for hours reading and looking, it really is so clever how the whole hoof changes. I'm genuinely interested to see if your boys feet change.

So, pretty please?
Trina x
 
Lol equineoak :) I did ask ;) I would happily school with no backs but at the start of his work again will be mostly road work so would be a bit unfair on him :)

I will try to remember trina, it should be interesting of how the hoof adapts, his still have evidence of diet changes from the past 6 months so will be glad once they grow out :p
 
only_me said:
Has got pretty strong feet actually :) Wouldn't have said his walls are that thin either, white line isn't rotted he normally gets hot shod and that is the mark from hot steel :)
Nice concave soles, it is difficult to tell from photos :)

Pared off frog is actually due to him standing on nail, poulticing, and fine, but the "dead" bit of frog from the nail started to come off and has been coming off from the heel across to mid frog - you can see a diagonal line of darker frog in the pic :)

I can see what beautiful feet he has even with shoes on ;) I can see past the metal :p We event and use studs, so going barefoot is not an option, especially considering the amount of road work we do :)
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All these comments should be tempered with the fact that photos can be very deceptive and I may have misinterpreted them.

You don't know how strong his feet are, they have been held together with shoes. Event him without shoes this weekend and you'd soon find out how strong his feet are! (this is not a serious suggestion, it would of course be cruel)

The white line looks black and furry in your photo and it should be white or cream and smooth. He has slight white line disease from the look of that photo, and seedy toe. The white line looks about 1cm wide in places and it should be much tighter.

The pared off frog is at the front, not the heel. It has been pared very strongly, which is common among farrier trimmed horses.

Compared with a barefoot horse, his hoof walls are thin. Mine have hoof walls of getting on for a centimetre at ground level. You can see how thin the hoof wall may be because the track of the shaft of old nails is visible for around half an inch at the bottom of his foot. If his hoof was thicker, this would not show.

In my opinion, which you did ask for after all :), he does not have beautiful feet. His heel bulbs are way out behind the end of his hoof, which is an underrun heel. The points of the horn at his heels should be much more in a line with the heel bulbs. He appears to have a slightly broken hoof/pastern axis and the toe on one of his feet appears to be too long. That conformation will predispose him to navicular spectrum lameness.

Amount of roadwork has no bearing on going barefoot. Lots of roadwork is good for barefoot feet. My hunter is kept fit on roads and hunts barefoot.

Studs are not necessary to event. I evented five horses BE without shoes or studs and plenty of other people do the same thing.

If you posted to be told he has beautiful feet, I'm sorry but I cannot oblige.
 
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cptrayes said:
All these comments should be tempered with the fact that photos can be very deceptive and I may have misinterpreted them.

You don't know how strong his feet are, they have been held together with shoes. Event him without shoes this weekend and you'd soon find out how strong his feet are! (this is not a serious suggestion, it would of course be cruel)

The white line is black and furry in your photo and it should be white or cream and smooth. He has white line disease from the look of that photo, and seedy toe. The white line is about 1cm wide in places and it should be much tighter.

The pared off frog is at the front, not the heel. It has been pared very strongly, which is common among farrier trimmed horses.

Compared with a barefoot horse, his hoof walls are thin. Mine have hoof walls of getting on for a centimetre at ground level.

In my opinion, which you did ask for after all :), he does not have beautiful feet. His heel bulbs are way out behind the end of his hoof, which is an underrun heel. The points of the horn at his heels should be much more in a line with the heel bulbs. He appears to have a slightly broken hoof/pastern axis and the toe on one of his feet appears to be too long. That conformation will predispose him to navicular syndrome.

Amount of roadwork has no bearing on going barefoot. Lots of roadwork is good for barefoot feet.

Studs are not necessary to event. I evented five horses BE without shoes or studs and plenty of other people do the same thing.

If you posted to be told he has beautiful feet, I'm sorry but I cannot oblige.
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Don't worry, i know that photos can be deceptive :) It is interesting for me to get outside opinions on his feet, to keep things as objective as possible. He dosen't have beautiful feet, he has ok feet, but they are working well :p
No white line disease, but agree they don't look very white but no seedy toe.

Studs are not necessary, I agree, I use road studs and that's it, but one slip could lead to lost confidence and guarding, but not going to get into that as this thread isn't about the use of studs :)

Don't worry, I am up for good useful crictism of his feet, but not in the form of going unshod is the only way to improve his feet ;)
 
why do you think they are OK feet if they are underun and the toes are long?
To me they just look typical feet just out of shoes. Lots and lots of room for improvement. The walls look very thin.
 
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