Calling Barefoot experts

They don't look bad for a beginning :). The fronts actually look better than the hinds, despite the shoeing... often it's the other way around. The back of the foot in front looks like it'll develop very quickly; it's not as weak as a lot of early shod TB's. The hinds look a bit weaker & may be a little slower developing, but I'm sure they'll come along. It's always hard to tell from photos, but it looks like you may be lacking some concavity in the soles, as well as them being a bit on the thin side. They'll improve with stimulation and diet, but just be aware that this can be caused by sugar (with grass being the prime culprit).

It sounds like you have a good set up, and hopefully things will go smoothly :).
 
Well, the only sugar source she has is her hay, so I can just start to put that on soak as opposed to feeding dry. It doesn't have silly sugar level, but the nutritionist did say to soak when I go back to hard feed, so I'll start soaking now in preparation.

Thank you x
 
Really? No! I buy Forageplus for my hardworking horse!! I'm hoping the raised copper/zinc levels will stop help with issues like abscesses.
 
I use my farrier he just tidies her feet up a bit. She's on fast fibre and unmollased speedi beet and from next month she will be on pro balance . Anyone who uses salt how much do you use. I have her in at night as we don't have much grazing, she has 3 standard sections of god quality hay. Her feeds ar split over 3 feeds a day to keep her 3 year old mind occupied. I ride a minimum of 4 times a week mainly on the road and average t about 6 miles a ride with approx. mile of trot on each ride, I use a few stoney bridleways too, and mums are is laid with hard core so it's a good surface for her to wlk around in. I keep her ff her grass once a week by using a starvation paddock where I Shetland normally lives. The ground in there I hard and there is lots of granite In one coner (dads a builder and stores his stone here) and she likes to mountain goat across this so I'm hoping her work food foot growth ratio is about spot on now
 
Ok, so from what you say, it sounds like a trim issue. A farrier tidying up is not usually sufficient. Your breakover and balance may be incorrect so resulting in splitting. Farriers are not trained to do barefoot trims and I'd find a barefoot specialist and I'm sure you'd see a great improvement!!
 
Jas123 said:
Ok, so from what you say, it sounds like a trim issue. A farrier tidying up is not usually sufficient. Your breakover and balance may be incorrect so resulting in splitting. Farriers are not trained to do barefoot trims and I'd find a barefoot specialist and I'm sure you'd see a great improvement!!
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You're new to the forum JAS, but we managed to halt most of these over-generalisations on this forum a while ago and I would hate to see the old and pointless arguments start again.

Whilst it is not a mandatory part of the syllabus, there are farriers who know how to trim hard working barefoot horses.

There are good and bad trimmers and good and bad farriers.
 
When you have the shoes removed ask the farrier to remove each clench separately and not prise off the shoe in the normal way this will minimise the wall damage in the early stages .
Then it's 'just ' looking at the diet supplement side of things and getting her moving.
I would get boots and pads so their there if you need them only one of mine had needed them a lot so they probally sit in the tack room but I think it's best to have them .
The advantage to using a trimmer is they work with BF horses in work all the time and therefore know all the pit falls I learnt a lot from mine and mine chose and fitted all the boots for my horses I would not have known where to start.
Even the smallest amount of thrush can derail a BF horse so keep a close eye on that.
 
lurcherlu said:
I'm on the barefoot journey as well, m 3 year old obviously has never had shoes spits slightly easier. This thread has been so used. Thanks guys
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I corrected this underneath not splits easier to so it's easier. A horse who had never had shoes wouldn't split easier. I didn't start this thread only wrote that it had helped me. I mad a typo on my iPad and didn't see that i had. My 3 year old has never had shoes, the farrier i use has been my farrier for 14 years since I was a kid, I worked with him for years too. I totally and utterly trust him and he's in the past got my shod horse barefoot through his suggestion. He also keeps a few of his horses barefoot too, they hunt, drive plough etc so,I feel he is good enough for my girl. She's never been lame etc and very rarely needs a trim

He has always been honest if he thinks a horse could go back to barefoot he says why shoe it? She has never had thrush is kept on an immaculate dry bed and has her feet picked out twice a day.

I know a lot of people don't use hoof oil, but i have been using Carr day and martins daily cornacresine dressing which is lie the original hard stuff you had to app,y with hands but in a thick brush on formula, it is meant to encourage hoof growth. I use this twice a week.I also use carr day and Martin tea tree oil hoof oil. It's antibacterial and anti fungal . I find this amazing at clearing up the thrush on the horses at the old yard I worked on, that and washing them out with a tea tree wash.

im not a foot expert by any means, but I know only too well o foot no horse. I've never had a young barefoot horse before and seem to be doing well, in the two years I've owned her her feet have been kept well maintained and looked after, her stable is so clean I want to sleep in there and I've changed her diet since she started work to a low sugar starch diet .

I will never come on here to preach , there is always someone who knows more than me and I just want to be a sponge and absorb all this information to make my horses life as good as I can . Thanks for all advice re taking her shoes off, butive never had shoes on her
 
Well, Flys shoes came off this morning as I wanted her to have a little more time on the right feed/supplement plan before. So much for me expecting her to be sore. She practically marched out to the field afterwards and when I undid the headcollar, she tanked off at a full throttle extended trot, looked perfectly even all round, not in the least bit sore of guarding in her movement. I watched her for a while and all she did was eat grass, have a jog to say hi to the neighbour, eat some more, jog to say hi to the other neighbour. She looked happy as a pig in the proverbial :-)

I am over the moon although I do understand she still may get sore but the ground is quite dry and rough, so will be great for stimulating everything.

Thanks for all the advice guys. Much appreciated :-)
 
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