can a tb go barefoot?!

[Ykerr]

Looking for some advise from anyone who has barefoot experience. my tb mare has recently been retired to light hacking and i have been thinking of taking her shoes off both to save money on a semi retired horse but also as i am interested about barefootness!
my concerns are that it would be fair to say she doesnt have the best feet ing the world! her back ones are fine but she has typical tb front feet that are flat and dont grow evenly.
the only time that she has had her shoes off before was when she was on box rest and then when she first went back out to field but got multiple abcesses and i dont want to put her through that again, although her feet are in much better condition now than they were then.
Do people think trying barefoot is a good idea, and if so what should i do to give her the best chance of staying sound?

 

[Brightbay]

One of our herd (not owned by me ) is a 16 year old OTTB. He raced until he was 8, I think, and then was a gentleman's hunter for 5 years. When he came here, his shoes came off for the first time in his working life. He's now a happy sound TB with possibly the best feet in the field

His feet don't grow/wear evenly either, but they seem to suit him. He lives out 24/7 year round too (although he is difficult to keep weight on).

ETA - I am sure someone will come along with good diet ideas for you - I know this horse gets quite a lot of feed year round because he's not the world's best do-er, but his owner makes sure it's forage not grain, and he gets either ProHoof or Forageplus balancer (the Forageplus has made an amazing difference to my own horse's bare hooves ).

 

[Scarlett]

Looking for some advise from anyone who has barefoot experience. my tb mare has recently been retired to light hacking and i have been thinking of taking her shoes off both to save money on a semi retired horse but also as i am interested about barefootness!
my concerns are that it would be fair to say she doesnt have the best feet ing the world! her back ones are fine but she has typical tb front feet that are flat and dont grow evenly.
the only time that she has had her shoes off before was when she was on box rest and then when she first went back out to field but got multiple abcesses and i dont want to put her through that again, although her feet are in much better condition now than they were then.
Do people think trying barefoot is a good idea, and if so what should i do to give her the best chance of staying sound?

I hate the phrase 'typical TB feet', it's a load of rubbish and, IMO, used far too often as an excuse, especially by farriers. My 'typical' TB mare was diagnosed with navicular and my farrier tried to blame it on her being a TB when in fact it was his poor work. The vast majority could have great feet if we help them.

I have 4 exracehorses, all b/f. Can put up a link to pics if your interested in seeing the changes.

Diet, exercise, trimming. Get the diet right and you're halfway there. Hoof boots are a work of genius too.

It's not rocket science, but it can be hard work, totally worth it though.

What does your mare eat? Whats her routine? What turnout does she get? What exercise does she do?

Maybe take some pics and post them up?

Good luck!

 

[turkana]

I've had a barefoot TB, her feet were fine for light work but when I increased her work to do some hunting she got footy, so I had front shoes put on her, which I will regret forever.

She lost a shoe one night, the shoe must have flipped up in the air & the nails punctured her flexor ligament, the resulting infection was the death of her, a complete freak accident but I feel bad about it.

It's worth trying shoeless with your tb, if it doesn't work out you can always go back to shoes.

 

[Ykerr]

thanks for replies so far

from what i can gather low sugar/starch is a good start, which is what i try to keep her on anyway.

currently she is not getting any hard feed and is on 24 hr turnout on good grass. in winter she is in overnight with ad lib haylege and gets a hard feed of either calm and condtion or top spec conditioning cubes (both are around 10% combined sugar and starch) and dried grass plus formula for feet.

she is currently being hacked approx 30 mins 2-3 times a week on road and i use kevin bacon hoof stuff on her feet most days.

will try to post pics but any other recommondations of diet/supp?

 

[bethanwhamond]

One of ours used to be barefoot but he began to get very cracked hoofs, so I decided that it would be for the best to go for shoeing him. Although, a friend of mine has a semi retired Connemara x that is a barefoot and he manages fine. She does add a hoof strengthening supplement to his feed and at least once a week she conditions his hoofs. Instead of going out and buying expensive hoof conditioners you can buy a big tub from chemists or online of human moisturizer called Epiderm, which works as a great barrier, and prevents the horse from getting cracks.
I think barefoot is the way to go for a retired horse, when hacking she may avoid sharp stones though.

Hope that helped,

 

[ellie11987]

I have BF TB in full work so yes, it is possible, get the diet right and your halfway there

Diet wise - mine struggles on lush grass so spends the day in on day and is out at night. C&C and TS cubes are most definatley not under 10% sugar and starch combined so aren't suitable. A better diet would be speedibeet, micronised linseed, min/vit supp and salt. For weight gain, up the linseed or add oats/copra/ers pellets. Ask Oberon to send you her 101 factsheet

 

[nikkimariet]

Mine and my sisters ex racers are in full competition work and both barefoot. Mine training advanced, competing elem. Hers training GP, competing PSG. To top it off, mine was in shoes/raced until he was nearly 8.

Ours completely bend the rules and are on the most un barefoot friendly diet. Mine has a fair bit of sugar. Sisters has a lot of starch. Both are turned out all day every day on ex dairy pasture.

They are both rock crushing sound, and will work on all surfaces. Mine comfortably does up to an hour hacking on tarmac and doesn't hesitate with stony tracks.

No such thing as typical TB feet. Just poor feet accompanied by a poor excuse!

 

[pines of rome]

Mine and my sisters ex racers are in full competition work and both barefoot. Mine training advanced, competing elem. Hers training GP, competing PSG. To top it off, mine was in shoes/raced until he was nearly 8.

Ours completely bend the rules and are on the most un barefoot friendly diet. Mine has a fair bit of sugar. Sisters has a lot of starch. Both are turned out all day every day on ex dairy pasture.

They are both rock crushing sound, and will work on all surfaces. Mine comfortably does up to an hour hacking on tarmac and doesn't hesitate with stony tracks.

No such thing as typical TB feet. Just poor feet accompanied by a poor excuse!

I do not want to hear anymore, this is just unfair!!!!! Love Fig though.

 

[Ykerr]

ellie11987 top spec cc cubes definately arent far off 10% sugar and starch because that is why i choose them, think c&c might be slightly more. she wont eat linseed or most mineral supplements, have tried adding all kinds of things to help the taste before and nothing works. being a tb she isnt a good doer so needs good grass in summer and conditioning feed in winter or ends up looking like a rake.

nikkimariet-
was a fleeting comment of mine that she has 'typical tb feet'. what i mean is that she has flat feet which the farrier is trying to fix as best he can but obviously takes time. i am using the farrier that the vet has recommended and use the supplement and hoof cream that the vet and farrier recommend. im not sure what you mean by poor excuse? as im not sure what else i can do to fix them.

 

[TwoStroke]

One of mine's an exracer, he is barefoot and was hacking 30 miles a week on the road (until he had an accident on the lorry and mashed himself up in various places!).

He struggles when out 24/7 - too much sugar in the grass. Supplement-wise, the forage plus hoof health balancer is fantastic and well worth the effort of persuading them to eat it (which mine does without a fuss if split in to two meals a day).

Calm and condition is about 15% combined sugar and starch, the topspec cubes are marketed as no more than 10% NSC, but contain molasses. There are worse things to feed, but equally there are better.

My TB's feet are at their best when he's doing a lot of hacking miles.

 

[nikkimariet]

nikkimariet-
was a fleeting comment of mine that she has 'typical tb feet'. what i mean is that she has flat feet which the farrier is trying to fix as best he can but obviously takes time. i am using the farrier that the vet has recommended and use the supplement and hoof cream that the vet and farrier recommend. im not sure what you mean by poor excuse? as im not sure what else i can do to fix them.

What I meant by my comment was: I don't think the breed of a horse should be solely held accountable for poor feet. There's a number of factors, combined, that can be held accountable for poor feet. Genetics, diet, exercise, management..... But not genetics alone.

I'm no farrier basher - horses for courses - but I've seen more success with barefoot rehabbing than with remedial shoeing.

Out of curiosity, how is the recommended farrier working on fixing it?

 

[Achinghips]

In my experience, no. My girl would split, get repeated seedy toe and
her feet were just too soft for roadwork, despite careful management .... There was just no comparison between her feet and those of my barefoot diamond footed cob.

 

[TPO]

Yip

My ex-racer vet practice and farrier all said BF doesnt work and that TBs dont have the feet for it....

Now my boy finally has heels, toe coming back along with heels, thicker sole, concavity and depth, bigger frogs and stronger digit cushion.

My horse started the transition compromised so it has been an uphill struggle. The added difficulty of vets who don't even appear to understand hoof function or development alongside a farrier who literally screamed at me that TBs "need" protection provided by shoes to help thin soles :/

Diet and movement are key. Boots and pads (that offer proper protection unlike a shoe) helped massively too.

Personally I'd say read as much as you can.

 

[TPO]

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=11916551#post11916551

I wrote a post on that thread with books and websites that might help as a starting point.

 

[nikkimariet]

My ex-racer vet practice and farrier all said BF doesnt work and that TBs dont have the feet for it...

Lol! Ours thought we were mad when we announced what we were planning... Vet is lovely and we trust him 100%, but he is still shocked each time he visits that they are *still* barefoot and *still* sound and *still* competing!

 

[Wagtail]

Looking for some advise from anyone who has barefoot experience. my tb mare has recently been retired to light hacking and i have been thinking of taking her shoes off both to save money on a semi retired horse but also as i am interested about barefootness!
my concerns are that it would be fair to say she doesnt have the best feet ing the world! her back ones are fine but she has typical tb front feet that are flat and dont grow evenly.
the only time that she has had her shoes off before was when she was on box rest and then when she first went back out to field but got multiple abcesses and i dont want to put her through that again, although her feet are in much better condition now than they were then.
Do people think trying barefoot is a good idea, and if so what should i do to give her the best chance of staying sound?

This is a very interesting question! Firstly however, going barefoot will not save you money. You need to be very committed and feed the correct diet that will allow your mare to grow the best hooves she can. Secondly, I think MOST thoroughbreds can go barefoot. But I don't care what anyone says, diet can improve hooves, but genetics DOES play a part, and some horses will have stronger hooves than others all other things such as diet being equal. Just like humans, some people have stronger nails than others. I have hopeless weak and brittle thin nails. I have tried every supplement available to try to make them strong but nothing has worked. Yes, some supplements make them better, but I will never be able to grow lovely long strong nails. They are naturally flat. Just like some horses have naturally flat feet. We can make them much better through diet, but some will never have the best feet in the world.

So, back to thoroughbreds. I believe that 90% of TBs can go comfortably barefoot. You need to change the diet and add a supplement such as pro hoof and micronized linseed, and get a good farrier or trimmer on board. My sister is a BF trimmer, and her TB still has very thin soles and suffers from abscesses now and then despite having the best possible diet and regular, good trims. My TB was footsore for three months when I first took his shoes off and I nearly gave in and had him shod, but he is now rock crunching. The farrier said he has never seen soles thicken up so much and he has lovely concavity.

So I would say, get your mare's diet right first and then take her shoes off. You may have to invest in some boots for hacking and for the transitional period. And most of all have patience. Good luck!

 

[LadyGascoyne]

My mad Thoroughbred was not a typical candidate for going barefoot as she had very soft white feet. Unfortunately she's completely psychotic and kept trying to eat the farrier and we couldn't keep sedating her so the shoes came off about 5 years ago. She took about 3 months to adjust to roads and stoney ground but has gone from strength to strength. We keep her feet as dry as possible, she lives out in summer and in a barn in winter(hates the stable) so eats grass or hay constantly and is on very little hard food as its like feeding red bull to a hamster. Her feet have hardened up beautifully. Sadly her personality has not improved.

 

[Angua2]

My TB is barefoot, and has been for about 2 years. Agree with others that diet is key, and also invest in a good pair of hoofboots. I bought mine at the beginning of our journey, and have just had to dust them back off following a punctured sole incident.

A lot of people will say it can't be done. but it can. It just may take slightly longer than anticipated.