Can any barefoot people help?

[Slightlyconfused]

I can tip load pictures but would anyone be willing to send me there email address and look at my horses hooves? Need some advice as something isn't adding up and I think I'm going to have to put shoes back on him.

He isn't lame and works fine on all surfaces we just have very gravelly tracks to the feilds and in the entrance to the feilds and he gets the gravel and stones up his white line which is stopping it from going tight and has just had the mother of all abcesses so it looks like shoes will have to go back on to stop the gravel.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

What's his diet?

I had huge success in tightening the white lines of four horses by altering their feed, although you do have to wait for the new 'tighter' hoof capsules to grow out.

 

[touchstone]

Agree with looking at the diet, the grass hasn't stopped growing here this year which may be a factor. Also soaking in diluted Milton or Cleantrax might be worth a try in case there are any fungal 'nasties' in there.

 

[ycbm]

The stones are not preventing the white line from getting tighter. Tight white line comes down from the top. Open white line started at the top at least six months ago. Until you have tight white line at the floor his sensitivity to stones probably won't go. To get that, you need to be feeding right. No added sugar, no iron/high copper supplement, possibly limit grass.

 

[missyclare]

When the white lines are rotten, the bad stuff is only as deep as the depth of the rot, or you're getting into seedy toe and more serious stuff. Everything above the depth of that rot is fine and well connected from there on up to the coronary band, so it doesn't take a year of hoof growth to get rid of just that depth of rot. Make sense? Clean the rot out and treat it for thrush and get on top of the trim with a good working bevel that takes the torque off the rotted area at the ground. That allows the stretched white line (with thrush care) to snap back closed in really short time. The white should be 1/8" thick all the way around the sole and creamy yellow. Any white line that is wider, rotted, dark, mad, is stressed and it will be the grass, so diet is important. It's dietary stress that weakens the whole white line simultaneously right up to the coronary band.....laminitis is different. I could look at pics, but it wouldn't be anything new from a trimmer telling you with hoof in hand, so I would get on top of the trim, know the source of the problem and go from there with treatment.
Gravel is my friend. My horses live on gravel 1/2 the time. Its developing abilities and good drainage preventing thrush that has my horse's hooves rock crushing with tight white lines. Once I got those white lines tight, I'd be walking back and forth through those gravel gateways on purpose, lol! It will bring bars under control, support and build the frog, scrub away false sole and toughen live sole. Just my opinon, but have rehabbed many. Hope this helps....

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Thank you.

He is on 24/7 turnout until he comes in at night in winter. He isn't on any feed as a very good doer and I can't keep him off the grass as he has stifle problems so locks up if kept in. His field hasn't got that much grass in.

 

[ester]

do you supplement vits and mins?

 

[tallyho!]

Slightlyconfused.... bits of tiny gravel in the white line is normal as long as the white line is tight.

As long as your boy is sound that is the main thing. My mare has had shoes on for two weeks in all her life and they came off by themselves within those two weeks...

The reason they went on is because she had an abscess at the breakers. She has had abscesses all her life (6 in one year) due to a weak white line and it's because she was out of kilter with her nutrients. She had alfalfa, but this seemed to tip her calcium over the top due to the grass here being so good in calcium. Since I took her off that I have not had a problem.

First, look at the nutrients I would say... test your grass against what you feed her. My mare hasn't had a single supplement apart from salt since last year and we go across all terrain on the cotswold way. Every horse is different. The bits of stone in her white line now is harmless and aids our traction believe it or not and wild horse studies show that the wild herds in America have a lot of tiny stones in their white line, even in the elderly horses so it must serve a function as long as it is a between the ground level and the very first few mm's of hoof wall.

 

[ycbm]

Tallyho I've currently got the two best sets of white line I've ever managed, and never get any grit in the white line, so I think it's probably not true that grit gets into tight white line. But it is perfectly normal, and nothing to worry about unless the white line is either black or wide open.

 

[Slightlyconfused]

Slightlyconfused.... bits of tiny gravel in the white line is normal as long as the white line is tight.

As long as your boy is sound that is the main thing. My mare has had shoes on for two weeks in all her life and they came off by themselves within those two weeks...

The reason they went on is because she had an abscess at the breakers. She has had abscesses all her life (6 in one year) due to a weak white line and it's because she was out of kilter with her nutrients. She had alfalfa, but this seemed to tip her calcium over the top due to the grass here being so good in calcium. Since I took her off that I have not had a problem.

First, look at the nutrients I would say... test your grass against what you feed her. My mare hasn't had a single supplement apart from salt since last year and we go across all terrain on the cotswold way. Every horse is different. The bits of stone in her white line now is harmless and aids our traction believe it or not and wild horse studies show that the wild herds in America have a lot of tiny stones in their white line, even in the elderly horses so it must serve a function as long as it is a between the ground level and the very first few mm's of hoof wall.

Thank you. Will have a look at getting his grazing tested. I think my way foreward with this one is at the moment to shoe until the holes have grown out, they are very deep. Sort out his diet and get my other ones feet better then go back to him. Focus on one at a time if that makes sense.