Developing better barefoot hooves

[Caol Ila]

My Highland is barefoot and has never seen a shoe in his life. At 10, I'd rather not start. When I first viewed him back in July, he was quite footy over rocky trails, but luckily Gypsum's Scoot boots fit him, so on a subsequent viewing, I was able to see how he went booted up. He'd just had a trim by former owner's farrier, and his sole was really flat. Not sure why he had as much foot taken off as he did.

A month or so later, I have found that the boots are rubbing and pinching. Happened with Gypsum too. The foot grows to a point where the fit isn't brilliant anymore. Today and yesterday, I tried him barefoot in the park. He was a lot better than he was back in July, but not 100%. There were a few short stretches of particularly rocky trail that he didn't like very much.

I'm wondering if you barefoot experts have any advice for day-to-day management stuff that would help him develop tougher feet (other than finding a good barefoot farrier...I'm working on it). Diet? Just keep riding? He gets no hard feed at the moment, and turn-out is what it is since I don't own the yard. He's on a hilly field with some rocks at night, and he's in during the day.

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

Not a barefoot expert at all but when mine first had his shoes removed my farrier recommended painting keratex hoof hardener all over the bottom of his hooves.

He can be a little more sensitive on rocky tracks the day after a trim so I use the hoof hardener in advance of a trim. Other farriers leave him a little longer after a trim to avoid the soreness but it means short intervals between trims because he gets flares which can cause cracks.

ETA: you've already covered the foundations of nutrition and work.

 

[Caol Ila]

Keratex! Duh. I used to use it on Gypsum because she was unshod behind. Had a bit of a Keratex spillage disaster (not good) but might still have some.

 

[SBJT]

Yup am another one with a flat footed monster. Keratex for good hardening and biotin for quality improvement. That’s all I can think of.

 

[ycbm]

Mineral balancing. Bespoke ideally but Forageplus balancer by next preference, easier and it works.
.

 

[Griffin]

Red Horse products are really useful for improving and maintaining hooves (with or without shoes).

You need to improve the quality of hoof too through nutrition. A bespoke mineral balancer is best or Forage Plus or Progressive Earth. Having said both of those, if you want an 'off the shelf' one you can pick up in a feed store, Spillers Lite & Lean balancer is a good spec (it's what I feed my barefoot mare because she won't eat powder). Alternatively, you could try a specific hoof supplement, I have had good results with Feedmark's Hardy Hoof with a horse with very poor hooves.

 

[Zuzan]

Diet is key .. learning what you can get away with and what you cannot.. I know for instance un mogloed lucerne / alfa is ok for my horse but I know loads that aren't at all ok with lucerne..

Don't feed anything with MoGlo in it .. or molasses

Understand what mineral supplement will work for your horse.. I know for instance that my horse is great on the basic mineral supplement Pro Earth Pro Mineral which is a basic Cu Zn and Se mineral supplement I then simply add in Natural Vit E powder as neccessary and MagOx

Without pics of hooves it's hard to tell what could be improved etc .. but generally sensitivity over ground is an indication of either and or all:

Sole inflamation (sometimes called sub clinical laminitis or low grade laminitis)
little concavity which is sometimes part of the above issue and sometimes related to trimming or other mechanical limitations in hoof form.
Deep infected Central Sulcus
Not enough heel

I would suggest investing in the Essential Hoof Book (even if you end up shoeing).

The other aspect is that hooves need to get fit in the same way muscles do .. as in regular work over different surfaces to help them develop. Hooves that live on pasture and don't get chance a to work on other surfaces can't really be expected to perform on tougher surfaces..

ETA Oh and topical stuff like keratex aren't really that helpful .. you will get hard hooves from the above .. incrementallly increasing work over varied surfaces and incrementally increasing work on tougher surfaces.

 

[Kat]

Buy a rasp and keep on top of growth so the scoots fit in between trims or buy a second pair of boots that are a bit more forgiving fit wise and switch between them as you see fit.

I have Cavallo boots, they are very forgiving, though a bit clumpy. EPS pads in them help stimulate the hoof even when booted.

 

[Caol Ila]

When I first saw the horse, I didn't ride him (he was in a field with something that could not be left on its own) but I looked at his feet and he had a concave sole. On my second viewing, about five days later, he'd seen the trimmer the day before and his sole was as flat as a pancake. Really not sure what went on there.

If I was to get a Forageplus balancer, would I would get one labeled as a "hoof balancer" one of the more general ones for good doers? Too many choices.

I can take photos of his feet tomorrow (provided that I remember) if that will be of any use.

 

[laura_nash]

Avoid Keratex and similar IMO. Hoof Armour works but isn't cheap and if you have boots that fit then shouldn't be needed.

Rasping yourself between trims would keep the boots fitting and help the hooves (the more small and frequent the wear the better). If you don't want to rasp, some work out of boots on smooth tarmac (if comfortable) should also keep them from getting too long.

Make absolutely sure there's no thrush. Red Horse products are good for this, though I also find basic hoof spray from the farm coop effective.

Other than that its diet (how important this is seems to vary horse to horse) and regular, comfortable work.

 

[Caol Ila]

If you rasp yourself, how do you figure out how not to mess up the balance? Can you mess it up?

 

[Zuzan]

Yes it is possible to mess it up.. personally I wouldn't attempt to rasp until you had a good understanding of the internal structures and mechanics of hooves.. The Pete Ramey dvd's are excellent as is the book I recommended above.. I also learnt a bit from the farrier who used to trim my horse's hooves..

 

[paddy555]

If you rasp yourself, how do you figure out how not to mess up the balance? Can you mess it up?

ask your trimmer to show you how. If the hooves had concavity when you first saw them but not after trimming did they really have concavity or was it because the feet were longer (before trimming) and appeared concave.

 

[Caol Ila]

Could be either, to be fair. I looked at a horse in a field and thought, "Aye, concave." I remember the thought more than what they actually looked like. Eyewitness testimony notoriously sucks.

 

[laura_nash]

If you rasp yourself, how do you figure out how not to mess up the balance? Can you mess it up?

If you don't don't do too much at once you can't mess up too badly and it will grow back pretty quickly. It can go wrong more over time though which is why I was saying do a bit yourself between trims (with the professional trim as your guide to maintain) rather than totally yourself, to begin with at least. Unless you can't find anyone decent to do them of course.

 

[Gloi]

If you rasp yourself, how do you figure out how not to mess up the balance? Can you mess it up?

I tend to let him rasp them himself with road work and just run a rasp round the edges to tidy up. It keeps them a good length for the boots

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

I rasp myself in bet ween trims. I bought a pair of nippers, a good rasp and a hoof knife and I’m teaching myself how to keep the hooves good between trims.

Hoping to do an actual Course at some point so I can do my own constantly and my next purchase will be A hoof stand. It’s very interesting watching videos and learning as you go. Mine is trimmed every 8 weeks so the farrier is very much involved.

 

[pistolpete]

Depends so much on the horse. I used Trinity comsultants tendafoot with good results also used pro Earth pro hoof. I found as many do that footiness is closely related to sugars in grass. Winter was much easier than summer restricting grass and subsidising with hay helped a lot. Or use hoof boots. I used cavallos as scoots used to fly off!

 

[ycbm]

Avoid Keratex and similar IMO.

Keratex works and there's no problem with it, but I agree avoid it. It's 8% formaldehyde and you can get that hundreds of times cheaper by buying formaldehyde on ebay and watering it down to 8%.
.

 

[ycbm]

ETA Oh and topical stuff like keratex aren't really that helpful

Can be very helpful short term, ime. Especially just after shoes come off.

 

[tda]

I would just keep riding as much as you can, and must be on abrasive surfaces to condition the feet. I live on a stoney track and the other day my sister took the pony out for a walk, set off in boots half a mile on the stoney track , when they got to smooth tarmac, boots off, and walked 1.5 miles then this time she managed to walk down the stoney track home without boots on.
I think this pony is the only one I've had that has become so footy with thrush. Not that obvious but you can smell it.
I've used forageplus balancer before in a different pony, she would not eat the hoof one so maybe try the basic one first. This pony is on Simple systems metaslim which seems to be working ok.
I have a rasp but stick to just tidying up the edges so no worries on the balance

 

[Labaire]

Salt, Pro Earth Pro Hoof and movement. 10 mins even in hand on the roads will do wonders.

Treat for thrush-how is the central sulcus etc? Even if it not obvious, thrush can make them footy. A quick treatment is 1% povidine iodine diluted in water-good scrub for 5 minutes (this is kind of how surgical scrubs are done, its very effective anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and despite popular belief, will not damage tissue), let dry and then stick in some sudocreme.

I battle thrush in certain grazing due to sheep and footrot-the iodine scrub is the only thing that works effectively although I do rate the red horse stuff for prevention when on sheep-free grazing.

The radius pro rasp (the saddlery shop) can be useful to keep them neat and I dont see how anyone could do any damage with it.

 

[I'm Dun]

If you want a radius rasp, I will happily sell mine. I used it once for about a minute and have never picked it up again since!