Experience of barefoot rehab not working and reasons why please

[mastermax]

I have spent many hours researching barefoot rehab for navicular treatment and have read many success stories. I cant seem to find too much info on the cases where it doesnt work. The reason for the question is not for a debate on remedial shod vs barefoot but only for the purpose that I personally can make an informed decision regarding my own horses future.
Does anyone have any experiences on taking the barefoot route be it Rockley or at home or other rehab yard where the change over hasnt worked. Also, if it failed to work what do you think the reasons were.
Many thanks for reading and hopefully replying.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

If the horse has Cushings or other metabolic issues, that can cause a BF rehab to fail.

 

[Michen]

So many reasons it can fail. Mine sort of failed I guess, in the sense that I had him put to sleep last week and had to re shoe him in easycare shoes (the best alternative to barefoot I could find) because he just wasn't coping with the hard ground. Having said that his feet improved ten fold from going barefoot, but they were so incredibly compromised that combined with other issues it made it difficult.

I would suggest taking shoes off when you have as long a time as possible with soft ground (so autumn) if you have a thin soled horse. And be prepared to boot.

If I have another horse in the future with any sort of foot problem, or warning signs or generally rubbish feet their shoes will be coming off in a nano second.

Reasons for barefoot failure I would think:

Some sort of metabolic problem
Unable to provide correct environment
Diet not right
Other problems adding to the navicular
Not enough movement

 

[Goldenstar]

One of mine had a deviated foreleg although the BF period did help us get his feet to where they needed to be optimal to cope with his issue it was clever shoeing that kept him sound in work .

 

[mastermax]

Michen so sorry for your loss, have followed his story. Thank you all for your really informative replies. We currently have remedial shoes and gel pads and he is sound (crosses fingers so as not to tempt fate) at the moment and has gradually improved. He is on very limited grazing and a high fibre, no sugar or starch diet but I want to be prepared for the future. He is not insured now for his navicular so any rehab, I would seriously have to look at finances and sacrifices elsewhere.
Thank you again.

 

[Orangehorse]

So long as the horse is comfortable when turned out without shoes it is quite OK to use boots for hacking. Then you have the advantage of both. You couldn't show, obviously, but if you only wanted to hack it would be the solution. I am not up to date as to what competitions you can enter with boots - I think maybe dressage and endurance and Trec.

 

[wyrdsister]

One of mine has failed bf rehab, in the sense that she is now reshod up front. I wouldn't really call it a failure, though, more a useful part of a constant work in progress. LP has paper thin soles & very slight counterrotation of her pedal bones, which cause navicular symptoms. I initially took her bf after the complete failure of various remedial shoeing endeavours also failed (horse got less & less sound the more mechanical intervention happened). She stayed field sound & light work sound in boots up front for several years, though went in & out of work with other issues.

More recently, she's developed IR, which isn't responding very well to diet &/or medication, & her soles have degenerated again. Boots started to rub & cause problems while she had to go on full livery for a while, so she's back in very simple toe clip shoes. Pads of any kind, wedges, or side clips leave her crippled. I am well aware we're masking a problem rather than solving it, but since I'm mostly buying time with her for as long as she's bright & happy, I'm resigned to that.

So, shorter version, bf has given her a better quality of, & chance at life than she'd have had without. For us, though, it's been part of a journey not a magic wand.

 

[Boulty]

I'd guess at main reasons for failure being the horse having metabolic issues or having extreme problems with grass sensitivity that aren't practical for the owner to manage in the setup they have available. I'd guess having other physical conditions eg arthritis, kissing spines, random injuries running alongside could also cause rehab to "fail" in that they could cause retirement not related to foot problems. I'm also guessing that there probably is the odd combination of injuries that may not be totally fixable. I'd say issues putting in appropriate management and diet is probably a biggie though.

It's taken a heck of a lot of work to get mine to the stage he's at now (back in full work and completed a level 2 trec competition last weekend and an approx 8 mile hack today in mostly trot and canter) including an awful lot of handwalking on roads even after he came back from Rockley a year ago (took a lot of tinkering to find what worked for him enough to allow re-commencement of ridden work! This was down to grazing not really being massively suitable where I am combined with him not coping well with extra grass or hay that hadn't been soaked long enough). It can be a big time commitment that takes months / years to start giving some rewards and not everyone can / wants the inconvenience of not being able to do what they want to do with their horse whilst waiting for the horse to heal. It's not a quick fix and perhaps not everyone that goes into it realises that there's a lot more to it all than just whipping the shoes off and hoping for the best

 

[ihatework]

My old cushings TB has been fully retired for a good 5/6 years, unshod, and up until this spring has coped reasonably well. He was a bit dodgy last summer and then had laminitis this spring. I haven't been able to get him comfortable enough on his feet for my liking and was dithering over PTS, popped some shoes on as a last resort and his comfort levels & soundness is so much better, to the point I'm wondering if I should dust off a saddle for him!!!

 

[planete]

Another reason for failure can stem from wrong/inadequate trimming. Not all barefoot trimmers are equal and some have downright weird ideas or no idea how to trim a horse with limb deviations. I have finally found a farrier who is brilliant at balancing my horse' s tricky feet and they are now amazing.