For those of you who ride unshod

[Fii]

do your horses have realy good feet to start with, if not what did you do to improove them, can you ride on any surface? stoney ground, grit and tarmac, if you ride on the road a lot dont they wear down ?Realy interested in your opinions.

 

[gails]

My horses feet were c..p until, I urged my farrier to leave his shoes off.

So in answer to the question no, his feet were uterlay disgucting to start with.

We did not do loads of road work, and really stoney ground seemed to cause him discomfort, understandably!!!!

If you do loads of road work then yes they do wear down quickly, but, I am lucky we have loads of grassed area.

In my farriers wors' he used to have the worst feet on his books, and now they are near the top' and although not the done thing only have him trimmed once or twice a year becasue he needs to no more done to them

Why not see how you horse does after a month or so.

I would never have shoes again unless, the majority of the work was on tarmac

 

[_daisy_]

all 4 of my mares are barefoot. 2 had brilliant feet to start with but 2 didnt. 1 of them had paper thin soles and serious crack down one front foot and the other mare has major issues with her soles and walls. i fed magnesium to the 2 with issues and it helped them through the first stages of the transition.

the one with paper thin soles was ridden in hoof boots to start with on her fronts only but now hacks out without, she was pottery at first whn she crossed over stoney paths but due to plenty of raod work her soles are hardening up nicely so its not a major problem for her now. the other was happy to ride out on roads without boots so i started off gradually with her and she now has super hard feet and goes on any surface.

all my mares (well 3 out of the 4 as one is just in the process of being back but does go out on the roads lead from another horse) do plenty of road work. this promotes blood flow which in turn helps promote growth. ive never had a problem with them wearing their feet down too much and they can do about 1-2hrs road work each hack (approx 4-5 times a week)

 

[Fii]

So are you saying that road work can harden their feet?

 

[_daisy_]

it sure does. the way i explained it to my friend the other day is like this (very simple explanation): if you were to walk bare foot over stones your feet would be painful at first and youd be very reluctant to do it, and wanting to rush forward to get it over and done with very quicklyml but the more and more you walk bare foot on say tarmac/concrete to start with, then your skin would harden up making it easier for you to walk over the stoney area again. same with the horses feet. once the soles have pulled up then they are more accepting of the different grounds.

 

[spookypony]

Mine had cracked, overgrown, flat, flared hooves when I got him. He was footy at the beginning, probably because he hadn't had a trim in about 6 months, but quickly got better. His soles are now much more concave, and his flare has almost completely disappeared. Excepting a small infection, his hooves are in great shape now, and he'll happily go over any ground except sometimes really big gravel---and there, I think it's more that the gravel is moving around that makes him uncertain. He's fine on the road, and I was advised to include at least some roadwork to help his feet.

 

[mrblue]

yes i agree roadwork, gravel tracks are great for barefoot horses and although you may need to build it up gradually and for some horses use boots when you first pull the shoes. for boots for barefoot horses try renegades great for every type of riding

 

[hezza1]

Its not painfull walking over stones when you have shoes on !

 

[Alyth]

haveago - that's s because the reduced blood flow makes the hooves slightly numb.

 

[OneInAMillion]

to start off with their feet are sore but if you start feeding with supplement a month before and carry on for around a year the hooves grow much stronger and dont wear down so easily
on the roads they do wear down if you do lots of trotting but we try to get on grass verges and he can still have hurting feet on stones but then he was like that with shoes so could be anything really!!!!!!! (btw the farrier has checked and there isnt anything making him sore on stones!!)

 

[stormybracken]

Have a good look at the info. on www.performancebarefoot.co.uk before trying it, its been invaluable to me. My horses have been barefoot for two years without problems, but I now realise that was shear luck!