For those of you with horses that don't wear shoes....

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Marilyn

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How much roadwork do you do a week and what do your horse's feet look like (in terms of hoof wall, soles, frog, etc.)?
 
He does between 2-5 hours a week and he has front shoes only and no chips at all on his back feet at all, they look the same as his fronts except without out shoes!
 
Dont ride them on roads, but they get longreins and walked on them alot
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Their feet are v.strong and both have never worn shoes
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Hope this helps
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mine mostly get ridden on the roads, she has such hard feet it sounds like she does have shoes, and her feet are fine. even hunt her with no shoes
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what sort of distance? I have two horses that don't wear shoes and although neither are footsore i am just keen to learn what other people do without shoes on the roads to make sure i am not doing too much.
 
Mine do about five hours on the road or on my arena, which is surfaced with grit. Then one of them hunts at weekends for four or five hours. You can't compare my mileage because I have one in five (VERY steep) hills to go up and down and that slows us down! My horse's feet are beautiful, textbook barefoot feet.
 
My horse had his shoes off in february and hasnt been touched by the farrier since. He checks him every six weeks and says he's ok. He probably doesnt like me any more now! My horse has tough feet and is very well balanced so wears them evenly.
 
Lots of roadwork - actual amount depends on when my next competition is but could easily do a couple of hours every day on average leading up to a 50 mile endurance race. I used to wear out a set of shoes in about three or four weeks - last year I had to use specially hardened shoes in order to make them last five weeks as reshoeing every four weeks was causing a problem with the hoof wall (too many nail holes). Now barefoot, doing the same amount of work, his feet look a lot healthier - no nail holes (obviously), sole is nice and concave and doesn't flake, frog has expanded and takes up easily a third of the foot, heel bulbs much larger and spongier, quality of the hoof wall is so much stronger and hoof wall itself is much thicker. Plus the benefits further up the leg - he used to get very filled legs after hard work but that problem has disappeared. Plus I don't have to worry about brushing injuries so no longer use any boots on his legs - he always used to get rubs on longer rides from brushing boots, so again this problem has been eliminated.
 
Good couple of miles a day, miminum.

One has totally non-textbook barefeet - very squint due to the way she walks, made more so by a 'correct' balancing trim. Very flat feet, one wall keeps flaring and she has various cracks.

But she is sound over EVERYTHING, does miles of road work, is never sore and grows enough hoof to need regular trimming. Lovely frogs. Depsite everything tried they won't change or 'improve' so she's allowed to keep her feet like that if she wants
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(before a trim - she has the excess length taken off, to the sole plane, which has combated the flare now)
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One has 'perfect' textbook feet. Truely lovely looking. Not a crack or chip in sight, beautifully balanced, lovely concavity, tight white line, decent frogs. Yet the bugger is a pansy and hops about if he stands on a stone. He's 100times better now he's doing more work but still needs boots occasionally.

(slighty different horse, but similar feet - this one still needs more de-contraction of the heels cause by years of shoeing)
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Other two have very similar feet (same type of horse - LW cobs). Grows like nothing on earth and has cm takes off every 6weeks, despite loads of road work. HUGE frogs but seems to get thrushy easily. Very thick walls but slight flare as they grown so fast. Never sore of sorry and bounce over anything happily.

What a frog SHOULD look like!
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My mare has not worn shoes on her back feet for 3 years now, and only sports fronts when the ground is hard.
Sadly, the heels on her back feet are still contracted after 3 years, and the collateral grooves are extremely deep. The central sulcus is also deep and tends towards thrush.
However - I could not get the hoof pick down the collateral grooves when she wore hind shoes and now they have expanded quite a lot. Much easier to pick out.
 
The only problem I've had on the road with unshod feet is when, for a short while, we were at a yard that had a really rough road surface around it. It was properly surfaced, but I think it must have been quite old because the 'binding substance' (tarmac?) seemed to have worn away and left the stones/chips standing proud. It was like a cheese grater to their feet. Thankfully we weren't there long as the yard in general was horrible! Otherwise their feet cope very well with the roads!
 
I rode my 4yr old barefoot TB on the road for the first time yesterday! Had to in order to get to the nearest bridleway!

It was 1 1/2 miles on the road each way. I was worried whether this would be too far for the first time.

He appeared to have no problems on the road and today he is absolutely fine too, doesn't appear to be footsore or anything.

I can see how it has worn the hoof wall down and can see the breakover point in his front toes too!

Apparently the road work increase the growth of the hoof so hopefully it does....

Am only really planning on this much once or twice a week for now.
 
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