Front shoes off

holeymoley

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18 November 2012
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This is been in my mind for a while now. I think I even posted about it a few months ago and then chickened out at the last minute. Horse is IR, had a very bad experience of laminitis a few years ago and was touch and go. He was in heartbars for 9months while we corrected the balance and trim of the hoof and allowed new hoof to grow down. All corrected and he’s been back in normal shoes now for the last 2 years. 90% of his life he’s been barefoot behind and copes well but he’s always been shod in front(he’s 19). Now, I am tempted to take the fronts off, as I’ve learnt a bit more about hooves- I think his heels may be slightly contracted. I want his frog to do the job it was designed for. However, I’m worried that if his white line is still stretched that there’s a risk of infection/abscessing or that he’s just plain lame. His rotation is 0, so he should technically not have a stretched white line… his hooves don’t look bad to the eye at all, I would just like to see how he goes without shoes now that his body has had an overhaul. I have boots too. Please let me know your thoughts. Am I mad? Am I worrying too much? I do think along the lines of if ‘it’s not broken then don’t fix it’ but then, what if this is actually better for him too? Farrier due tomorrow…

Oh, I also have red horse fieldpaste etc etc I can plaster over white line and sole.
 

Equi

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Depends how good your farrier is at barefoot trimming. Is the horse already on a decent barefoot diet? Hoof boots can often help a lot with the transition.
 

Pinkvboots

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I use a regular farrier for my barefoot horse I just ask him to not trim the frogs or sole as a lot of farriers will trim the frog as a matter of course, I also use hoof armour in the summer months when the tracks are hard and stony.
 
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