going barefoot....convince me to take the plunge...sort of!

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tamsinkb

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My great galumphing TB has numerous issues with his hind legs.....arthitic hock due to previous joint infection, PSD, spavins, cellulitis.....plus he is such a clumsy dimbat he is constantly knocking himself. For the past couple of years he has been in special graduated heartbar shoes, which he has relatively little grip in , come off relatively easily and is constantly slipping on slopes and im not convinced they help him at all ( nor does my farrier, who made the suggestion to take shoes off completely). On top of this he grows no foot despite being on as close to a 'barefoot' diet as possible considering he has been described as an anorexic self harmer by the independant nutrionist...I was planning to change him into normal shoes next shoeing but am now thinking of taking his hinds off altogether. He is stabled on the South Downs and we do very little road work BUT there are some killer sharp flints around. His feet are hard compared to most TBs but I don't want to take his fronts off as well at the same time because I want to see if he copes without hinds (he has issues with his front feet as well....that's a different essay!)
I guess what I'm asking is...am I mad to even consider taking his hinds off? Whats the worst that could happen?
Any advice gratefully received!
 
Your farrier knows the horse and has suggested taking them off so I would go for it, having him on board will really help, my farrier is barefoot friendly and is more than happy to trim rather than shoe, you do need to give him some time to adjust and try not to panic if he gets a bit sore, look into getting some boots to help initially.
Doing some steady roadwork is beneficial and will stimulate growth so don't avoid it, build up slowly so his feet get stronger, I have a tb that came in with awful feet, he was resting due to injury when he came back into work the shoes stayed off and the feet which had started to improve while resting, change of diet and a decent trim helped, are now so much better he now has heels and frogs that didn't exist previously, you are at least starting with reasonable feet you should find they start to grow faster when they are stimulated more.
 
Am by no means an expert in this but if you do need convincing, for a clumsy horse as you describe him, the first thing I noticed when I had my horse's shoes off was how much better his foot placement is - so much more careful with pole work ie it might be beneficial in that way.
 
Put some feelers out about whether your vet is "barefoot-friendly". Mine hit the roof, called me all the names under the sun and also tried to diagnose the most ludicrous injury DUE TO BAREFOOT (it was an abcess natch.).
 
With any horse we take to barefoot we have the shoes removed 6 weeks after being shod and do not trim until 2 weeks later,this allows the horse to transition with out being foot sore .
 
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