help - barefoot and sore behind

[Ella19]

Please can I get some advice. My mare has been barefoot for a year now and been absolutely fine. We have been hunting and she is usually footy for a day or two, but our last hunt was mad through unchartered woodland and stony tracks. As a result pony is very foot sore behind. Now I'm not adversed to shoes and would put them on fronts but I'm reluctant to shoe allround if all it will take is time or a few changes.

It has been a week now since hunting. She is fine on soft ground but anything remotely stoney and she,almost tip toes with her hinds. Any suggestions? I tried boots and she hated them. Kicking out. Is it just a case of waiting until the bruising goes and sticking to the school, or can I help her in any way?

 

[abitodd]

What are you feeding?
Are you sure it is the feet,not soreness higher up?
I would suggest rest,but with regular gentle movement i.e.24/7 turnout and perhaps a vet or physio check.
But bumping for the big guns

 

[noblesteed]

My horse had a bruised sole on one of his forefeet last summer after throwing a shoe and standing on some stones, and it took about a month to heal. My farrier said poultice for a few days, salt tub daily and then after that I used arnica gel on the foot and fed arnica too. I did panic at first and box rested for a week so that may have speeded up healing! So if it is just bruising it will take a good few weeks to heal.

 

[Ella19]

She lives out. Def sore feet as sound as a pound on mud or sandschool!

 

[wellsat]

What are you feeding?

I'll second this, what you feed can make a big difference.

 

[Ella19]

She is on safe and sound and livery pencils. She has been on this all year. Supplemented with Naf superflex and global herbs pollenx

 

[LucyPriory]

I would agree - look to the feed. And also the regular work load. I attend a lot of hard working barefoot horses and a day's hunting should not make a horse sore in their hind feet.

 

[Oberon]

I'd like to see some pics (ground side and solar views).

 

[Ella19]

Oberon - will do but won't see her until next Saturday now

Lucy - this was no ordinary hunt, I won't be going out with them again. New master ended up with galloping on hard stony forestry commission tracks, then going off pieste into woodland littered with mulch and logs, branches with spikes. It was lethal, everyone was checking legs!

 

[wellsat]

She is on safe and sound and livery pencils. She has been on this all year. Supplemented with Naf superflex and global herbs pollenx

Do you know the sugar and starch levels in the S&S and the livery pencils? I was feeding high fibre nuts thinking they'd be fine and was quite shocked when I looked at the ingredients and discovered they had mollasses in them.

 

[cptrayes]

I would agree - look to the feed. And also the regular work load. I attend a lot of hard working barefoot horses and a day's hunting should not make a horse sore in their hind feet.

If I did not keep my boy's feet conditioned with the work he does during the week he would never manage to gallop over tracks made of broken brick without coming back with bruising.

If the horse is only footie after hunting then I would not question not the food in this case, but the amount of exposure to work that will build strong soles that the horse is doing during the week. My set up is that my horse is moving 24/7 unless he is asleep, and some horses need that level of constant work to produce feet strong enough to cope with the demands of hunting over the worst surfaces.

OP if your horse was always footie after hunting and is just worse this time, I think you either need to shoe or to reconsider your work if that is possible, and get more miles into your horses feet. I do realise that you may simply not have time for that, in which case I think you should shoe.

 

[marc]

I agree with shoeing in this case, you will be amazed at how much better your horse will feel with 3/8" of steel between itself and the ground.

The ground will only get harder from now on and soreness increase no matter what you feed. Best of luck

 

[lottie940]

Just having the same problem with my boy. My farrier told me to get Keratex hoof hardener to paint onto the sole and hoof walls near to the toe. Do not put it anywhere else on the hoof (ie coronet band frog or heel bulbs.)