Help me stay bare foot

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lurcherlu

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Right ... This is covered so much on here but I still need advice. My 3 year old is newly broken, we are riding an hour minimum most days, mostly on Tarmac, with occasional muddy path or gravel track. I'm just hacking ATM and she does approx 5 minutes of trotting on each ride with very small canters once a week. She is an Appaloosa cross, her mum looks a bit like welsh Arab cross moorland type. Breezes feet can look fab if trimmed very often like every 4 weeks but she gets footy, so now I have left her 12 weeks and they seem much better t have been allowed to grow, but look a bit chipped. Now my point is I spent my teenage years working with my farrier as a groom, I know no foot no horse etc, but since her regular work load has increased her feet seem incredible, I use Carr day and Martin cornacresine daily dressing a couple of times a week ATM. I've never kept a ridden horse barefoot before.... So here's a few queries

1. What feeds shouldi be looking at I've heard good things about pro balance but is there something I can use in pace of this to start with as she is a fussy pants

2. I will not use a barefoot trimmer due to personal preference and all my insurance policy only allow me to use a farrier what kinds of trims do you ask your farrier for and how often on average are they trimmed

3. What supplements do you recommend


4. Do you use any hoof oils? Hoof gels etc

5. I know the best thing to encourage foot growth is regular exercise , is Tarmac the best conditioning surface

6. She stabled at night and out by day on rubbish old grass, I can't turnout 24 hours a day as we just do t have the space , if we are riding approx 4 miles 3 times a week and up to 8 miles 2 times a week and probably 2 days off is there any thing else needed to do exercise wise,

7 do al bare foot roses need boots on at some stage ? If so what are the best ones

thanks guys

strawberry laces and clotted cream fudge for all that have got this far
 
Exercise will self trim, chips are natures way of getting rid of the flares, you could save her feet a bit by riding on verges where possible. As long as she is sound should be okay. Others will advise further as they know more than me about barefoot diet etc.
 
Treat her like a normal horse, if she is happy and working well keep the shoes off and if you need them put them on. Simples!
 
1. Unmolassed chaff or fast fibre as a base, micronised linseed, salt, pro hoof/pro balance/forage plus balancer.

2. don't make them look pretty. Do not touch the sole or frog (as I suspect he is doing), just a rasp to round the chippings off.

3. any of the min/vit supps mentioned in 1. Extra mag ox, brewers yeast and salt if needed.

4. No.

5. Any and every surface, keep it varied. You may need hoof boots for long stony hacks.

6. Sounds fine to me.

7 No, many don't. If you need some for stony ground I like Cavallo Simples.


There we go, short and sweet lol
 
Thanks guys it sometimes gets made to sound a lot more complicated , I know it's not always easy or possible, but I though seeing as though everything else I've done with her has been done right from the start I'd like t keep shoes off as long as possible if not forever
 
lurcherlu said:
Thanks guys it sometimes gets made to sound a lot more complicated , I know it's not always easy or possible, but I though seeing as though everything else I've done with her has been done right from the start I'd like t keep shoes off as long as possible if not forever
Click to expand...

IMO, with the right diet and exercise it is possible. My TB is just fine without, but is micromanaged to keep her this way. The alternative is to adopt a BF diet, shoe but have a break from shoes a few months out of the year. The constant shoeing without a break and the feeding of sugary crap commercial feeds is what creates poor feet IMO.
 
And just to add: if your horse is stabled part of the time you might want to consider bringing in during the day and putting out at night when the sugar levels in the grass are lower.
 
Thanks I was going to ask this about in by day instead, she's on fibre nuggets ATM and fast fibre too, I like wet feeds, but she like a bit of crunch been researching balances, what's everyone's views on blue chip especially lami light ?
 
I can't comment on Blue Chip sorry, and I'm no expert by any means but here are some tips I've picked up from the Rockley articles and from more knowledgeable people on here.

Check the white bag label for starch and sugar content as well as things best avoided, like molasses (not easy, I know).

A useful thread on popular base feed ingredients is here: http://phoenixhorse.myfastforum.org/ftopic30-0-asc-0.php

Use a good balancer. I use Pro Balance +. Popular with barefooters, it's available from Progressive Earth on ebay: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Progressive-Earth/Vitamins-Minerals-Amino-acids-/_i.html?_fsub=1819977018 It's balanced to target known, common deficiencies in UK grazing (eg copper, magnesium) unlike those produced by the big-name feed companies which are balanced to textbook proportions.
Again - compare ingredients and see for yourself.

Do lots of searching and reading on this forum - you will find that many/most of the usual BF queries have already been covered.
 
1. My four have unmollassed sugar beet, TopSpec Lite balancer and plain salt. And grass pellets in winter if extra condition needed. And ad-lib grazing/hay.

2. Mine are trimmed every 6 weeks, I tidy up any snags etc between trimmer visits. The two who are working hard need very little trimming.

3. Salt, extra vitamin E in winter.

4. Nope!

5. Tarmac is good for conditioning but it's good to mix it up as much as possible.

6. Exercise plan sounds good!

7. I boot if I know I'm going to be riding on very stoney tracks, Easyboot Epics.

Good luck!
 
I find 3 the worst age for barefoot horses, followed by 4 and then 5. At 3 they are often brilliant, sound as a pound and able to do anything. Then things go downhill (dependent on the breed/age they mature at)
I think the reason is that up to 3 they are putting a lot of food into growth. Then people often still let them have the same amount of food (including grass) and they don't need so much for growth so they start getting slightly fatter and the feet get a little worse.

The other problem for 3 and 4yo's is that exercise is the key to it all but at 3 and even perhaps 4 ridden exercise, ie distance at speed, is limited.

So for me it would be to cut the food right back but to give a vitamin and mineral hoof supplement to make sure the horse has everything needed to grow good feet. I would avoid balancers like for eg Top spec as you are not looking to put weight on just supplement minerals. I would also consider supplementary magnesium if there was insufficient in the supplement.

Then I would try and get as much movement into the horse as possible. One way would be on a track in the field which does get them to move more and another would be leading off another horse when perhaps you could bet some trotting in, loose schooling, anything to get exercise.

I wouldn't even be thinking about boots. No point unless you need them If the horse starts to need boots I would be working out why and what I needed to change in the management rather than booting.

If they chip don't worry about trimming but just run a sanding block around them when you get back from riding. Takes only minutes and is very cheap to do. That will keep them looking reasonable until the next trim.
Good luck.
 
Sanding block sounds like a brilliant idea, my farrier does this to his own barefoot horses before shows etc too, so something to consider. I used to rasp her feet to tidy chips when she was a yearling and never needed her trimmed, she has to walk about 500 metres to her field along Tarmac and gravel. I can't make a track in her field as its rented and she shares with cows part of the day, I think they would just crap on the path lol. Her condition score is 3 I don't like them fat especially when they are young as its just added weight and pressure on underdeveloped joints. She is an Appaloosa cross, I know these are slow to azure too at around the 5-7 year mark. This is something to take into consideration with her feet and the feeding for barefoot, good tip about food reduction when growth slows down thanks
 
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