HELP!!! please newly barefoot and seriously sore/lame

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exracer superstar

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My mare had her shoes off yesterday and seemed to cope fine for the first few hours. I have been thinking bout going barefoot for a while but now she is injured and on 6 weeksbox rest it has fitted in perfectly. She was sound as a pound yesterday with shoes brought her out this morning and she's lame and taking baby steps, is this normal?? She is 13 and an exracer and has been shod as long as I know so I know this will be odd for her but worried about how sore and the fact she's lame.

She's currently fed; fibrebeet, sugar beet, oats, barley, micronised linseed and herbi chop. She's extremely fussy and a very poor doer so any fed changes need to be high calorie. Oh she has ad lib haylage to

I am willing to perservere with barefoot as she is on two weeks complete box rest still then starts up 5mins walking for her injury which will coinside with building her hooves(i hope).

How long should I expect her to be this lame and sore for that's what is worrying me the most and is this normal?

Any help/info is greatly appreciated
 
I put my tb straight into boots and pads for the first week. Doing it this way he was sound straight away I then progressed to keeping them off for turnout and only using them for hacking.
 
i am not an expert but your feeding may not be ok for going without shoes. i dont understand this rush for all horses to go without shoes. i will prob be shot down but i feel that not all horses can be comfortable without shoes without the dedication to get the feed , type of excercise, amount of rich grazing etc all correct which you can see from the numerous posts.

sounds like you need to put boots on to start with otherwise you are making your horse too sore to recover from the original injury....maybe just on fronts as the hinds usually cope better. good luck..
 
How experienced is the hoof care professional that is helping you take your horse barefoot?

Did they trim the hooves at all when the horse was deshod? Are the hooves contracted, thin soled or thrushy?

Diet seems not too bad but is the sugar beet unmolassed? I'd lose the barley and replace if necessary with Copra.

Can you post photos?
 
I'm not sure to be honest it was just my regular farrier as she has had them taken off through being on 6 months box rest. Yes he trimmed the hooves a fair bit I would say. I don't think it's unmollased sugar beet I will have to check tomorrow. Will also get some pics tomorrow and post them. I had wondered if she could have thrush so put some hydrogen peroxide on them tonight
 
LucyPriory said:
How experienced is the hoof care professional that is helping you take your horse barefoot?

Did they trim the hooves at all when the horse was deshod? Are the hooves contracted, thin soled or thrushy?

Diet seems not too bad but is the sugar beet unmolassed? I'd lose the barley and replace if necessary with Copra.

Can you post photos?
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had a quick look, no the current fibre beet isnt unmollased however will change it over as due a new bag this weekend. Her feet are very flat with a tiny frog even though she stands at 16.1 if there is no improvement by early next week i will consider re shoeing as i dont want to hinder her tendon injury recovery
 
cptrayes said:
If your horse is on box rest for six months just leave her without shoes and keep going. One day is nothing and it is pointless to shoe a horse on box rest.
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thanks im just conscious of wanting her to be able to go barefoot after although it isnt the end of the world if she can't.
 
I would agree with swapping to unmolassed beet and losing the barley. Whats in the herbi chop?

Also if the farrier took a lot off then this may well be what has made her so very sore, as after so long in shoes her feet will be very weak.

A decent mineral supplement may help as well.
 
Getting her feet right will help her tendon injury, I had a horse in on box rest with a tendon injury, he arrived with rubbish feet, no frogs they were being eaten away by thrush, after 6 weeks they had improved beyond all recognition, the frogs had more than doubled in size, daily washing before and after his walks really helped with the thrush and his soles became thicker and concave with the stimulation of walking on different surfaces.
I kept him on adlib haylage, fast fibre and supplements, he gets linseed to help his weight.
 
I know you said your mare is a poor doer but oats and barley are really not suitable for a horse on box rest, shod or unshod.
 
RobinHood said:
I know you said your mare is a poor doer but oats and barley are really not suitable for a horse on box rest, shod or unshod.
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agreed and I know that herbi chop is high in sugar I *think* it was about 15% sugar as this one one I looked in to.

How much micronised linseed are you feeding? Is there scope to increase that?
 
is she on a deep bed? if sore she needs to be-it is a welfare issue otherwise. other options are bute or putting shoes on.
 
I agree - deep bed and preferably one made of shavings.

Shoes are unlikely to help the tendon injury, but allowing your horse to dig their limbs into a deep bed so they can adopt the most comfortable angle for themselves should make them more comfortable.

I suspect the trim was unhelpful. You also have to allow for the 'pins and needles' effect that some newly deshod horses experience. This normally only lasts a day or two, but for one of my own it lasted a week.

Photos please, close up side on and views of the soles.
 
She always has a deep straw bed aproximatly a foot deep in the bed area with higher banks surrounding her, have got some bute from the vet which will be picked up tomorrow this was mainly for the tendon but will have another use now to, it was the vet who suggested taking the shoes off. I appreciate oats and barley are not a good diet for a boxrested horse however until last week she was a competition horse who competed most weekends I am deacreasing the oats etc she is down to one scoop per day now , she has two mugs of micronised linseed per day at the moment, the precise name of the chaff she gets is mollichaff herbal with garlic, says it's low in sugar but probably isn't after looking at some others lol. Any recommendations for a mineral supplement( have read about salt?) Brand name, and a low sugar chaff appreciated I am apprehensive to change her feed to much as she is unbelievably fussy to the point where she will starve herself for days if I try to change anything in her feed this includes adding apples and carrots :( however I understand I can decrease sugars by feeding unmollassed sugarbeet and chaff. Will post pics tomorrow
 
Pro hoof or pro balance from progressive earth on eBay are good. Not sure on the chaff but I use copra to put on weight on my mare they can take a few days to like it then they love it.

When my mare had her shoes off I made the farrier leave her feet so she could wear them herself, but on box rest she probably won't anyway.
 
Will have a look at Copra and the supplement due feeds within the next week or so anyway. I assumed he was just tidying them up as he took what he would take off before reshoeing I'm guessing it's just the fact the shoes aren't there. Like previously said though will 're shoe if she is still as sore over the next week as its not fair
 
exracer superstar said:
Like previously said though will 're shoe if she is still as sore over the next week as its not fair
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It sounds like you're not quite ready to take your horse barefoot as yet. You have the will but not the commitment - you probably need to do more research and reading and preparation.
If your vet recommended or suggested you take off the shoes, I'm guessing there was a reason for that and so your horse will be ready to go barefoot as soon as you are. The owner HAS to be ready first.

Good places to research are www.hoofrehab.com - read the articles
http://www.rockleyfarm.co.uk/
of course Lucy's blog http://barefoothorseblog.blogspot.co.uk/

Good luck, ;)

Oh yes of course and http://phoenixhorse.myfastforum.org/index.php for advice as well as here
 
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LucyPriory said:
Diet seems not too bad but is the sugar beet unmolassed? I'd lose the barley and replace if necessary with Copra.

Can you post photos?
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so glad I didnt post before reading this! What she said^^^ Copra will def cover the calorie requirement. Also check the herbi chop for molasses...
 
My horse is on 3 months box rest for a tendon injury and my vet instructed shoes to come off and toes trimmed back to take the strain off the tendon. (My mare has also had PRP treatment.)
At the same time I had to rethink her diet - to get the sugar/starches out and fibre in - and it occurred to me that this would be a great opportunity to transition to barefoot. So...I've switched her to adlib haylage (meadow haylage) and token feeds of fast fibre with Pro Balance + thanks to reading the plethora of advice on here. I am hoping that the rehab exercise (when we start in a few weeks time) will be good for her feet as well as the tendon. That is the plan anyway! It is a work in progress.

I would ask vet for advice on foot soreness before resorting to reshoeing. With 6 months of box rest ahead you will have loads of time to fix the diet and do your research on barefoot to decide if it is what you want to do. As well as the Rockley site and the other links posted above I would recommend 'Feet First' by Nic Barker and Sarah Braithwaite as a good introduction to barefoot. Hope that helps. Good luck with it!
 
Is stop the cereals asap, box rest plus cereal feed is high risk for tying up.
I'd feed adlib hay, something like alfabeet plus oil, linseed meal and a high spec suppliment like pro balance and yeasacc.
A horse on box rest won't be expending much energy so you will probably have to reduce that down
 
exracer superstar said:
Will have a look at Copra and the supplement due feeds within the next week or so anyway. I assumed he was just tidying them up as he took what he would take off before reshoeing I'm guessing it's just the fact the shoes aren't these 4. Like previously said though will 're shoe if she is still as sore over the next week as its not fair
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How sore can she be on box rest on a deep bed for goodness sake??? She is going to have enough problems with not getting any movement, the last thing she needs is the blood supply to her feet reduced by shoes as well.
 
Little update she isn't as sore today, day 3 of the shoes off she is now off all cereals. And just ad lib hay, fibrebeet, unmollassed sugarbeet which is actually cheaper at my local feed suppliers than the mollassed stuff, and linseed + chaff. I couldn't understand y she was so horrendously sore bit she really was as soon as she moved off her bed (eg when mucking out) she was just constantly shifting about, but this morning u could tell she was still touchy but quite happy to be stood on the hardground. Will post some pics today to see if anyone can notice anything tht may be contributing. Thanks again
 
My tb was the same, but my Irish was absolutely fine. You couldn't pick out my tb's feet unless he was stood in his stable (we have deep pile rubber matting). Probably something to do with the blood flow coming back after having shoes off and actually being able to feel their feet, she will be uncomfortable for a couple of weeks initially, you'll be surprised how quickly things change. My farrier used to trim mind but now I have a UKNHCP trimmer, I definitely recommend looking at their list and finding one that covers your area. My farrier was brilliant but was trimming the foot the look aesthetically pleasing rather than what the horse needed.
 
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