Help with feeding for barefoot

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alex_mac30

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Hi All

I am after some advice for helping my horse go barefoot, he is 13 15hh and a tbxcon. He has been without his front shoes about 4 months now (backs off a year with no problems) be is fine on concrete and in the field but over stones he is still really footy. He looks really lame and pottery then fine once over the stones. If possible I would like to keep his fronts off.

He doesn't have great feet they don’t seem to grow much. I am putting cornucrescine on a couple of times a week.
He is out 24 hours at the moment on grass in the day and the winter field at night (still has a small amount of grass) I feed him once a day. He gets 3/4 scoop of dengie (either the hi-fi lite or the hi-fi good do-er) and on the top spec lite balancer plus some magnesium.
He is currently in light work but even when that’s upped he has never struggled for energy, he is a pretty good doer. He looks good at the moment, just the hit of ribs when he moves and no fat pads so far this year.
Any suggestions on what I should add or take away from his diet?
Thanks
M
 
After lots of juggling around with mine, I give them Thunderbrook base mix (1 cup) with a handful of their dried grass chaff, soaked, and ad lib hay , when needed. It is the only feed I've tried that keeps them consistently non footy and I don't need to add anything else.
 
I feed mine a combination of the following depending on condition, time of year, workload etc:
Unmollased beet
Copra
Alfa pellets
Oats
Linseed

Plus mineral balancer (I'm feeding equivita at the moment), additional magnesium, turmeric and salt.

I do think you can get away with a less than perfect diet if you can condition the feet with the right type of work but it sounds like your horse is struggling so getting diet sorted sounds like a good place to start.
 
Thanks for the replies. I just have to add he can have noting that is heating, so I think oats would be out :) What do people think of the balancers, I started giving it to him a few years ago as I was restricting his grazing due to too much rich grass and I was worried he would be missing out on vits and minerals. Do people think they are worth the money?
 
I used to feed Top spec, when my horse was shod and I do feel they are worth it. I like my horses to be in gleaming good health - but for barefoot I prefer the Thunderbrook. Their website has a comparison page if you want to check out what exactly you are feeding.
 
Does that work out ok? do you do a big order or can you just do one sack? I only have one horse so wouldnt be ordering lots
Thanks
 
I only do one sack at a time. i think it would cost me as much in fuel to drive to a feedstore and I often get it delivered next day which is brilliant given my location. They are very helpful if you need advice.
 
There are some really excellent threads in the vet section with regards to feeding for barefoot, also the phoenix barefoot forum has excellent advise and a brilliant document with all 'foot friendly' feeds in it.

You basically want to cut sugar from his diet, as this is what is most likely causing the footiness.

My horse is a good doer in the winter and poor in the winter, though has thrived even in winter since I have changed her diet to a foot friendly diet.

I feed Spillers High fibre cubes, speedi beet, micronised linseed and forage plus foot balancer in the summer (with joint supplement also) and then Alfa a molasses free, cubes, speedi beet and linseed at higher quantities!

I would strongly recommend you look at the forage plus website for their balancers which have healthy feet as a priority- my horse has never looked so well since she has been on it and is now rock crunching where before she was very sore. I have used top spec previously and don't rate it compared to FP.

You may also want to think about muzzling him in the field and soaking your hay if he is on good grazing, as there will be plenty of sugar in the grass at the moment- it has been perfect grass growing weather.

Good Luck!
 
Topspec lite has only 500mg zinc and 200mg copper per kilo, which is really a bit too low assuming you're feeding about 500gms a day.
Most good hoof specific supplements provide at least double that amount and I found that these 2 minerals, fed in the correct ratio (approx 2:1) made the most difference to my barefoot cob, alongside a low sugar diet :)
 
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Thanks, thats interesting to know, I will look at different feeds. The forage plus sounds interesting, Im moving him in a couple of weeks so will wait till he is in his new home so I can test the grass and hay there.
Thanks
 
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