Help with Irish Draught Feet PLEASEEEEEE!!

[cptrayes]

ID's were bred to eat airballs and bubbles and be fat. If yours is one like it, they can be dreadfully reactive to grass sugars and you may find him naturally a LOT less footie on stones as soon as the grass dies away. Most people are seeing the effect right now (look on UKNHCP.myfastforum.com there is a thread running right now about it). Are you aware of any mineral imbalances in your grazing?. Mine is high in manganese and iron and a neighbour's IDx never managed stony ground until she was kept off grass during daylight hours when the sugars were highest and supplemented with a half dose of Copper Trition to counteract the high manganese and iron (which prevents copper and zinc absorption). If his skin is less than perfect, that would be a clue that he is missing copper&zinc and it may be worth a mineral test of your ground. Good luck

 

[JenHunt]

Ron's feet were like this when I got him. He was 10 and shoes would last days.

we had the farrier (a remedial farrier) look at him loose and under saddle, and he videod his footfall to see what was going on in slo-mo. He then (and since) shod him with as much toe taken as he can (almost looks like the toe's been dumped to the shoe) and leaving the heels on.

We coupled this with schooling to improve his balance and way of going. He got worse as his hind leg got more active, then better as he got to grips with where everything was and his balance got better. He was also fed farriers formula for about 3 years.

He's now 16 and has (until sunday) not lost a shoe in 18 months. The one he took off on sunday was because he got over excited and leapt off all 4 feet, landing hinds first onto the heel of the near fore. Off came shoe. Just like that. no damage to foot fortunately.

 

[CBFan]

I would say go barefoot for a while... even if you have to turn him away for a month or two to rehab him a bit, it wil do him no harm and he will probably come back into work with a much fresher head and set of feet!

Beware that depending on your school surface it may be equally as abraisive as stony ground / tarmac so little and often is key.

I would review his diet. You really should notice some difference in his hooves within 3 months of starting to use a product and after months have a pretty much reformed hoof. I saw good results with dengie coat and hoof supp on my boy (a 3 year old CB so similar age and type to yours) who had pretty crappy and sore feet at the start of the year and I can echo JG with my recomendation of Keratex and daily application of Kevin Bacon hoof dressing (use the liquid one in winter - it doesn't go rock hard!!) I now also use cornucrescine on his corronet band once or twice a week. His feet look amazing now and the farrier only has to tidy his toes up really