Honest answers - how often do you pick your horses feet out?

[paddy555]

The problem with not picking out feet more often is not spotting things stuck in the foot, like a nail.

I haven't found this to be a problem. Anything I pick up has been out riding barefoot and then you can usually hear it. OH's horse did land fast and hard on something similar to a nail out riding but however many times we picked the feet out we couldn't have stopped that accident. It did however make me wonder about riding barefoot as it wouldn't have happened with boots and I now boot a lot more often for this reason.

In the field if stones get into a barefoot they usually just fall out, smaller ones get compacted in the retained mud which is no problem. There are no shoes for things to get trapped under. If shod then I would be examining the feet often for this sort of incident.

And failing to spot thrush until its got a hold.

I never used to pick out feet (other than trim day) on non working horses/ponies. There was never any sign of thrush when I trimmed. I didn't have any logic behind this, just had never done it. Then, when talking to a very experienced barefoot farrier, he started talking about horses packing mud into feet and it providing support. (I hadn't mentioned my benign neglect methods) This made sense . Although we can never replicate feral conditions in our living conditions I thought that they would do this, all the feral hooves I had picked up on the common to view did exactly this apparently without problem.

I am starting to wonder if thrush is somewhat like human "germs" In earlier times kids played in the dirt, most likely rarely washed their hands (not talking about the loo here) got mud, germs, bugs etc into their mouths and became a lot healthier in this respect. Now every advert seems to be some household spray that kills 99.9% of household germs and has to be sprayed everywhere in the kitchen to protect the little darlings. Are they are resilient to germs this way?
I wonder if this is similar to constant lotions and potions on feet. ie the feet have lost the resilience that they had coped with perfectly adequately before.

the other point is the state of the feet and the health of the frog.

https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/health-archive/how-to-treat-my-horses-thrush-27863/

to save writing it all out I mean what is in the above link. ie poor feet and poor frogs.

If the frogs work and the back of the foot is trimmed and conditioned to produce what we want then they are far less likely to have thrush problems. (or at least that is what I have found)

 

[paddy555]

and my farrier said the mud protects the hoof from thrush and poo and urine going in.

yes I think this.

 

[Gloi]

My pony is barefoot and more than once he has picked up a large stone in the collateral groove.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Yes I'd far rather have mud than manure in feet. The number of stabled shod hooves I've picked hard-pressed manure out of over the years. It really isn't good for them.

Quite, one of my livery horses's feet picked out in pm when he comes in from field, during the night he stands in poo and pee, all that is in his feet all night, now he found the horse has smelly feet.


Having my late mares feet picked all the time while in, led her to have Ecoli, thrush and more, and her frog disintegrated right back into her hoof, we had to use Metrozine and hydrogen peroxide to kill of infection and that took 6 weeks fo treatment.


When my farrier does their feet and takes mares shoes off, and brushes hoof to see what needs doing, it is rock hard and as clean as a whistle and no smell.

 

[ycbm]

I haven't found this to be a problem.

I have found a bronze age flint arrow head (as confirmed by the British Museum), stones wedged in deep collateral grooves and on one occasion a nail embedded nearly an inch into the sole.
.

 

[saalsk]

15 years of barefoot for the last 5 horses and 1 pony. When stabled at night, picked out in morning, as I would rather mud than manure overnight. Picked out before and after riding. For the last several years they have been out 24/7 bar standing on concrete (clean, dry) during the day in summer, and night in winter, if they choose to do so, for shelter and hay. Daily foot pick/check, and a brush down with a wire brush. Red Horse paste if needed during wet months. Not used hoof wall stuff for years, as even in really hot/dry conditions, the hoof wall has always looked fine to me, and farrier. Had a couple of small cracks, that needed more care, but they were as a result of covid meaning the farrier visits were delayed, and I wasn't confident enough to take more of the flare off than I should. Have now got much better with a small hand rasp. They are expected to stand still with headcollar and leadrope, while I do a quick brush over to check for wounds, bites etc, have feet picked and scrubbed, and fly spray applied/rugs altered depending on season, then they get a nice herbal crunchie treat. They are in fields, or on concrete, and also hack on roads and small gravel, nothing too stony. I have had many a stare, as I pick up and sniff feet each day !

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Interesting replies to lotions and potions. I do use sole cleanse and field paste in winter if they are looking a bit thrushy but can’t see the point of stuff like KB. I do pick out daily as I like to check for injuries, things wedged in the feet and mud fever which one of mine is prone to on his heels. What I never do is wash their feet off when they come in. Mud dries naturally and gets brushed off.

 

[PeterNatt]

Before I ride every morning and then after I ride and again when I bring in from the field in the evening.

 

[Roasted Chestnuts]

Every time I ride in summer and evenings in winter

 

[Griffin]

Every day, at least once a day. I also pick out after riding before turning out to putting back in their stable. I spray with Sole Cleanse a couple of times a week and apply Field Paste if needed.

I currently have a barefoot horse but she still gets the odd stone wedged even in summer, so I always check.

 

[LadyGascoyne]

I probably check every day but only pick out a couple of times a week in summer.

In winter they get some red horse hoof spray and some field paste etc if their feet are in soggy ground all day so it’s probably more of an every day pick out.

I agree that stables are the worst for feet. Mine are barefoot and live out, and they have super feet.

I do pick out before and after I ride, and if I’m using a school, I will brush out surface from feet before I leave.

 

[SEL]

I have found a bronze age flint arrow head (as confirmed by the British Museum), stones wedged in deep collateral grooves and on one occasion a nail embedded nearly an inch into the sole.
.

Did you not have a lame horse though? Any of mine look at all NQR then I'm straight in running hands down legs and checking hooves. Otherwise they are pretty much left to get on with it.

 

[M1lbie]

Every day, shod one twice a day, retired unshod once a day, both live out 24/7 but come in in the morning for a couple of hours so both are done then

 

[ycbm]

Did you not have a lame horse though? Any of mine look at all NQR then I'm straight in running hands down legs and checking hooves. Otherwise they are pretty much left to get on with it.

With the flinnt and the stones, no. With the nail, not until I brought the horse in to eat. If I'd been on the habit of feeding him in the field I might not have noticed.
.

 

[maya2008]

Regarding picking stuff up in the field - that would depend on your field, surely? I have never had them out in a field with stones or anything but grass and mud. No nails from shoes as no one is shod. No nails or tacks or anything else because we don’t groom in the field. No wood fence so no nails from that…and the u shaped nails used for the wire don’t end up on the floor because the fence is maintained and electric fenced off to keep it that way. There’s nothing there for them to get stuck in their feet!

An old farrier of mine, said that overzealous hoof picking just creates scrapes and narrow cuts in the frog that can then get infected. I was having trouble with thrush at the time, and he said once it cleared to be more careful with the pick in the grooves. It worked. I think we are taught as kids to dig deep and make sure you get it all out, without considering what scraping at the groove will do to the foot!

 

[HollyWoozle]

Before the farrier comes! They are retired and live out - they are fed and looked over twice a day, but not the feet. That’s except for our mini with EMS, my stepdad does pick his feet out once a day.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

The first pony I owned was my favourite from the RS I worked at. He was only a pet as an injury meant he couldn't be ridden but I cared for him to the best of my ability, bearing in mind this was 69/70 so things were very different then. I religiously cleaned his feet out everyday as he was part stabled and had what I suspect now was protein losing enteropathy, constant diarrhoea. However as I now know too rigorously scraping out the dirt can lead to deepening the grooves beside the frog and if you dig back towards the heel you can damage that too. He ended up with thrush and infection back into his heel. It was very serious and combined with his gut issues meant I had to have him pts.
I am ultra careful now about feet cleaning and don't overdo it.

 

[piebaldproblems]

Every day but now I'm worried that I'm overdoing it. She never has any muck in her feet, just mud. I use a hoof pick and I wipe the central sulcus clean with cotton wool. I used to do it twice a day when she was on a field with a lot of grit that got stuck in the white line.

I never used to pick out feet (other than trim day) on non working horses/ponies. There was never any sign of thrush when I trimmed. I didn't have any logic behind this, just had never done it. Then, when talking to a very experienced barefoot farrier, he started talking about horses packing mud into feet and it providing support. (I hadn't mentioned my benign neglect methods) This made sense . Although we can never replicate feral conditions in our living conditions I thought that they would do this, all the feral hooves I had picked up on the common to view did exactly this apparently without problem.

So I thought that by having mud in the feet, especially wet mud in the winter, you're encouraging thrush to develop. Or is this just symptomatic of a bad immune system?

 

[PSD]

Most days in summer, when he comes in to be ridden. Other days I’ll just check him over the the field feet included. In winter I do it daily, he had shoes on last winter though. Plenty of times I’ve found stones wedged in but no sign of soreness so I wouldn’t have found them if I hadn’t looked. He’s barefoot now so less chance of things being wedged in but I still pick them out and scrutinise them - I’m a little obsessed with feet now after losing my mare to laminitis 2 years ago.

Looking at getting some of the Kevin bacon stuff as recommended by my farrier, but for the time being there’s enough rain and moisture in the ground to keep them sweet.

 

[paddy555]

Every day but now I'm worried that I'm overdoing it. She never has any muck in her feet, just mud. I use a hoof pick and I wipe the central sulcus clean with cotton wool. I used to do it twice a day when she was on a field with a lot of grit that got stuck in the white line.


So I thought that by having mud in the feet, especially wet mud in the winter, you're encouraging thrush to develop. Or is this just symptomatic of a bad immune system?

I think very much along the lines of the farriers in posts 88 and 105. ie leave alone. I did nothing last winter just mainly dealt with the effects of road gravel (our roads are very bad) and blackthorn prevention. There are no nails to pick up in our yards or fields. I can see if you were in a yard where farriers shod you would have to be extra careful.

I think if you constantly clean you are simply opening up ways for the bugs to get in. If you take feral ponies who have lived out all their lives then there is a coating of black along the frog and in the grooves. Nothing worse than that. They are perfectly sound. I have exactly that in my own ex feral ponies whose feet are not cleaned and are left mud packed. If I take a hoof knife to the frog it is simply scraping away the black and underneath is perfect frog. No holes or signs of infection getting in.

Feral horses do have wet mud in their feet in winter. They are not all limping around with thrush.

I wonder if you (one) constantly clean if you are in fact making it easier for thrush. There are a limited number of thrush products both to kill and clean with. Do they become ineffective?

I can very much see that people want to do the best for their horses and frequently cleaning and using products. It seems a little obsessive and counter productive. I have experimented that way in the past but I am getting far better results with what some would call laziness (I don't groom them either, only the bits the tack touches).

it seems a little industry has grown up around hoof products that never used to be there. People read about others online using them and do the same and it perpetuates. People rarely post about the simple remedy of water. In this extremely dry weather feet are tending towards dry climate mustang feet. Their only hoof product is to stand in the river or pond for a few minutes to drink and splash around.

We can't do much for horses that is natural but feral horses simply get nothing and for the most part it works.

The most important thing to deal with thrush is to get the back of the foot working. If you ride a conditioned BF horse over rocks you soon see how well nature deals with the upkeep and maintenance of frogs.

Having followed the current BF trend over the last nearly 25 years I now look and go back to my first horse a 15hh light cob. He was barefoot and he didn't get his feet picked out or trimmed for the 24 years I had him. (it was impossible not due to laziness) He was never lame and was ridden BF over every surface. He worked for a living and had to work 6 days a week. Four of those days were full day rides and he had to go over whatever surfaces were on the ride in exactly the same way as the rest who were all shod.

 

[piebaldproblems]

I think very much along the lines of the farriers in posts 88 and 105. ie leave alone. I did nothing last winter just mainly dealt with the effects of road gravel (our roads are very bad) and blackthorn prevention. There are no nails to pick up in our yards or fields. I can see if you were in a yard where farriers shod you would have to be extra careful.

I think if you constantly clean you are simply opening up ways for the bugs to get in. If you take feral ponies who have lived out all their lives then there is a coating of black along the frog and in the grooves. Nothing worse than that. They are perfectly sound. I have exactly that in my own ex feral ponies whose feet are not cleaned and are left mud packed. If I take a hoof knife to the frog it is simply scraping away the black and underneath is perfect frog. No holes or signs of infection getting in.

Feral horses do have wet mud in their feet in winter. They are not all limping around with thrush.

I wonder if you (one) constantly clean if you are in fact making it easier for thrush. There are a limited number of thrush products both to kill and clean with. Do they become ineffective?

I can very much see that people want to do the best for their horses and frequently cleaning and using products. It seems a little obsessive and counter productive. I have experimented that way in the past but I am getting far better results with what some would call laziness (I don't groom them either, only the bits the tack touches).

it seems a little industry has grown up around hoof products that never used to be there. People read about others online using them and do the same and it perpetuates. People rarely post about the simple remedy of water. In this extremely dry weather feet are tending towards dry climate mustang feet. Their only hoof product is to stand in the river or pond for a few minutes to drink and splash around.

We can't do much for horses that is natural but feral horses simply get nothing and for the most part it works.

The most important thing to deal with thrush is to get the back of the foot working. If you ride a conditioned BF horse over rocks you soon see how well nature deals with the upkeep and maintenance of frogs.

Having followed the current BF trend over the last nearly 25 years I now look and go back to my first horse a 15hh light cob. He was barefoot and he didn't get his feet picked out or trimmed for the 24 years I had him. (it was impossible not due to laziness) He was never lame and was ridden BF over every surface. He worked for a living and had to work 6 days a week. Four of those days were full day rides and he had to go over whatever surfaces were on the ride in exactly the same way as the rest who were all shod.

Thank you, this is all really interesting.

Come to think of it, when I used to ride at a trekking centre, none of their horses' feet were ever picked out and I don't recall a single one going lame. However, my mare is only in light work and she doesn't have anywhere to soak her feet at liberty. If she's living a completely different lifestyle to feral horses, is it fair to treat her feet like theirs? Her feet are good though (says the farrier).

I have been warned about overdoing it in the past. In particular, I got so paranoid about grit in the white line that I wasn't letting it heal because I kept picking at it. And now I'm wondering if the thrush might build up a tolerance to Sole Cleanse because I use it so often, both as a thrush preventative and as a way to hydrate the feet a bit.

I can't imagine never seeing her feet but I might experiment with only doing them a few times a week. It's a completely different world to being told by my farrier that I should apply Sole Cleanse and Field Paste at least twice a week even in the summer.

 

[paddy555]

Thank you, this is all really interesting.

Come to think of it, when I used to ride at a trekking centre, none of their horses' feet were ever picked out and I don't recall a single one going lame. However, my mare is only in light work and she doesn't have anywhere to soak her feet at liberty. If she's living a completely different lifestyle to feral horses, is it fair to treat her feet like theirs? Her feet are good though (says the farrier).

I have been warned about overdoing it in the past. In particular, I got so paranoid about grit in the white line that I wasn't letting it heal because I kept picking at it. And now I'm wondering if the thrush might build up a tolerance to Sole Cleanse because I use it so often, both as a thrush preventative and as a way to hydrate the feet a bit.

I can't imagine never seeing her feet but I might experiment with only doing them a few times a week. It's a completely different world to being told by my farrier that I should apply Sole Cleanse and Field Paste at least twice a week even in the summer.

where I worked there were around 90 and there was no was we were ever going to pick out 360 feet each day. they were picked by the farrier when he shod them so approx 6 weeks intervals. They travelled, lived and were driven over endless stones and rocks. Foot lameness was never a problem.

Some of mine don't have access to water to soak at liberty so I fill up a low spot in the yard with a hose and use that.

just out of curiosity is your farrier a farrier or a barefoot trimmer?

 

[ycbm]

Regarding picking stuff up in the field - that would depend on your field, surely? I have never had them out in a field with stones or anything but grass and mud. No nails from shoes as no one is shod. No nails or tacks or anything else because we don’t groom in the field. No wood fence so no nails from that…and the u shaped nails used for the wire don’t end up on the floor because the fence is maintained and electric fenced off to keep it that way. There’s nothing there for them to get stuck in their feet!

Yes it will depend what's in the field. There was a flint on my field which was dropped there by a bronze age trader on his way to exchange flint arrow heads from another part of the country for salt, and a 1½ inch nail which wasn't dropped by us in the 25 years we had lived there.
.

 

[piebaldproblems]

where I worked there were around 90 and there was no was we were ever going to pick out 360 feet each day. they were picked by the farrier when he shod them so approx 6 weeks intervals. They travelled, lived and were driven over endless stones and rocks. Foot lameness was never a problem.

Some of mine don't have access to water to soak at liberty so I fill up a low spot in the yard with a hose and use that.

just out of curiosity is your farrier a farrier or a barefoot trimmer?

Registered farrier but mostly does barefoot horses these days

 

[JCW]

Every time I bring in from the field so at least once a day.