Horse 'footy' on stony track...WWYD?

Bertolie

Bertolie

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I have had my mare for 18 months. She came to me with appalling hooves and with an aversion to the farrier. We had to sedate her to do her feet. She was shod on the fronts but after a few shoeing cycles we took her barefoot. She had been fine at the livery yard and farrier said hooves were now lovely and strong. We moved to new yard last week where the horses come in at night all year round. The track to my paddock is very stoney and my mare has become a bit 'footy' walking to and from the paddock....very slow, and trying to walk on the very narrow strip of grass along the side of the track. We went out for a short hack today and have to ride down the driveway to the yard which is also quite stoney. Mare appeared to be fine on way out, but had a trot on the homeward stretch and, whilst not lame, was 'not right'. I don't want to have to put shoes back on if possible but don't want her uncomfortable either.

How long would you give her to adjust before going down shoeing route? Would something like Keratex hoof hardener help? She made the transition to shoeless very easily, although previous livery yard was just grass tracks or roads. Hoof boots are not an option as her feet are huge and not sure I'd get any to fit!

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome.
 
If it's only short stretches, and she's fine most of the time, can you just let her stick to the grassy bits and avoid trotting on the stony lane?

I'll probably do that indefinitely with mine - she doesn't need shoes 95% of the time, but there are some surfaces where we just take it carefully or choose the soft option.
 
Whats the grazing like at your new yard, could be the grass being to rich, { also its that time of year for a new flush of grass}
 
It could be the grazing at the new yard being a bit deficient in something or a bit rich or it could simply be that she's never had to deal with stones before so it's a new surface for her feet to get used to. In the short term if there is a verge available and walking on it makes her more comfortable I'd let her. I'd then look at how often she has to cross such surfaces, how long the stretches are and how comfortable or uncomfortable she is as well as assessing whether there are improvements that can be made diet-wise. If she is ok in walk on the driveway just a bit "off" in trot then I'd stick to walk as a compromise for now on there. Grass should be stating to loose some goodness after this month anyway so if it's related to that then you should see improvement, if not then you need to be looking at other areas of diet and management for the answers.
 
Does the track have loose stones and do you ever stumble on it? I've got a 15yo, never been shod (bar one summer when I tested fronts) with excellent hooves and will happily go on most surfaces but she doesn't like large loose stones, not because they are hurting her feet but because they are simply difficult to walk on. Our lane is like this, she always will choose to walk on the grass if it is an option. As a comparison my shod one doesn't like it either and when I walk on it I also find it difficult, which I think is fair enough. I bruised my own foot quite badly one day when I stumbled on a particularly large and pointy stone. We just take it slow and I check we haven't picked up any stones at the end before we get on the road.
 
SuperH said:
Does the track have loose stones and do you ever stumble on it? I've got a 15yo, never been shod (bar one summer when I tested fronts) with excellent hooves and will happily go on most surfaces but she doesn't like large loose stones, not because they are hurting her feet but because they are simply difficult to walk on. Our lane is like this, she always will choose to walk on the grass if it is an option. As a comparison my shod one doesn't like it either and when I walk on it I also find it difficult, which I think is fair enough. I bruised my own foot quite badly one day when I stumbled on a particularly large and pointy stone. We just take it slow and I check we haven't picked up any stones at the end before we get on the road.
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Its a combination of small and large stones, some loose, some embedded. She has to walk down to the paddock in the morning and back up again at night. The paddock is lovely but quite a way from stables. She hasn't had to deal with stoney surfaces before and as she has feet the size of dinner plates, her feet cover a larger area than her field mate who has small pony feet and seems to be coping fine.
 
I think anyhorse would find those sort of stones difficult. I would let her pick he way through them and give her time to adjust. My horse I am sure has bigger feet as I'm pretty sure he has the biggest feet going. He is coping well barefoot , I am taking it slowly, it takes time to adjust to new surfaces. My pony whose feet sound shod when he trots on the road, they are so hard, would still pick his way carefully over tracks and stones, in no way is he foot sore .
 
Some horses will never be able to go over really rough gravel without help. Especially if it's granite shards, they're like iron. Hoof boots are a good option if you're totally averse to shoes - they've been around in various forms since the Dark Ages, usually a woven straw or grass pad to shield the sole of the hoof from the worst of the gravel.
 
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