Horses feet r stressing me out!!

[asommerville]

Both horses!!!!! big mare has been in for 5 weeks but farrier is happy with her progress thankfully. Today was the first time he saw my barefoot 6 yo and he.was a bit concerned as he said the hoof wall was worn and the horse needs hoof boots on, honestly im scunnered! he needs boots on when ridden apparantly, does anyone have any experience of this or can say anything to make me feel better and fix him?

 

[Gloi]

He'll need time for his feet to adjust. Working him in boots for a while will let you do enough work with him to develop his feet until he no longer needs them.

 

[cptrayes]

Is he sound and happy on stones?

Yes?

Ignore the farrier, listen to the horse. Barefoot feet look very short. There is normally no height of hoof wall at the toe, and only a credit card thickness at the sides. With good hardworking barefoot feet, the horse should be walking on his frog, his heels, his toe callous and only partly on the inside of his hoof wall.

 

[asommerville]

Thanks folks yes sound and walking out just a wee bit less stride on stoney bits but his feet r rock hard

 

[cptrayes]

Tell your farrier he's wrong and the horse is right.

 

[TwoStroke]

I agree - it's normal for a barefoot horse to 'be aware' of stones, this is not the same as being footy, it's proprioception. Don't see why boots are needed; sound horses are better off without them.

 

[asommerville]

He says tgat the horse is walking on his soles??

 

[asommerville]

Bump

 

[cptrayes]

He says tgat the horse is walking on his soles??

They are supposed to.

They develop a callous that they walk on, sharing the weight between this, the inner hoof wall, the frog and the heels.

Look at all the pictures on Rockleyfarm.blogspot.com of lame horses who go home sound - ALL walking on part of their soles.

Are your horses feet flat, or do they have concavity?