How often to shoe a horse with bad feet?

floradora09

floradora09

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Am left feeling very confused so wondering if any of you can help! I've got a TB with very cracky feet, he pulls shoes often and there isn't a lot of growth between shoeings. His feet crack where the nails are, and shoe becomes loose etc. 5 weeks is about the maximum he can go, and often needs 'clenching up' between shoeings. A friend of mine (who's opinion I respect and trust) has suggested not getting him shod when he's 'due' every 4-5 weeks, but seeing when farrier thinks he needs doing and just get by with clenching up for as long as possible, because when he's re-shod every 5 weeks it just puts more holes in the hoof wall, more cracking etc. Also this gives the feet a little more time to grow I guess in theory this is a good idea, but the problem is that things start to go downhill very quickly when he reaches the 4/5 week mark, and my poor farrier keeps being called up lastminute.com as he's a competition horse and always has a loose shoe or something the night before a competition. Not only do I feel bad but my farrier must get annoyed!

Just wondered what advice I can have? Farrier out tomorrow for a full new set, so will try and talk to him about it then, as he's been out at least three times between last shoeing. In the meantime I am using Kevin Bacons, no trotting on roads and about to feed Farriers Formula!

Thanks :) xx
 
You could look at taking the shoes off altogether, at least for a while. Have a search on here - there is a lot of information (and controversy!) about barefoot. You could have a look at Pete Ramey's website too - again, lots of free information! Also EasyCare, who do the widest selection of hoof boots, and you could look into hoof casts in case your horse wasn't able to cope straight away with no shoes.
 
Sounds far too familiar, my old lad had appalling feet, everything you describe. he was shod every 5 weeks without fail. barefoot was not an option. I fed formula 4 feet and found that did really help. I also ensured that the nail holes were disinfected regularly and the hooves were moisturised to ensure elasticity
 
I go along with Angua on this though it is a good idea to have a really good chat with your farrier over options - they do tend to know they're stuff and if its a good one will chat all day about shoeing. Sleepy had bad hooves too and we've combatted this with limestone powder/biotin in his feed and overreach boots on turnout as at least my TB, like so many others I've heard about on here, pulls his own shoes off.
 
You have said your TB is a competition horse so for this reason i wouldnt take his shoes off at present as i presume you want to compete this season.

My late TB mare had the worst feet my farrier had on his caseload! Many contributing factors, she was a stress head, box walked, stood on her front and back feet and was a poor doer who did not like hoof supplements - believe me I had tried them all!

The solution therefore had to adress all of these factors. Firstly diet to encourage hoof growth, we finally found a feed she enjoyed and would finish. She was on the winergy senior (reccommended by them as more calories than the low and more conditioning) then she got pro-feet in liquid form but syringed into her once a day 25mls.

Shoeing intervals were every 4 weeks, not for growth but more the nails would loosen and break the foot up. Topically we used keving bacon every other day, farrier advised daily but once in a dressage lesson she stood on it during shoulder in and the shoe slid off 7 days after it was put on so i felt the grease made the nails slid out too easily. I also used neat eucalyptus oil every other day to keep nail holes free of bacteria so to try and avoid cracking.

She also wore over reach boots on all four feet which were a size too big to try and stop her standing on them!

Before i lost her last year her feet looked good, no cracks with this routine. But it took me three years to get them like that! good luck :)
 
Thanks very much everyone for the ideas, Kez, you're right in saying that barefoot isn't an option, he needs to be shod as he's eventing this summer, and his feet will just break up on hard ground- he also gets sore if he pulls a shoe and walks over rutted or stony ground, so although ideal, I really can't see barefoot as being an option! I 100% agree with your point about nails loosening and breaking foot up, this is exactly what happens with my lad, and although clenching up sort of helps for a few days, on the hard summer ground the foot continues to break up. I find this very hard to put into words but I think you've sort of hit nail on the head so to speak!

My farrier is quite keen to keep nailing shoes on, for a while we were wondering if glue ons were an option, but we spoke to him about it and he said only the millionaire racehorse owners do that as it costs £300 and needs re setting every 3 weeks... we will do the best we can but money will not stretch that far!!

I think maybe I need to have a proper chat with him tomorrow about this all, firstly apologise for all the hassle we've caused recently, and make a plan. I will ask him how often he thinks we should be shoeing him, and explain what my friend suggested, or if it would be better to stick to the 4-5 weeks. I'll also ask about ways to 'keep him going' in between shoeings, such as getting farrier out at 2.5 wks to clench up again, minimise roadwork etc.

:)
 
Hoof Heal - Amazing stuff for encouraging hoof growth and hardening feet up. I used to share a tb who hadn't been shod in god knows how long, his old owner used to get her bf to go out and find the shoe the horse had lost and stick it in with house nails!! Shocked was not the word. Poor horse had god awful feet and much to mine and the farriers suprise the Hoof Heal really worked. He was also on Biotin, Farriers Formula.
Limestone Flour is also very good for hardening feet up. Much cheaper and just as affective.
Obviously have a good chat with the farrier and see what he says :)
Hope his feet improve :)
 
How about using Keratex to help strengthen & hold the shoes on for longer? If you could go longer between shoeings, even a week, it would help.
 
To be honest, if you are shoeing at 5 week intervals and the horse has these problems I think you are really lucky!! My girl had big solid Welsh feet and she was shod on a 6 week cycle in the summer,7 in the winter. I just made the next appointment as soon as he put the last shoe on, whether she "needed" shoeing or not. She wasn't a competition horse but we hacked for up 1 hour to shows every other weekend in the summer months and she was galloping fit. In all her working life with me she only ever threw one shoe and her feet were fine. I used Keratex in the summer to help them to cope with the extra work and faster growth.
 
Have a good chat with your farrier.

My old farrier wanted an 8 week gap between shoeing my boy because he said his feet didn't grow enough in 6 weeks and he was nailing the shoe back into the same holes.

New farrier has suggested using Kevin Bacon hoof dressing every day or every other because his feet are dry and quite brittle. He has also recommended looking at his diet - he suggests feeding biotin (brewer's yeast is a good source of this), seaweed and rosehips to improve feet.

Will your horse have a holiday once the eventing season has finished? If so, talk to your farrier about a shoe holiday to let the nail holes etc grow out. I wanted to get my boy barefoot but he wasn't improving quickly enough to cope with what I wanted him to do (I don't need anyone to tell me I am selfish for not waiting/ giving it enough time... horse has to do a job as well so there has to be compromise) so has been re-shod but will have a shoe holiday and 3 months off out in the field in the autumn to rest and let the nail holes grow out. He had 6 weeks unshod at the end of this winter/early spring and his feet improved beyond all recognition so I do think it's worth trying, even if just for one or two shoeing cycles... but do it when he's on holiday!
 
I would be tempted to go for the shortest shoeing interval that allowed the shoes to remain tight and clenches flush. Pulling the clenches tighter really only gives you a few days as nail holes are already stretched by this point.

Seriously consider the eucalyptus oil as i think this helped massively with the nail hole problem, she went from needing clenches tightened at 2 weeks to nice and tight til four weeks, hence condition of feet could improve. It was megabeast on here who reccommended it to me so might be worth a PM. Its quite cheap to buy on ebay and lasts forever.

Hope you can get something sorted.
 
Unfortunately he works pretty much all year round, or at least doesn't have any more than a couple of weeks off at a time, so don't think a shoe holiday would be possible, but I guess if it comes to it I would have to (or at least look at another way of attaching shoes to feet without nails for 2 cycles!).

Kez, I think that's really the question I need to ask (myself and farrier!) but have struggled to work out what it is, do I try and leave it for 6 weeks so farrier is always out clenching up and feet cracking as nail holes already stretched, or do I get him done every 4-5 weeks without feet breaking up too much, but perhaps a little short on places to put nails... thankfully he's out tomorrow, poor guy!

Kez, do you know how the eucalyptus oil works? I'm guessing it's disinfectant but how does this stop nail holes cracking up? Will give megabeast a PM tonight!

Thanks so much everyone, it's hard when people's opinions contradict, especially when it's people who I respect! xx
 
300 for stick ons? and 3 weeks?

Hmmm.. my farrier was charging 120 a pair and said 6 weeks, depending on what you're doing as we discussed it as an option when Sleeps kept pulling his hooves apart when we first got him.
 
floradora09 said:
Unfortunately he works pretty much all year round
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Does he compete all year round? If you can find an 8 or 12 week window in midwinter without jumping, then he might do well with boots. (You can get 6 months dispensation to do BD in boots. I would not jump in them personally but there are people who do.) There are now a wide variety of boots available to fit most horses except the most exceptionally sensitive ones who can rub even in neoprene gaiters. If you can turn out on soft winter ground for as long as possible, ride in boots, and get his diet right as people have suggested already, then next year you'd be starting in a better place for shoeing.
 
My TB had pretty poor feet when I first took him on. My farrier said he could have virtually pushed the nails in as his feet were so soft. Like you I would regularly have to call him back between shoeings to put shoes back on that he would pull off, usually taking large chunks of hoof with them. Then last year after discussing his issues with my farrier we decided to give Natural balance shoes a go and I also changed his feed to a comprehensive balancer. His feet are almost completely different now. His hooves are growing strong horn that my farrier is really pleased with. His hooves still grow fairly slowly, but he now goes 6/7 weeks between visits and since changing to NB he has only lost 2 shoes. (In one case he overreached and it didnt actually come off, I had to get a friend to take it off to save him hurting himself before my farrier could get to him)
Natural balance has it's critics and I have to say I was pretty dubious at the beginning but I'm happy that combined with a decent feed balancer it's deffinatley helping my boy.
 
floradora09 said:
Unfortunately he works pretty much all year round, or at least doesn't have any more than a couple of weeks off at a time, so don't think a shoe holiday would be possible, but I guess if it comes to it I would have to (or at least look at another way of attaching shoes to feet without nails for 2 cycles!).

Kez, I think that's really the question I need to ask (myself and farrier!) but have struggled to work out what it is, do I try and leave it for 6 weeks so farrier is always out clenching up and feet cracking as nail holes already stretched, or do I get him done every 4-5 weeks without feet breaking up too much, but perhaps a little short on places to put nails... thankfully he's out tomorrow, poor guy!

Kez, do you know how the eucalyptus oil works? I'm guessing it's disinfectant but how does this stop nail holes cracking up? Will give megabeast a PM tonight!

Thanks so much everyone, it's hard when people's opinions contradict, especially when it's people who I respect! xx
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pretty sure the eucalyptus oil works as a natural disinfectant and keeps the bugs at bay that help break up the hoof. the bateria actually make the nail holes deepen over time i think. PM megabeast tho she may have a more scientific answer i just know it works! :)

let us know how you get on with your farrier.
 
My tb had 'tb' feet and it was a constant battle with my old farrier to keep shoes on and I wa slucky for him to go five weeks. Through other reasons I changed farriers and its the best move I ever made - he now goes 8 weeks if not longer. One of the biggest changes he made was that he shoes him with a thicker section shoe (basically the shoe is thicker) as he is really heavy on his feet for a tb and his action was contributing to him breaking up his feet. He has also worked really hard on his foot balance and his tendency is to go long toe low heel and all these things have really helped my boy . Might be worth talking to another farrier and getting a second opinion.
 
Sleepeeze_dad said:
300 for stick ons? and 3 weeks?

Hmmm.. my farrier was charging 120 a pair and said 6 weeks, depending on what you're doing as we discussed it as an option when Sleeps kept pulling his hooves apart when we first got him.
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Well, he actually said £200-£300, but that's for a set, so if yours charges £120 a pair then that makes £240 a set, which is about what mine said. My farrier knows he does quite a lot of competing and cross country etc, so I'm guessing he thought he'd need to be done at 3 weeks, can't remember exactly what he said but I don't think we're at the point of going down that route (just yet) I hope!

cptrayes said:
Does he compete all year round? If you can find an 8 or 12 week window in midwinter without jumping, then he might do well with boots. (You can get 6 months dispensation to do BD in boots. I would not jump in them personally but there are people who do.)
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Unfortunately the answer to this question is yes! If it comes to it I may well have to do that, but I'm planning on doing some BSJA on him next winter, as last winter I really didn't get enough jumping in. I'll see how it goes this summer, but it may have to be an option.

Making a list of things to talk to about my farrier, so far I've got:

-How often should I aim to get him shod? Shorter cycles (4-5 weeks) to avoid nails pulling hoof apart, or longer cycles (6 weeks) to allow hoof to grow some more?

-Should I see you in between shoeings to clench up at about 2.5 weeks?

-I'm going to start a trial of Farriers Formula for a couple of months to see if the hoof growth looks any better, and try to avoid trotting on roads or very hard ground. Is there anything else you can suggest to keep him going? I'll tell him when all my events are and just say what do we need to do to keep him going with four shoes on for all of these!

-(Are having studs holes behind a bad idea, I'd only use them if I really needed to when competing on grass?)

:) xx
 
My friend has a sports horse who is mostly TB. He used to have absolutely awful feet and wouldnt go more than 4 weeks but ever since she started using cornucresine on them they have really improved and she gets 6 weeks out of them.
 
So got farrier out and he says to shoe on a more regular cycle, so 4-5 weeks, as his feet don't really grow down, they mostly splay out and crack up. He also said to get him out halfway between shoeings to tighten everything up, as this should help. Avoid too much trotting on roads etc where possible, as his feet are extremely delicate and that would break them up a lot. Carry on with kevin bacons, he also said he reckoned that all hoof supplements did about the same thing but if I've got the money to spend on farriers formula to give it a go, but he didn't seem convinced it would do a lot of good. Having spoken to MegaBeast I'm also going to give eucalyptus oil a try (it sounds like a miracle cure!)- admittedly possibly too good to be true!

Although where he'd pulled his shoe off he'd pulled off some foot and was a little sore on it, farrier shod him all round and said he may be sore for a couple of days or so, but it's nothing major. Had a ODE today and trotted him up first just to check before we left, and he's lame on it. :'( First run of the season too! Grrr. Got everything crossed that with a couple of rest days, he'll come sound for my Dengie dressage national championships on sunday... :s
 
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