issues with hooves

aran

aran

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aran is slightly pigeon toed and so puts more weight through the inside of his front hooves. due to his spavin (which is now fused and so he is sound) his gait has altered and he is putting more weight onto his fronts and also pulling shoes. the farrier is doing all he can to stop him pulling the shoes (rolling toes, shoeing tightly etc) but he is now getting the odd corn. This is only going to get worse (front foot issues - corns etc - pulling shoes) and I really dont know what to do about it. Bar shoes are not an option, neither are 3/4 shoes or corn shoes.
The farrier was talking about may be trying bare foot. I compete - ODE, HT, SJ and hunt in the winter - will he be able to bare foot. He is a TB x and gets footy in front if he looses a shoe.
Any ideas?
 
Biased answer here sorry if no help.
My horses have gone barefoot for 26 years.
All have fanatstic hooves, never any probs from road work to competeing.
May take the horse a bit for feet to harden.
I have always used a registered farrier.
Don't understand this new barefoot stuff. Just never had any shod and never had any probs.
I am sure there will be lots of contradictions but only saying what has worked for me.
 
its worth a shot - if nothing else its pretty much a guarantee that any horse with a nail through its white line will have white line disease so by taking the shoes off (even just for a while) will help hoof quality.

I have a (now ex) racehorse whos feet were in a real state when he came home from training, he had the worst feet on my farriers books and he has been without shoes for 18 motnhs now. he has affiliated evented and hunted like this but the only time i have had a problem was xc when the ground was hard then soaking on top like an ice rink but then most people had the same problem shoes or not. hunting without shoes has been fab - particvularly when everyone is losing shoes left right and centre!!

The hoof boots available now are pretty good and you should be able to use them to continue working him when the shoes come off.

I use a normal registered farrier too but do tidy up myself (but this has taken me a long time to get so brave !!
 
im interested in watching this post, im having pony foot issues too! registered farrier says he's perfect to go barefoot but he's a lazy walker and wears his toes back loads, which has twice now meant he's had shoes put back on, we're trying again at the moment and he's being made to always be walking properly/going forward etc!

id try your horse with his shoes off as i see this as the best way of horses going, as said above he can still compete etc if his feet harden up and hoof boots will help to start with if he's sore!
 
thank you for all your comments.
my farrier gave me a real frank talking too today, which was hard but I know he is right.
i have a team competition coming up but will have his shoes taken off after and start the months of hardening his hooves up.
i'll look into boots - any particularly good ones?
 
Let me know how you get on.I had my tbs shoes off for 8 weeks when he had surgery for his spavin and he was very tender on stones and gravel.I would be interested to know how long it takes for them to harden up tbs feet are notoriously bad.Ive noticed that my horse is wearing his shoes down at the front he is walking out at the moment for rehabilitation.Looks like I might have similiar problems .
 
Its not a quick fix by any stretch of the imagination. i am pretty convinced that if you get the nutrition right you get the feet right. Mine are all on high fibre low sugar/starch diets with a feed balancer, I also add magnesium oxide as there is evidence it helps prevent tenderness in hooves / low grade laminitis.

I rode on the roads first with the TB - the tarmac helped toughen up the feet and also assist growth - the more work you do the more the feet grow. my only caveat would be that if you have a horse with feet like concrete that aren't perfectly balanced there is the risk of mechanical laminitis as the hoof capsule is pulled in the wrong direction causing inflamation.

This TB wore the inside hinds so badly he was being shod every 2 weeks at one point!! typical flat feet, underun heels collapsed walls etc - they are now fabulous and get comments all the time (usually you've lost a shoe!!!) (or 4!!)

I haven't actually used boots yet (am about to on another horse if i ever get the right size!!) but i was recomended the old mac g2's, if the horse is particulraly sensitive you get a slightly bigger size and put pads in them.

Although I have never used them, the barefoot trimming brigade tend to be very good helping with the transition period, IMO 8 weeks when out of work isn't even close to being long enough - I think it was 3 months of work and he was quite happy going up and down our hardcore/gravel drive.

Just because you take the shoes off doesn't mean they can't go back on - it only took about 6 weeks for the nail holes to grow out on mine when he was in work - significantly more growth than in shoes (in 7 months we had a full new hoof.)

Mine will event in shoes this year, i need stud holes, and the shoes will come off at the end of the season.

HTH's
 
Ive just put mine on a feed balancer (top spec)its supposed to be really good for bad feet.I phoned them today to find out which feed to use and they have suggested one of their high fibre and protein feeds.Ill see if this helps his feet improve hes been on hoof supplement for 2 years and they are much better than when I first had him he used to loose shoes and hoof wall constantly.What balancer are you using.
I have the farrier out in another 3 weeks I will ask him to check for uneven wear .
 
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