Just an observation...

In the aeons of time - was it more 'normal' for horses to have a regular rest period where they'd be turned away without shoes for a break from work? I seem to remember hearing this was an annual thing? Might be interesting to compare to modern horse ownership? I suspect we often want to keep our horses fully in work all year round, year after year. Shoeing might be compromising horses hooves more because of how we keep and work our horses now?
 
badgermyers said:
i dont actually sit looking for posts it was just an observation. I know there are lame horses that are shod, but they arnt lame because of shoes?

But I do see posts from people with barefoot horses who are lame because they are footsore ect


Its just interesting thats all :) Not a dig at anyone. Just wanted to know if I was the only one who thought this
Click to expand...

Are you making a statement in your second sentence? You seem to be but then use a question mark. Are you suggesting that there are lame horses with shoes on but 'they' aren't lame because of their shoes? How would you know?

Between me and a few of my friends we have the following going on: -

3 completely sound barefoot rock crunchers (a 16.1 warmblood, a 16.1 Stallion of German descent and a HW coloured cob)

1 unsound 16h ISH who is shod - is she lame because of her shoes? All we know is that when she has them off she can barely walk. Owner needs to look into this.


1 unsound 16.3 Ginger (no idea what she is) barefoot, has been to Rockley, came back sound but has regressed and abcesses have caused issues - is this because she is barefoot?

3 shod and perfectly sound horses.

I don't get your point. There are lame horses in shoes because of shoes and other reasons but there are lame horses who are barefoot possibly because they are bare foot or possibly due to other reasons.

Am I missing something?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hmm I think I have a horse you'd be interested in BM. My lad went lame in shoes around this time last year. Vet suspected navicular but I wanted an MRI to be sure as I wasn't keen on wedges going on him. MRI showed mild navicular bone changes but serious damage caused to the collateral ligaments, done by a Farrier whilst he was out on loan allowing his toes to get too long and his heels to collapse. This was both my vet's analysis and the vet from the MRI centre.

My horse went to Rockley and is now sound and working well on all surfaces. He's also a heavyweight cob and I was told by my vet that I would have to put shoes back on him to do roadwork as despite his very solid feet, his type couldn't cope barefoot on roads. He's been home since June and other than initial settling in difficulties with diet we haven't had any problems.

Project Dexter on the Rockley blog and speaking to Nic Barker might help you. :)
 
badgermyers said:
This is interesting. Maybe people just post when there is an issue then rather than good..
Click to expand...

Why would they post about the good? most people post when they want to ask a straightforward question to a problem. I have seen just as many lame shod threads as barefoot, but often the barefoot threads are asking about how to cope with transition and what diet to feed. More people are going bare so more threads asking the same questions.
 
unicorndreams said:
In the aeons of time - was it more 'normal' for horses to have a regular rest period where they'd be turned away without shoes for a break from work? I seem to remember hearing this was an annual thing? Might be interesting to compare to modern horse ownership? I suspect we often want to keep our horses fully in work all year round, year after year. Shoeing might be compromising horses hooves more because of how we keep and work our horses now?
Click to expand...

I think this is a very valid point, which a friend and I were discussing the other day.

Back in the day, hunting horses would be shod for hunting through winter and turned away during the summer without shoes. Competition horses would be shod for the summer and then have a break over winter without shoes. Nowadays far more horses are in work year round, and are kept shod.

From a purely logical point of view, it makes sense to me that nailing immoveable metal to a living, growing organism - year round, without a break - cannot be the healthiest thing, even if a horse is shod well and is sound with good feet.

My horse currently doesn't have shoes because he doesn't need them. If I did need to put them on for studding in the future, I think I would consciously make sure that he has a good break with them off for several months a year at least.
 
Last edited:
FfionWinnie said:
Can't say I had, in fact I can think of plenty of lame with shoes posts the last few weeks as well.

Mine are unshod, don't think they would be classed as barefoot as I don't really feed a special diet except to one who doesn't really eat it, so they just eat grass and hay mainly and are sound in full work ;)
Click to expand...

Me too, Im an accidental barefoot person, he came without shoes on after previous owners couldnt afford them and I just never had any put on as he didnt need it. No special supplements and sound on stoney tracks, road etc. Hes even sound trotting/cantering on any terrain!! :):)
 
I for one was very glad to read the "i have got problems" threads when I made the decision to pull the shoes off. They gave me comfort that what we were experiencing was "normal" especially since I was doing this on my own, with no physical support. Knowing that others out there had/were having the same issues really did help. If having these posts helped me, I would assume they help others
 
I will look into rockley. :) lameness is something i am interested in. Barefoot v shoes is just one aspect I am interested in. Im not making a point in any of this its honestly all questions. I did some stuff at the vets doing hoof xrays on lame horses and it was fasinating!
 
I don't really feel strongly either way but I do know that if I had a lame shod horse I wouldn't come here for advice I'd look for a gentler forum I think!
Perhaps that's why there arent many shod & lame posts on here? There are some very pro shoe-ing people but there are a lot more very passionate 'barefoot' promoters on here

Whether that's a representative proportional divide of the horse world as a whole or particular to this forum I don't know.
 
I respond to posts asking for help and advice on hooves - both shod and barefoot.

Over the last few years on HHO, the trend has shifted (in part) to people being more critical about their horse's hooves and more willing to ask for advice and information.

There are some of us on here who have worked hard to get past the image of 'dangerous cultists'. We try to share what we have learnt about hoof health (often the hard way) and will try to help whether the poster intends to stay shod or not.

However - by the time someone has found themselves posting on a forum for advice......their horse's hooves are pretty sick and need some time out of shoes to heal. So the answer they get is often leading towards barefoot (for a while) ;). You have to wonder, when the UK has some of the best cared for horses and some of the most highly trained and skilled farriers in the world - why are so many of our horses lame and with deformed hooves?

There are a lot of people with unhappy shod horses who are not comfortable posting on the open forum still.
Myself (and CPT) get a fair number of pms asking for help. I do most of my 'work' on here via the pm system :o.

I know for myself, the majority of pms I get are from shod owners with unhealthy hooves who don't know where to turn.
Next I have the ones who have recently deshod and want some encouragement.
Finally I get barefoot ones who have hit a blip and want some ideas.

I sometimes get updates from posters who have managed to turn their horses around and now have happy, healthy hooves and are back riding again - those are the messages I keep and savour :).

So you may not be getting an all round view of what is going on with horses on here by reading posts alone - there is more going on under the surface :).
 
My boy is barefoot and has been for 5 weeks now and is coping just fine :) he is being trimmed on Sunday and I plan to start hacking more as well and I still think he will cope just fine :)
 
Thank you oberon thats interesting. I am trying to get more time at the vets to look into this sort of thing again. I think its good to know as a horse owner :) I would have have loved to be a vet but funds and horses prevented this for now.
 
badgermyers said:
Thank you oberon thats interesting. I am trying to get more time at the vets to look into this sort of thing again. I think its good to know as a horse owner :) I would have have loved to be a vet but funds and horses prevented this for now.
Click to expand...

If you want to learn more about hooves, I run a library on the Phoenix forum where I lend out my collection of books and DVDs to members :).
 
unicorndreams said:
In the aeons of time - was it more 'normal' for horses to have a regular rest period where they'd be turned away without shoes for a break from work? I seem to remember hearing this was an annual thing? Might be interesting to compare to modern horse ownership? I suspect we often want to keep our horses fully in work all year round, year after year. Shoeing might be compromising horses hooves more because of how we keep and work our horses now?
Click to expand...

This.

Our hunters always go without shoes all summer, the racehorses were also left without out of season. If anything had to be turned away for a period of time the first thing done was shoes off. It definitely is beneficial. My current boy was 18 months in a field without shoes and was just trimmed regularly by a farrier in Ireland whom I highly regard. When it came to getting shoes put on for the first time the farrier here in the UK said his feet had been left too long without being shod and it was going to take a lot of work to put it right. That really confused me- its not like his feet had been left to grow very long or anything. I think his feet are a bit crappy at the moment with shoes on- I would leave him barefoot in a heartbeat if he didn't need to be studded.
 
unicorndreams said:
In the aeons of time - was it more 'normal' for horses to have a regular rest period where they'd be turned away without shoes for a break from work? I seem to remember hearing this was an annual thing? Might be interesting to compare to modern horse ownership? I suspect we often want to keep our horses fully in work all year round, year after year. Shoeing might be compromising horses hooves more because of how we keep and work our horses now?
Click to expand...

This is it in a nutshell , horses feet need a break from shoes in every yearly cycle that's not the common pracise it was.
However with the better boots available a break from shoeing does not mean you cant work the horse at all so it should be perfectly possible to ride your horse year round using boots or going BF or a bit of both in the quiet time for the horse this should give the best balance of all worlds for those who don't want to do the full BF thing.
Horses who are very lame without shoes have a problem which should be investigated and addressed .
 
i have a horse who was shod pretty much all his life, a few years ago he was crippled and we thought the time was nearing to PTS so i removed the shoes and he improved bit by bit, no one on the yard could believe how much the shoes were affecting him but saw it with their own eyes.
he was barefoot for nearly 2yrs but then started to get very footy even in the field so i spoke to vet and farrier and we put shoes on him again, he's now bouncing around like a spring chicken and seems to be doing well.

my ponies are barefoot, tough little hooves. they will stay that way until they may need shoes (hopefully they won't ever need them).
i think my horse just needed a break from being shod and it didn't help that the farrier wasn't doing the best job for my horse.
 
I have a barefoot TB, we do quite light road-work and she's still turned out 24/7 but will be going inside in the next fortnight. She's very happy and the farrier often comments on how good her feet are. I've had people recoil in shock/horror that my TB copes on roads and in general without shoes. Its just down to the individual and how its managed. Its each owners choice and I don't understand why people have this big for/against thing going on!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top