Just hind shoes?

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bs6an

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My horse continually pulls his front shoes off, he lives in over reach boots and my farrier shoes him as short in the heel as he can in front and has rolled the toes on his hind shoes but he still pulls them off within 2 / 3 days of having them on.

I am contemplating just having him shod behind and using some sort of hoof boot on his front hooves for riding. We don't have an arena so most of my riding is out hacking so I don't think he would cope without any protection on his feet.

I'm not keen on using hoof boots on his back hooves as he hates things on or around his back legs and is quite quick to kick out so I think it might be a battle getting them on and off which I don't really want to go through every time I ride!

My question is can anyone see how this would be detrimental to him in any way? He is slightly downhill, would only having hind shoes on accentuate this? I do hack to an arena for a lesson every week and take part in local shows, dressage, jumping, riding club etc. which are on surface at a local centre. I don't plan on using the hoof boots when riding on a surface, would he be ok being ridden with just back shoes on on a surface? Would it affect his balance in anyway, he is only 5 so is quite green and on his forehand so I don't want to make life harder for him!

My farrier thinks he will be fine, I'm just interested to hear other people's opinions.

I've looked at shoe secures but they can't be used all the time and he lives out so they aren't an option.

Any ideas on how to keep his shoes on or recommendations of hoof boots would be appreciated.

This would hopefully only be a temporary think to try and let his front feet recover as at the minute the cycle of pulling shoes off / having them put on / pulling them off has made his feet very week which isn't helping the losing shoes situation!

He is a TB if that makes any difference,
Thanks in advance :)
 
why not just pull all four shoes, boot his fronts if needed for riding and see if he will cope without shoes on the back?
 
I did start off with him only shod in front but his hinds wore down too much and farrier said he needed hinds on, it's only since he has had the hind shoes on that he has been pulling the front ones off!
 
A few thoughts -

How's his hoof balance? If the breakover is delayed, that can cause shoe pulling. Shoeing short at the heel doesn't support the heel and can cause under-run heels, which often goes hand in hand with long toes.

Roadwork is good for BF hooves, but you do need to build it up slowly just as you need to carefully build up to the horse working on more challenging surfaces.

Diet is very important with BF/unshod horses, you can't get away with feeding many of them the feeds that they could cope with if shod. Research the BF diet and TBH it's a good, sensible equine diet even if you don't take the shoes off.

BF/unshod hooves do look shorter than shod ones - it's normal. The key is, is your horse footy or not? If yes, there are things that you can try before putting shoes on (have you increased the workload too quickly, is the diet right, would boots help, is the surface too challenging at the moment, does the horse have another problem causing the footyness?). If the horse isn't footy, then keep doing what you're doing, you may have reached the BF holy grail of 'self trimming' where wear matches growth.

Being a TB doesn't stop a horse from being BF/unshod, they are quite capable of growing good quality horn and working unshod. The BF diet is pertinent here as is slowly building up the workload. You do need to be careful if they have been shod from a young age, or have particularly shoe sick hooves.




RE boots - I've never needed to use them on my horses so far... but I do like the look of the Renegades. They do studded ones too.
 
Thank you both for taking the time to reply, I'll look up some info on going barefoot and his diet, thanks again :)
 
I had exactly the same problem with mine but he only has front shoes and we think he was pulling them off by standing on himself rather than over reaching. As well as being annoying walking the field trying to find the missing shoe it was also costing a fortune having it put back on all the time!


I'd defiantly recommend looking at diet as when my pony was diagnosed with cushings all of mine went onto the same high fibre low sugar/starch diet for ease and I started noticing we were lasting the full 6 weeks between visits. As well as better hoof quality I also ended up with a more chilled out youngster that wasn't on a sugar rush from his 'cherry chaff'!!
I do still turn out in the big rubber over reach boots as a precaution but just a simple change of feed as ended up reducing his farrier bill by half! X
 
These are fantastic!!
http://www.shoesecure.com/Default.aspx
I had an awful problem with keeping shoes on my mare, she'd have them off within 10minutes of the farrier leaving!
Now I've tried these I wouldn't go back, just just need to ask you farrier to put on a shoe with stud holes, and they just clip right on:)
I also tried boots, but found for the price they arn't very effective, my mare disliked them and (Houdini) was able to pull them clean off!
 
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If you are thinking of the BF route, the Phoenix horse forum is a mine of information.
 
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