Keeping shoes on retired horse

[kazg07]

My boy is 25 this year and is now completely retired. However, I have continued to shoe him every 6 weeks. He does have arthritic hocks as x rays showed this when he was around 19 and these were injected a couple of times. I've always thought that I'm doing the right thing to continue shoeing him to give him the additional support behind and obviously want him to be comfortable. However, it is obviously a big expense every 6 weeks and most people think I'm mad and tell me he will likely go lame but would then adjust. What are others thoughts and experiences as regards this ? Does anyone else still shoe oldies or find that they can adjust ok to not having them?

 

[paddi22]

I have an older horse with hock arthritis in work and he is barefoot all round, even on roads and tracks. I find he moves better without shoes and it has helped him be more comfortable in his movement. any horses I have retired to field have had shoes taken off them and their feet coped well. I also feel it's safer as there's less danger of them pulling or twisting shoes off or shoes coming off in the field and them standing on nails etc.

 

[Red-1]

I think barefoot is better for a number of different situations, I would say it is not cheap or easy though!

I find I spend more on correct feed, a set of trimming tools, a trimmer...

It is cheaper long term, but more faff. Mine is barefoot though.

 

[kazg07]

I have an older horse with hock arthritis in work and he is barefoot all round, even on roads and tracks. I find he moves better without shoes and it has helped him be more comfortable in his movement. any horses I have retired to field have had shoes taken off them and their feet coped well. I also feel it's safer as there's less danger of them pulling or twisting shoes off or shoes coming off in the field and them standing on

 

[kazg07]

He has had shoes for the last 18 years and obviously I don't want him to be uncomfortable but wondered if he would go lame to start with? If he does, il probably end up putting them back on. People seem to think I'm crazy and just say take them off but I'm too soft !

 

[NinjaPony]

If it makes you feel better, my retired pony has front shoes on as after a laminitic episode he is much more comfortable with them on. If it ain’t broke and all that...

 

[irishdraft]

I kept my retired mare shod with fronts on she had never been shod behind but was very footy on hard ground in front so kept her the same way as when does was ridden .

 

[FFAQ]

Only one way to find out! You can always put them back on if it doesn't work out. Why not just have the backs off first and see how he goes?

 

[PapaverFollis]

My old girl had shoes on to the end. She was more comfortable that way so they stayed on.

 

[meleeka]

Only one way to find out! One of mine had never been without shoes and was absolutely fine. A friends was not so she had the farrier out the following week to put them back on. I’d try it, you can always re-shoe if it doesn’t suit.

 

[splashgirl45]

why not take hinds only off to see how he copes and if he copes ok and seems happy take the fronts off. just make sure your farrier just lightly trims and doesnt take off too much... my 25 year old cushings horse coped very well without hinds and i was waiting for the ground to soften before taking fronts off but she had to be PTS before i got that far...

 

[Equi]

There is only one way to find out but that one way may be the best or worst thing you do...its so hard to decide. I have tried BF on my boy twice, once was cause he was BF when i took him on share and had no control over his life (they took them off to save money) when i took him on the first thing i did was get my own farrier who promptly put them back on cause he was so flat at the back he was sore. Within a few days he was a different horse but needed physio/massage regularly on his hind end to get it to the point it was no longer tense. I then made the silly mistake of taking them off again last year because we had got the hoof to an acceptable state..whoops. So they are back on again and my farrier is great at letting him rest through out and fully supportive of me keeping them on as he really needs that support behind (crap conformation)

 

[ester]

No reason he should be lame to start with, I agree with those saying take off the backs as a starter.

Part of the reason I did a barefoot rehab on my then lame in front horse was because the alternative was retiring (19 at the time) and I didn't plan to keep him shod if retired so a bit 'not much to loose'.
It also meant he grew his own lateral extension when he did develop a spavin on one side some time later.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

He has had shoes for the last 18 years and obviously I don't want him to be uncomfortable but wondered if he would go lame to start with? If he does, il probably end up putting them back on. People seem to think I'm crazy and just say take them off but I'm too soft !

Mine at 23 had shoes off in a bid to suport her check ligament better, sorry i forget the reasoning behind it, over the years with multiple over compensatory issues and five years of vets bills without break its not easy to remember.

The very day she'd had them removed she walked out of the stable completely sound, it was a huge surprise - she was sound walking from the stable in shoes but what I'm saying was I had expected her to be footsore but she wasn't.

For the entire 5 weeks she stayed sound until her next shoeing when it was decided that due to the injury to her check ligament she would be better supported back in shoes - i think these were either with pads, frog support shoes or Avanti shoes (again i lose track).

I wouldn't hesitate to go BF again. That said i had a previous horse it didn't work for. He'd received a kick and was on box rest for 6 weeks. As he was due to be shod the farrier suggested giving him a break from shoes as he was on box rest with in hand walking twice daily. However he spent the first couple of days groaning and sweating on the floor of his stable in pain due to the pain in his feet and I'd had to bute him up until the farrier could come back out and nail them back on again. In retrospect the driveway outside his stable had been quite stony so he never stood a chance really.

I'm glad i gave it a go with my mare. If the coffin joint issues don't get resolved when she has Arthramed next week and Osphos fails she will be retired and providing the vet thinks its in her interests and she can remain pain free then i will pull her shoes and she can go BF again and i can go from paying £115 every five weeks to £75.

 

[Shay]

My 29yr old retired boy is shod in front. He was initially shod all round but when he got canker last year we took all 4 shoes off to facilitate treatement. Fairly quickly the white line broke down in the fronts so we put those shoes back on. Oddly the canker cleared in the front faster but even though he is now completely clear in all feet he is still unshod behind. He seems happy. I don't want to mess with him if I don't have to.

You really have to do what is right for your horse. Some do fine without shoes, some need them. However Red-1 is abolutely right. Keeping them barefoot is not necessarily cheaper than shoeing. Don't remove the shoes just because you think its a cheaper option.

 

[poiuytrewq]

I’ve recently removed my retired horses shoes. He had the hinds off a year ago when he first retired. My decision to take the fronts off was that his mobility/arthritis had worsened and I wanted to decrease concussion. I also do see that barefoot is best for horses. I’d love to be able to take my ridden horses shoes off but been there done that, it didn’t work.
Retired horse has great feet though. Strong healthy and a nice shape.
Its only been a matter of weeks , he’s doing ok. Unfortunately I had to move back to a field with stonier access which hasn’t helped and wasn’t part of the plan.
I won’t hesitate to put them back on if I feel he needs them, but will definitely be aiming to keep them off.

 

[AandK]

My retired 24yo is only shod in front now. I have toyed with the idea of taking his fronts off, tbh he does it himself quite a lot and doesn't have any issues walking around but he's not got the best front feet and I don't want him to spend his well earned retirement uncomfortable while he transitions, which would probably take a while. If I could go back in time knowing what I do now, I would have taken him barefoot as a much younger horse, it would have done him the world of good to spend at least a year out of shoes, but he deserves a nice easy retirement so he has shoes in front.

 

[kazg07]

I think we will give it a go as like people have said I won't know until I try. However, the farrier is back in 3 weeks to do my other horse so if he seems at all uncomfortable il just put them back on. He does have good feet but is shod to give him extra support behind with his arthritic hocks. People seem to have conflicting views on arthritic hocks and whether shod or not is best. The last thing I want is for him to be uncomfortable in any way as he has been a good horse and deserves the best of care in his old age.

 

[Follysmum]

My 24yr old retired endurance horse had shoes for 20yrs and we took them off after I had my accident. He has coped fantastic and you would of thought he had always been barefoot

 

[ihatework]

It wouldn’t occur to me not to try a retired horse unshod! Far better for them and my pocket, provided they are comfortable. Maybe take the hinds off now and the fronts in the autumn.

They can always go back on if he gets sore

 

[Spirit2021]

To be honest I don’t see the point of keeping a retired horse with shoes it going to cost a lot and plus you can’t really check them everyday so it no ideal.

 

[ester]

huh you can definitely check them every day.... as you should.

 

[milliepops]

yeah bit puzzled why you wouldn't be able to check them every day... mine aren't shod but they get checked anyway

 

[AandK]

What a strange comment, I check my 24yo retiree twice a day...

 

[PapaverFollis]

I would probably have tried Granny horse without shoes in retirement if we hadn't had a disaster trying to transition her to barefoot a few years pre-retirement. She hasn't coped at all. So shoes stayed on as I wasn't putting her through that again. Without that history I would probably have at least tried it but she would have to have been comfortable very quickly or they'd have gone back on.

 

[splashgirl45]

i checked my retired horse a minimum of twice a day and she had her feet picked out every day, she was looked after the same as before retirement...find it sad that horses are not checked daily if they are retired, they are still the same living animals who need as much or sometimes more care than a horse in work

 

[Auslander]

To be honest I don’t see the point of keeping a retired horse with shoes it going to cost a lot and plus you can’t really check them everyday so it no ideal.

I have several retired horses here with shoes on, because they are more comfortable in shoes, and I don't like seeing old horses hobbling around because they are footsore.
Why do you think they can't be checked daily - the only difference between a retired horse, and one that's in work is that the retired ones don't get ridden

 

[TinseLeneHorse]

If they need shoes to keep them comfortable in retirement keep the shoes on. Doesn't seem like rocket science to me.

 

[Auslander]

Our 30yr old TB needs shoes on so he doesn't fall apart when he comes in to land from one of his angry outbursts!

 

[Carrottom]

I have one retired whose has no shoes but the other is shod as he has thin soles. He would be okay this time of year but I would worry about frozen ground in winter and rock hard in summer.