Maintaining barefoot - work schedule

lauracwd2

lauracwd2

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Can I ask how much roadwork you do with your barefoot horses to help trim/maintain the feet? I have access to off road hacking so don't do any roadwork at all so my horse is either ridden barefoot on grass/surfaces or booted to ride on very stoney forest tracks. His feet are doing pretty well but I'm wondering if I should be making an effort to do some road work or at least ride on harder surfaces without boots and if so what sort of distance/time per week should I be thinking of.
 
It really depends because their feet don't just grow at one speed they grow according to need, but it takes a few weeks for that message to get moved around. For instance my horse was doing 70-100km per week until I was injured and she was suddenly only doing a couple of rides a week. She was self trimming and her feet kept growing at a rate to keep up with the heavy work load. After about 3 weeks they slowed down to meet the new work load. It's the same as if you increase the work load suddenly their feet can't keep up and we rush to get shoes or boots or whatever.

So long story short just increase his tarmac work gradually until he's self trimming. Keeping in mind you really need consistency to actually achieve that.

We need to do 4km road work every ride then the rest is stoney tracks. I rarely use boots - only ever on a new horse.
 
What I can't figure out is if the road work is essential? I'd need to box up somewhere to ride on the road which seems a complete waste of time if we don't need to. If he's sound and happy doing what we currently do then do I need to change anything even if it means we boot up for most of our hacking. I just want to be trying to do the best for his feet as my vets are very unsupportive of barefoot and I want to prove that we can do everything we need to with no issues!
 
Mine almost maintains himself with no roadwork but we have stony tracks to the field which helps and a sand based arena as well. Hes doing 5 to 8 miles once or twice a week and I'm having to be very careful to let his feet build up to it slowly. I think I could possibly manage him without going on a road but he would need trimming more often. Hes only done once every few months now and thats just to check the balance.
 
It's not essential if the horse is sound and doing what you want it to do. However personally I don't want to have to use boots so for me, it would be worth the short term hassle for long term gain. Plus I like not having to pay someone to trim, I do it all myself unless they aren't in work.
 
If the horse is happy and sound why change what you are doing?

Road work is very good for feet especially in the early days, though anecdotally a lot of it can reduce concavity compared to those mostly working on surfaces. But if what you are doing is working for the pair of you sounds good to me. Certainly sounds like he is getting plenty of stimulation.

Mine has done masses of roadwork and still needed trimming (and still wouldn't cope with very stony forest tracks), unfortunately rubber schools don't help for that either ;).
 
Ok thanks, I can't see us ever getting to the stage of not needing boots for our usual forest rides, they are full of horrid sharp granite chips! So it's not an issue for me to boot him for these. He does walk over a mix of hardcore, mixed grade stones and concrete to come in and out of the field each day so I guess that's helping, there are also lots of rocks in the field that they climb over. We've only been barefoot 9 months so still feel like I have to keep justifying it to myself and others at the moment, but each month that goes by his feet look better and better and we're still out doing everything we did before. We've had a few lameness issues over the summer which vets have been keen to 'fix' with shoes however I feel more and more confident that the issues weren't caused by being barefoot and that we're not creating any long term problems by continuing.
 
Things would be pretty bad if you could cause long term lameness issues by not using shoes. Horses have been walking on their own feet for hundreds of years. ;)

I have lots of BF horses doing lots of work on lots of bad terrain every day. One of them has not had a farrier or trimmer near her feet for 3 years, the other one since I bought her 5.5 years ago. Neither of them have ever been lame other than one had an abscess once. The vet always remarks on what good strong feet they have "who is your farrier" ha ha.
 
If your happy and your horse is happy then just keep doing what you're doing :D

With every horse we own we essentially just condition and train them to be able to do what we or someone who may buy them in the future want to do with them. There is no correct all encompassing vision that a horse should be, there is no perfect example. If he's physically able to do the job you want him to do then that's fine.

With big lad I've been through phases (due to different yard locations) of 50/50 road and field, then mainly stony track with a bit of road, and now mainly road and dirt track with a bit of stony track. I've never worried about booting as and when needed, though don't boot at all now. His feet have always been fine, and I rasp them occasionally
 
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