Natural balance shoes and barefoot transitioning

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Kelpie

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Well, nearly 3 months after taking my girl's hinds off, I'm just about starting to think we're getting somewhere in terms of her being comfortable behind! This is the first horse I've had where it's been so tricky to do a barefoot transition and I'm wondering if it could be to do with the fact that she is/ was shod in natural balance shoes? I've noticed one or two mentions of it being tricky to transition from them and I wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience?

Once my girl is 100% behind, I wanted to plan to take the fronts off, but at the moment she is still in natural balance shoes in front and I'm wondering about having her do a few cycles in something else first before we try to transition in front? (probably glue-ons, actually, to avoid the pain of having to wait for nail holes to grow out, but anyway not natural balance shoes). However, does anyone have experience of any horses having issues coming out of natural balance shoes even into "normal" shoes?

Thanks ever so much in advance for sharing any experiences on this.
 
Sorry, I don't have any experience with natural balance shoeing. However, what about a pair of boots for the fronts? That would give her time without anything and an option for riding.
 
Thank you, though I did use boots for the hinds and she even needed them for turnout for a while and we had issues with rubbing and loosing them.... It was better than nothing, don't get me wrong, but if I can this time I would like to think what else I could do first to improve our chances of a good transition as I can't stand to think I will make her sore .....
 
I use equilibrium shoes on three of my horses they are a type of natural balance shoe they come out of shoes and start BF just like any horse it's never caused additional issues .
My horses come in and out of shoes within every year , they often have shoes off one day and start work BF the next you do get a very messy looking foot while they chip back to the nail holes and grow down .
 
The natural balance shoes allow a reduced breakover point on the foot.
Once removed the breakover point then gets instantly moved forward so that in itself may cause an issue. maybe why the natural balance shoes were put on in the first place?
Nest time your horse gets shod why not walk it up before removing the shoes, then once the farrier takes the shoes off you can walk up again and have a look to see how it moves before they fit the new shoes on again.
 
Thank you .... My farrier seems to just favour natural balance shoes generally rather than thinking there is a particular problem with my girl, it seems. I would say her feet are wider than I think they would be barefoot but she doesn't have long toes.

What differences would I be looking for walking up before and after the nb shoes go on? And is there merit then to going to normal shoes before barefoot?

Goldenstar, I wonder if the length in time shod might make a difference? How often would you tend to shoe for?

Thanks!
 
Kelpie said:
Thank you .... My farrier seems to just favour natural balance shoes generally rather than thinking there is a particular problem with my girl, it seems. I would say her feet are wider than I think they would be barefoot but she doesn't have long toes.

What differences would I be looking for walking up before and after the nb shoes go on? And is there merit then to going to normal shoes before barefoot?

Goldenstar, I wonder if the length in time shod might make a difference? How often would you tend to shoe for?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Generally I work on five or six sets at five week intervals before we do a BF break sometimes it's a bit longer but never longer than a year .
 
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