Newly barefoot feet - not too good! Cc and advice?

[PonyIAmNotFood]

Losing patience with photobucket so may be pics missing! My recently purchased mare had her shoes pulled today, she's been in them for pretty much 15 years on and off at least. She's a bit footsie and has no heel to speak of! Any crit, advice, how long do you think before she's a bit more sound? Thanks in advance!

 

[PonyIAmNotFood]

Should have really picked the feet and brushed them off before the pics not after! Oops!

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

have you adjusted the diet ............ needs minerals and hi fibre lo sugar diet, so if out at grass I would stable for a morning, and fill her tummy with well soaked hay. 25gms salt no molasses. Fast Fibre is a plain feed. No fancy feeds. No alfalfa.
Try Cavallos if she cant walk in hand on concrete for ten mins after a week of shoes off. If sore use pads too.
Feet are pretty poor at this time: lack concavity, low heels, expect to do a lot of walking in hand and not much riding on hard surfaces.
The edges should be rasped off every two weeks.
Frogs look good, so that is one good point. Check for thrush, but looks ok.
Go to Rockley farm for info and pics, spend an hour a day till you have got the idea.
Listen and observe the walk.
Feet First [book] is a readable text book on feet, ignore seaweed and feed pro hoof or similar
Expect singnificant improvements in two months.

 

[Red-1]

They are nicer than my horse's were when his shoes were pulled. He had a month doing very little, started with 100 yds road walking, a bit of lungeing to keep him sane, and the next month built up the road walking to 10 minutes and started short 10mins rides in the school, walk with a bit of trot.

Built up from there, and he has been barefoot 5 months now and still wears boots for hacking (bought at 3 months as I realised he was going to take more time on hard surfaces ridden), but is schooling for half an hour or so, and has started jumping on good surfaces.

Moreover people now tell me he has great feet. They get stronger every month.

I use Pro Hoof, and over Xmas we went onto Farrier's Formula as he was not getting hard feed, and I did see the difference near the end. But, that cold equally be the loss of hard feed (Pure Easy).

I would take photos every month for reference, then when you think they are "rubbish" you will look back and see how good they really are now. It will also highlight any problems early on, as it is easier to spot changes on a photo than in real life IMO. I take the same shots each time, and yes, I do pick and brush first ;-)

I find people here (Thank you all) are helpful and encouraging, also on Facebook the Barefoot Horse Owners group has been helpful too.

Actually, considering some photos I see yours are pretty immaculate photos.

 

[LittleBlackMule]

As above. Diet is the foundation, and given time and appropriate exercise the horse will do the rest.

Get good at interpreting labels on feed bags - often what is implied on the front of the bag is very misleading. You should be looking for feeds that have absolutely no molasses (often called moliglow or similar to mislead you) and as few cereals as possible.

 

[PonyIAmNotFood]

She's on healthy hooves no millasses now (transitioned to this from the bags of sugar she was on!) with turmeric and a joint supplement. She will not eat salt in her feed, just turns her nose up I'm going to restrict her grazing also. The hay she has is quite stalky, don't think there is much in it?

She's actually sound and striding out on concrete already and even on rough tracks, she just hits the odd sharper stone and really goes 'ow'. Great to hear success stories red-1, I was looking at your horses progress the other day and his are looking fab.

Thanks all, she's a tough'un and hopefully she's gonna do really well with this. She prev broke a leg and is always sore through her left shoulder when the massage lady comes, I think she's ended up with one leg a bit longer than the other so will possible be growing herself one upright foot in front to compensate for this. Will post a one month update to compare next month.

 

[PonyIAmNotFood]

As above. Diet is the foundation, and given time and appropriate exercise the horse will do the rest.

Get good at interpreting labels on feed bags - often what is implied on the front of the bag is very misleading. You should be looking for feeds that have absolutely no molasses (often called moliglow or similar to mislead you) and as few cereals as possible.

When I realised happy hoof was stuffed with millasses, I realised you really can't trust a name! Disgusting really and very misleading.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I'd still give her a mineral for feet, as they have extras just for that, including magnesium [they may need 10gms+per day], and Cu etc. Minerals are expensive, so tend to be limited in chaffs and mixes, so I think a tub of pro hoof or pro summer balance or forageplus is a good investment for at least first six months.
And yes still soak the hay, anything to reduce the sugars and increase the fibre. Even an hour will remove a fair bit, it also washes off dusts and moulds, but it removes a lot of minerals if soaked for a long period.
The thing with minerals is that they interact to some degree, therefore need to be balanced.
Was micronised linseed mentioned for skin, hoof, joints, and all round conditioner [min25gms summer, up to 200gms winter]
Expect the feet to grow oddly, but resist the temptation to trim to perfection, the horse knows better and if you can do roadwork she should self trim.
http://www.rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/faqs-flares-and-froth.html scroll down the page to the chestnut past the skewbald

 

[PonyIAmNotFood]

The youngster is on micronised linseed, will have to stick her on it as well. Will go have a look at mineral balancers today and get her started. I just want her to be comfy. I'm all in for self trimming, and she is a star on the roads so that is definitely going to happen. Thank you, I'm up on how to maintain barefoot feet but transitioning is a whole different ball game!

 

[PonyIAmNotFood]

I love reading rockley, that chestnuts foot never stops amazing me. Don't think marbies deviations will be that dramatic! But yes, see your point about trimming!