Newly barefoot on back feet - adjustment time?

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We decided with the farrier that the horse's feet look ok to take back shoes off - partly so we can possibly integrate him in field with horses with no worries of injuries with back feet flying :) and partly we like the idea of going natural..

Now we have them off but shoes on the front. I do pick them out every day anyway. Wondering if there is anything else I need to know to care for them. I have to ride a little way on the slightly gravelly road to get to the fields to ride. He rode out fine yesterday just walk and trot. Today he was ridden for a quick bit in one of the fields and had a bit of a buck which is quite unusual for him - and it got me to thinking are his feet sore? could a stoney ground have provoked this?

If so - what plans should we have for riding and where and how long each ride etc?
How do we know if he is sore on the back ones - will he look lame ? or could it be unusual behaviour that is an indicator? do we need to use boots and for how long?

It may have been something else.. but it got me to thinking maybe we need to know more about barefoot issues? Farrier just said that riding for something like 2 hours on the road would not be good! But he didn't say anything else about how/ where to ride/ boots or anything..
 
Mine has been barefoot all his life but I had a tb years ago I transitioned to barefoot as his feet were so crap he could barely keep shoes on.
In desperation, (sooooo many lost shoes), I took them all off in the middle of summer and turned him away.
He was extremely foot sore for about a month or so. I felt bloody terrible but once he got over it he was sound as a pound and had the best feet around.
There is a debate about shod horses having worse/incorrect blood flow around the leg as the foot cannot act as it would unshod, so the debate is when the shoes come off and the blood starts pumping through the leg as it should, what do they feel?
Could be pain, pins and needles, funny sensations, or could be nothing who knows. But I'd like to think the bucking may just be in due to the returning feeling or weird feeling in the legs now the blood can pump more correctly round the leg. There was also an infrared image doing the rounds on face book showing a horse with three barefoot hooves and one shod leg, the shod leg looked decidedly colder meaning less blood flow than the others. If the pic was true there was a massive difference in blood flow between shod and unshod.
I would keep him off extremely stony ground for a short while but don't mollycoddle. He needs ground variations to harden the feet up. You'll know if he is footsore as he will be pottery and reluctant to bear weight on the feet. I wouldn't bother with boots unless he continues to struggle long term on hard ground.
Good diet is the best foot care for keeping barefoot horses happy
 
Zipzop said:
Mine has been barefoot all his life but I had a tb years ago I transitioned to barefoot as his feet were so crap he could barely keep shoes on.
In desperation, (sooooo many lost shoes), I took them all off in the middle of summer and turned him away.
He was extremely foot sore for about a month or so. I felt bloody terrible but once he got over it he was sound as a pound and had the best feet around.
There is a debate about shod horses having worse/incorrect blood flow around the leg as the foot cannot act as it would unshod, so the debate is when the shoes come off and the blood starts pumping through the leg as it should, what do they feel?
Could be pain, pins and needles, funny sensations, or could be nothing who knows. But I'd like to think the bucking may just be in due to the returning feeling or weird feeling in the legs now the blood can pump more correctly round the leg. There was also an infrared image doing the rounds on face book showing a horse with three barefoot hooves and one shod leg, the shod leg looked decidedly colder meaning less blood flow than the others. If the pic was true there was a massive difference in blood flow between shod and unshod.
I would keep him off extremely stony ground for a short while but don't mollycoddle. He needs ground variations to harden the feet up. You'll know if he is footsore as he will be pottery and reluctant to bear weight on the feet. I wouldn't bother with boots unless he continues to struggle long term on hard ground.
Good diet is the best foot care for keeping barefoot horses happy
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thanks - that is really helpful. I think I will take him for a short walk down the road and see how he is going today.
 
thanks for the blog :)
He is on 24/7 turnout with a little calm and condition every day - and ad-lib hay.. I may look into a balancer?
 
I think calm and condition it beet based and has linseed in it and pro bionics..? is that a cereal? I dont feed anything else.
 
I wouldn't ride him yet. He is probably sore and will need some conditioning time. Walk him over some gravelly ground in-hand for a few minutes each day, building up the time and then when you do ride in a couple of weeks start on grass.
 
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