Opinions on hooves please (pic heavy)

Oberon

Oberon

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Please share your thought on these hooves. No right or wrong answers and no trick question. Just genuine thoughts wanted please :) I'm not emotionally invested, so don't worry what you say;)
Horse is shod front with NB shoes and bare in hinds.

Fore side view
tbside1.jpg

Fore sole view
tbofsole.jpg

Hind
tbsidehind2.jpg

Hind
tbsidehind1.jpg

Hind sole
tbohsole.jpg

Hind sole
tbnhsole.jpg
 
I would say that the heels have been taken off farrrr to much, toes on the front look too long and shoes seem to be too nig for the foot although that may just be the chip making them look too wide.

The hoof also doesnt look round on the sole pics and the frog looks like its disintergrated into the foot.

Of course they may look very different in real life but I would defo change farrier asap

ets-Is there a reason for quarter clips on the front?
 
Having read some of your posts re. barefoot,I would be very surprised if these feet were your horses.
Front, looks to have broken axis, very little heel that is not evenly balanced by the shoe, that is I think a hind rather than a Natural Balance.
Hinds again broken axis, poor heels
All feet have poor quality frogs that appear to be receding and offering no support.
It only has 3 feet?? is the 4th worse?
 
Heck, I'm no farrier, but they look :eek: to me......
If the horse was standing square with weight balanced all round, then the hinds look too trimmed back, and the pastern/hoof wall angle is broken.... almost like too much off the toe. But the fronts - is that what it looks like, the front is crumbling round the sides???? the angle here is also broken, but the other way, so like too much has been taken off the heel and the toe grown too long.
But as I said, I'm a long way from expert, I just had a problem years ago with a bad farrier, and picked up a bit from the new farrier who corrected the problem.
 
Not my horse;) Owner just got this horse and asked me to post these pics while she hides behind the sofa:)
Owner only managed to take these pics at a 'readable' angle so only these available :p
 
Thanks very much to Oberon for posting them :)
this is my horse, he's a big ex racer who iv had 8 weeks stright from racing. The back feet aren't shod at all and tbh I'm happy in the little time how the frogs have come on so hopefully will only improve.
He's very long in the toe on the fronts ( shod feet) and has now had natural balance shoes put on although I'm not happy with those and my aim is to go totally bare footed.
Any imput would be great to help me acheive this.
Pics aren't great, trying to balance a mobile while lifting foot and hopeing horse stands still ain't easy
 
Back feet are promising and should give you no big trouble. They're a bit flat but youll have got his diet adjusted now and they will concave up. It took my last one a whole six months on a good diet to get concavity in his hinds.

But oh deary me the heels on the fronts are about as underrun as I have ever seen. The farrier has done his best but I would have expected that NB shoe to have been set a LOT further back off the toe than that. Do you know why he didn't? Perhaps he did not want to do too much too soon.

Don't worry about the crack it should either go or turn to just a "shadow" if you can rebuild the heels.

You can improve those heels with continued good shoeing to support them and a feeding change (a racing diet is a complete nightmare for feet), but you'll see a much quicker change if you can take the front ones off as well.

Can we help you get to that point?
 
Whisp&willow they are natural balance shoes it's the angal iv taken the pics, the toe is squared off not a normal shoe. To be fair to the horse 1st pic ain't the great as he wasn't standing right down properly he was leaning forward a bit but it was the best I could get him to stand.
No he hasn't got the best conformation but he's had a hard life winning lots off money and now in a perm home where hopefully he will enjoy life.
Any advise from bare foot folk is what I'm after really. Cheers.
 
TMG if you look at the top centimetre of front foot, you can see just how keen this horse is to grow a more upright foot. The NB shoes will help, but if you were to take them off, that much steeper angle just under the coronet band would continue to grow at that angle all the way down to the floor.
 
well its the first natural balance shoe that ive seen with the fullering groove continuing across the toe. ;)
(not saying they dont make them... just ive never seen one. ;) )

i think if shod a little better with NB shoes that it would improve his fronts, and ease the breakover point for him.

i have no experience with barefoot, so cant offer anything on that front, but wish you luck, and hope his feet improve. ;) sounds like he's had a hard life before he came to you. all the best with him.
 
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Cptrayes thanks for your comment that's a help. What do u make off his bare hinds? Barring in mind they haven't been bare for long.
Whisp&willow thank you he's gona be totally loved now :) the 1st thing my farrier said when he saw his feet was " uummm what we gonna do with them" they are weird shoes with squared off toes set back a bit with toe over the front. Tbh I don't like them and he didn't like walking in them to start with but I really want to take them off this week as he's due to be shod again and see how they go that way. If that would be the best?? He's not in work he's on a winter hol. :) but walks over concrete and gravel track up to the field.
 
underrun heels with broken axis is what I see but by the sounds of it his owner is making moves to improve them.

To be honest, if he is on hols, I would be tempted to get those shoes off sooner rather than later to begin the rehab process. I'd suggest those toes are rolled on the frontto encorage a better break over and that in turn will help the heels.

He might be a bit sore walking to the field at first so you could get him some boots to wear in the meantime?
 
That is NOT natural balance shoeing. Those are NOT natural balance shoes!!! NB shoes do NOT have clips.

If the toe has been squared then it may be four point shoeing. But it is not NB shoeing!!!
 
NB shoes dont have clips.

anyway i agree, doesnt look good! :)

barefoot is better.

Hell im married to a farrier and all of ours are barefoot!
 
Alphamare any good tips to help?tbh I am worried about my farrier trimming him as he cuts a lot off sole away while I don't want but at the mo iv noticed his soles are building up level/just above hoof wall on his bare behinds so how do u overcome that without cutting his soles back.
 
If they are bare - the level of the sole and it's relationship to the wall will be determined by work, not trimming.

It sounds like the hinds are doing it just right. Bare hooves don't load peripherally, so it sounds like they are doing fine.
 
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Thank you oberon again :)
he's not doing any work though just walking in and out from the field. So don't let farrier cut any? I may look into a trimmer
 
To me the fronts look terrible the backs look promising, if this was my horse i would have them front shoes off, get a decent farrier on the case for a small trim/shape, leave the horse barefoot and put it straight onto biotin in its feed, great stuff :)
 
Thanks cashell, he's on pro feet as well as brewers yeast and mag oz. Iv listened about diet and have that in place now thanks to the guys on here. Fronts are gona come off
 
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