Opinions on these hooves.

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Lamc

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I had my horses shoes removed yesterday, hopefully for good. Looking for opinions on his feet and any advice Thanks
http://s1366.photobucket.com/user/lamc7/library/?sort=3&page=1

Horse is 5, had front set put on summer last year when we started doing more hacking. I was worried about how quickly his toes were wearing down, they were square across the front.

The hind hooves started to flare and farrier suggest hind shoes. With hind shoes on he forged and tripped up a lot so then got rolled toes. This improved the tripping a bit but after 2/3 shoeing cycles I had the hinds removed. ( just before christmas)
Decided to take the fronts off because I only got them on because of the wear on his toes but hoping now that he's a bit older and better balanced that will have improved.

He was a bit sore on lose stones when I took him out today but fine on tarmac. He was never footsore before he had shoes on. How long should I expect the tenderness to last?
 
Lamc said:
Horse is 5, had front set put on summer last year when we started doing more hacking. I was worried about how quickly his toes were wearing down, they were square across the front.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to pick up on this point. When a horse squares off it's toes like that and is still sound - you don't need to worry about it. What is happening is that the horse is wearing the horn away up to the breakover point. It's one of the great things about not having shoes on a horse, as the breakover stays correct between trims (as long as you do enough work to wear off extra horn growth).
 
He was still sound, I'm glad to hear that it's ok for the toes to wear down more. At the time I did panic a bit as they looked so short and I was worried that now I've taken his shoes off again I would have to limit our hacking for a while to stop it happening again. You have put my mind at rest, thanks.
 
Just build your hacking up slowly, don't go straight out and do a three hour ride. Your horse will need to get used to not having shoes on, but as he hasn't been shod for long, hopefully he'll adjust quite quickly.
 
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