Poor feet on a sec D

willhegofirst

willhegofirst

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A friend of mine had a sec D mare who's feet are not good, poor quality horn and flat. She had owned her from a foal, and shod her as she couldn't cope when ridden, the mare is 15 now, the last time she was shod the farrier moaned about how difficult it was to shoe her as her feet are so poor. She gets happy hoof plus high fibre nuts, she has always had her on a supplement for hooves and has just started her on hoof maker.
I have suggested removing her shoes, which she is not totally agaisnt, but is worried about the fact she is very flat footed and if she would cope with boots on.
Can anyone suggest anything else to help?
 
What is the grazing situation? If the horse is getting a lot of grass, I'd start by restricting this and replacing with hay. A mineral analysis and corresponding feeding plan would also be a good idea. Problems with hoof quality are usually imo dietary. Flat feet are also generally a product of management rather than conformation.

If the horse has been shod back to back for many years then a break from shoes may also be of benefit imho. Booting for riding is usually sufficient to ensure the hirse's comfort during the transition. :)
 
Eta: grr damn iPhone. How is 'hirse' a legitimate alternative to horse? Honestly. It's even autocorrecting 'hirse' to 'horse' now, so why did it just do the opposite??
Rant over :D
 
She needs to address the diet long before she takes the shoes off. Some horses just cannot cope with any sugar in their diet (that esp includes grass!). That is far more important than supplementing her with a balancer she quite possibly doesn't need!

What is she currently feed and management? Inc grass and hay?

Just taking her shoes off won't particularly help with her poor quality wall and flat soles, only changing her diet to suit her will do that, THEN she can work on rebuilding her feet.

She sounds like one of the more difficult horses to keep happy barefoot so the owner will need to be pretty dedicated and do a lot of learning and research to make it work. It may just be easier and kinder to keep the shoes on if the owner can't or won't put a lot of time and effort into it. Whipping the shoes off and doing nothing about the rest is pretty much guarenteed to just leave her sore.

She will also need a fair bit of experienced help. A farrier will be perfectly able to trim the feet but they rarely have the knowledge to pass on about diet and management. A good barefoot trimmer should be able to help her with that (and boots) and there's plenty of specialist barefoor forums with loads of info.
 
She is on formula4feet at the mo. She is in a pen with limited grass for most of the time, allowed into the main field for about four hours aday, she gets soaked hay at night in the pen. Although she has never had laminitis she is very aware of it and keeps a very close eye on her, she is on a fibre diet as mentioned in first post and she is careful not to add to much extra sugar to her feeds.
Kallibear, the reason for suggesting taking her shoes off was to give her feet a break from nail holes as the farrier was complaining about shoeing her.
The problem with getting hay analysed is we have to buy from YO and it changes all the
time, I guess the grass could be analysed.
I will talk to her more about her diet.
Thanks all
 
Kallibear said:
She needs to address the diet long before she takes the shoes off. Some horses just cannot cope with any sugar in their diet (that esp includes grass!). That is far more important than supplementing her with a balancer she quite possibly doesn't need!

What is she currently feed and management? Inc grass and hay?

Just taking her shoes off won't particularly help with her poor quality wall and flat soles, only changing her diet to suit her will do that, THEN she can work on rebuilding her feet.

She sounds like one of the more difficult horses to keep happy barefoot so the owner will need to be pretty dedicated and do a lot of learning and research to make it work. It may just be easier and kinder to keep the shoes on if the owner can't or won't put a lot of time and effort into it. Whipping the shoes off and doing nothing about the rest is pretty much guarenteed to just leave her sore.

She will also need a fair bit of experienced help. A farrier will be perfectly able to trim the feet but they rarely have the knowledge to pass on about diet and management. A good barefoot trimmer should be able to help her with that (and boots) and there's plenty of specialist barefoor forums with loads of info.
Click to expand...

I wish there was a "like" button! Totally agree with this!!
 
willhegofirst said:
She is on formula4feet at the mo. She is in a pen with limited grass for most of the time, allowed into the main field for about four hours aday, she gets soaked hay at night in the pen. Although she has never had laminitis she is very aware of it and keeps a very close eye on her, she is on a fibre diet as mentioned in first post and she is careful not to add to much extra sugar to her feeds.
Kallibear, the reason for suggesting taking her shoes off was to give her feet a break from nail holes as the farrier was complaining about shoeing her.
The problem with getting hay analysed is we have to buy from YO and it changes all the
time, I guess the grass could be analysed.
I will talk to her more about her diet.
Thanks all
Click to expand...

Limiting to a pen restricts the movement which is esential. A muzzle and/or a track system is better. Even if the track is a narrow lane around the edge of the field and been grazed out hard!! A horse/pony needs to be able to move around 20 miles/ks a day!!!
 
I tend to find D's are not the easiest because they can be very 'metabolically/digestively' sensitive. Get cushings tested and liver function too. If cushings high side of normal discuss a prascend trial for 3-4 months. Weeks is not enough. Been pretty successful with this approach.
 
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