Possible Shoes On Tomorrow After 18mnths Bare!

Elsbells

Elsbells

Well-Known Member
Joined
21 April 2010
Messages
2,576
Location
Staffordshire
Visit site
Ellie has not been 100% TBH and I have done all the right things too, since she went barefoot by default 18 months ago. The diet, the work, the trim, just about everything I could change I have and she still isn't quite right? In fact right now she's lame in a collected trot and worse on a circle.

I think I am going to have her shod all round tomorrow, just to see if it is her feet or something more sinister than just sore feet. Her soles are like rock, but she still seeks out the soft verges and suffers the occational ouchie moment and although I am so dissapointed, I feel that I have just reached the end of the road.

I'll see what my farrier thinks.

She probably won't like it!

I feel sick:confused:
 
If you horse is uncomfortable I think you are doing the right thing in putting shoes back on.

Some of mine are shod, come have fronts only and some are unshod . Different things work for different horses. My horse that is fully shod goes very lame in the school without shoes although he is fine hacking out. He has good confirmation and good feet. After a full lameness workup it turned out that he has very thin soles.
 
eggs said:
If you horse is uncomfortable I think you are doing the right thing in putting shoes back on.

Some of mine are shod, come have fronts only and some are unshod . Different things work for different horses. My horse that is fully shod goes very lame in the school without shoes although he is fine hacking out. He has good confirmation and good feet. After a full lameness workup it turned out that he has very thin soles.
Click to expand...

Thankyou for that eggs, that's just what I was thinking.
Feel a bit better now:)
 
See what your farrier says. My horse currently only has front shoes on but she has recently started trying to walk on the verge all the time. Looks like we're going to have shoes all round. As elsbels said some can go without shoes and some can't and lots of other factors.
Don't worry about it. Do what is best for you and your horse.
 
elsbells said:
Ellie has not been 100% TBH and I have done all the right things too, since she went barefoot by default 18 months ago. The diet, the work, the trim, just about everything I could change I have and she still isn't quite right? In fact right now she's lame in a collected trot and worse on a circle.

I think I am going to have her shod all round tomorrow, just to see if it is her feet or something more sinister than just sore feet. Her soles are like rock, but she still seeks out the soft verges and suffers the occational ouchie moment and although I am so dissapointed, I feel that I have just reached the end of the road.

I'll see what my farrier thinks.

She probably won't like it!

I feel sick:confused:
Click to expand...

She's lame on a good surface and in collection and a cirlce only? Unless it's a bruise from all the wet weather we've been having (and they should show up worst on a hard surface) the3n I suspect it's got nothing to do with her barefeet and much more likely musculoskeletal.

Unfortunatly the very first think any vet will tell you is to have shoes on as very few have a clue on barefeet (last week the vet told me she didn't want to do much of a work up on the smooth, flat tarmac as it would make the horse 'footsore' (same horse who does 6hr common rides on the roads with no shoes!)), so it would be worth having them on so you could get a lameness workup, if needs be.
 
Kallibear said:
She's lame on a good surface and in collection and a cirlce only? Unless it's a bruise from all the wet weather we've been having (and they should show up worst on a hard surface) the3n I suspect it's got nothing to do with her barefeet and much more likely musculoskeletal
Click to expand...

That's the other worry Kallibear.

She has improved 100% in what she is able to do flexibility wise in the 2 years that I have I've owned her. She is however a ex jumper with a lot of miles on the clock despite her youth. There is not a lot of history I can find about her and as much as I try, her ex jump jockey from those days does not want any contact, suspitious???
I am though very lucky to be on a yard where we have a very, very good osteo liveried, who checks and manipulates Els on spec for me as she did today bless her. She advises carrot stretches and pole work, but is sure there are no muscuoskeletal abnoralities and as for the lameness today, she's baffled.

Hence the need to maybe try the shoes route for a possible answer.
 
A bruising in this weather wouldn't be suprising BUT if it would show up on all surfaces, esp stoney and hard surfaces.

If the only time you see a lameness is on the soft surface then I'd be guessing tendon or muscle I'm afraid :(

Unless your farrier is useless, a set of shoes on won't do her any harm and will rule it out. Just make absolutely sure you farrier doesn't get gungho with the frogs and soles as she will need them later if you have them back off (2mins with a hoof knife could destroy your 18months of hard work!).

I'd be inclinded to keep her in on a soft bed for a couple of days with only turnout onto a dry surface (indoor school?) to dry her feet out and a really good scrub of her frogs to kill any thrush (that would make her tender). See if that makes any difference and if not, get a lameness workup done, with or without shoes depending on what you decide.
 
Last edited:
I sympathise, one of mine is having fronts on this week, despite having beautiful, strong feet, she can't cope with the amount of road work we do. Pretty gutted but although never footy on any surface, her growth rate doesn't match the work.
 
horserider said:
I sympathise, one of mine is having fronts on this week, despite having beautiful, strong feet, she can't cope with the amount of road work we do. Pretty gutted but although never footy on any surface, her growth rate doesn't match the work.
Click to expand...

??? If she's always sound and comfortable how do you know her foot growth doesn't match the wear? Sounds like she's got the perfect balance, if she's still always comfortable but never needs trimmed. Just because they LOOK short doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.

My horse has very short feet during the summer when he's working hard (6hr's of road work on Common rides!) and it's only when I stop working him as hard that he ever needs anything trimmed off.
 
Kallibear said:
??? If she's always sound and comfortable how do you know her foot growth doesn't match the wear? Sounds like she's got the perfect balance, if she's still always comfortable but never needs trimmed. Just because they LOOK short doesn't mean there's anything wrong with them.

My horse has very short feet during the summer when he's working hard (6hr's of road work on Common rides!) and it's only when I stop working him as hard that he ever needs anything trimmed off.
Click to expand...

Without going into boring detail, because I have have kept horses without shoes for quite a few years. However if you know better without seeing her....
 
What not to understand? Feed the horse right (NOT the good grass and hard feed so many people feed nowadays), give it plenty of exercise (but build up if needs be) and your horse grows a decent enough hoof not to need bit of metal nailed to their feet.

If it 'can't manage' barefoot then, instead of slapping shoes straight back on, investigate WHY it isn't coping: any horse should be able to work hard barefoot if you get the evironment, feed and work right. It's the 'getting it right' part that many people struggle with (and can sometimes be too much of a hassle to be worth it). The hardest part is getting a foot damaged by shoes to heal and redevelop.
 
horserider said:
Without going into boring detail, because I have have kept horses without shoes for quite a few years. However if you know better without seeing her....
Click to expand...

Going by what YOU have said, she is perfectly comfortable without shoes, doing the work she's doing yet you want to put shoes on her because they look short? I don't get it? Why? If she was becoming uncomfortable due to her very short feet then I could understand why you'd consider putting shoes on, but not simply because they're looking short?
 
Funny how since barefoot got trendy, it became complicated. Actually I do know how to feed, keep and train a horse without shoes. And, despite Barefoot propaganda, not all horses cope with the work they need to do unshod. Maybe thats why Hoof boots were invented.

She is not doing the work I want her to do because her feet can't cope.
 
Kallibear said:
It's the 'getting it right' part that many people struggle with (and can sometimes be too much of a hassle to be worth it). The hardest part is getting a foot damaged by shoes to heal and redevelop.
Click to expand...

So true, my big lad will not go without shoes, his feet are in awful nick due to being shod all his life (they aren't good feet anyway, have always been a bit crumbly and cracky since a youngster). My farrier says it will take a very long time for him to come right enough to go barefoot, and in his opinion it's kinder on the horse to just keep his shoes on as he'd probably be hopping lame alot of the time to start with (combination of size and age).

If he was a younger model, I'd deffo try it, as I think barefoot is the way forward! I just think I couldn't cope with seeing him uncomfortable at his age, he's happy how he is. My other two are both barefoot, the one has a whacking great crack down the middle of the hoof growing out too!
 
I will never ever be tempted to go bare foot, or try natural horsemanship, Just because its fashionable and popular does not make it better than the good old 100% reliable traditional ways of doing things.
 
stroppy said:
I will never ever be tempted to go bare foot, or try natural horsemanship, Just because its fashionable and popular does not make it better than the good old 100% reliable traditional ways of doing things.
Click to expand...
Even if the horse would be better off without shoes? :confused:
 
elsbells, can't add a thing more to what kallibear has suggested! I think getting shoes on would be a good plan (even as a stop gap) then you can get your vets to give her a lameness workup without being pulled towards suggesting that it is because of her feet because she is unshod. Present her to them as a nice average horse then hopefully they won't be pulled off track by her lack of shoes and will be able to focus in on the true prob! Hope all is well soon.


stroppy said:
my horses are competition horses therefore will never be better off without shoes.
Click to expand...

Unless your comp horses absolutly need studs, then I don't see how they must be ruled out of having shoes off just because they enter comps?! Both of ours are comp horses and I must say (despite initial trepidation!) that they both def do better without shoes, even with an excellent farrier shoeing them (who still trims them fwiw). No probs in shoes, but a larger freer stride without shoes and more foot sure on even 'stud friendly' surfaces means there is alot to like!

I have had to amend my view of what a hoof should look like. If my farrier trimmed my mare to be how she is now then I would think he had trimmed her too short. But she is foot sure and comfortable on all surfaces and keeps her feet at this length with the work she is in. If she needed more hoof then I am happy that she would grow it, after all she knows an awful lot more about how she moves and is comfortable than I ever can!

For those who like to shoe because it is traditional it is worth remembering that older isn't always better you know, it's called progress!! Traditionally horses would have a break without shoes during their annual holiday, it is much less common to do that now - but nothing has come in its place to help the hooves recover from repeated shoeings.
 
stroppy said:
I will never ever be tempted to go bare foot, or try natural horsemanship, Just because its fashionable and popular does not make it better than the good old 100% reliable traditional ways of doing things.
Click to expand...

I suppose it depends of what you are used to. My developement years with horses involved a lot of unshod horses and that was many years before the current "barefoot fad" of the last 8 years or so. So to me it is the 100% reliable and traditional way of doing things. Having ridden so many more miles without them I find shod horses scary. They slip walking down the tarmac hill that my unshod horse happily trots down. I can easily see the imbalances that studs would cause and am grateful that mine manage happily without.
Many of the horses with leg and foot problems I see seem to be shod yet this is not an area that causes mine problems. It is probably just a coincidence of course.
I did buy one shod horse and he tripped terribly. That was really scary. Once his shoes came off he was fine and it felt a lot safer.
I'm glad that I haven't had to resort to the popular way of doing things with shoes. My bank balance is even "gladder" when I see the cost of shoeing a horse.
Each to him own
 
Surely its a matter of if you are doign everythig you can, and the hoof is still wearing away much faster than it grows, then the foot isn't coping? One of mine is shoeless at the moment (you know, as in doens;t have shoes on, that old fashioed word for barefoot....) doesn;t have good grass or that nasty hard feed stuff, blah blah blah. He is fine, becuase he is inl ight work. But work him regularly in a sand school and the foot just disappears and he is sore. Simples.

OP I would say if your horse isn't coping, and you have rule dother potential problems out, try the shoes.
 
Do what you feel is right. Mine is barefoot at the moment, but if it doesn't workout then I won't feel a failure for having shoes put back on again. I would rather have a sound, comfortable horse in shoes than an uncomfortable one without.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top