Progress or no?? Hoof pics

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jessieblue

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Hi there I posted recently entitled "fully barefoot day 1" So here we are now day 10 and here are the up to date pics with an original thrown in for comparrison. Its not going terribly well! The pictures are really the only thing keeping me going as I can see improvement, but its a very scary road and although I have had some real support from people on here, I am still having a wobble! Have contacted Rockley, but its 8 weeks wait, so I have to decide what to do in the meantime. My horse is turned out with my other boy as he just simply does not box rest. He will box walk all day and I presume thats the last thing we want bearing in mind he has collateral desmitis! Small circles being the enemy. They have been fine and graze at night in during the day. Sadly he was turned out in a big field with more grass last night by the yard and he probably had a run around, today I found he was lame trotting across the field! Not sure if its footsore or his injury or hoof boots hurting or what. Really made me feel I am going backwards! He is back in his regular paddock tonight. Barefoot trimmer came out on saturday and tested his feet saying his fronts are really sore, the backs are fine though. Just trying to keep the faith at the moment and seriously hoping im not doing more harm than good.






You can probably tell which is before and which are after lol. Just wondered if anyone else thinks there is definite improvement here, although many people have told me he will never be fully sound without shoes! Hmmm encouraging. I hope to be able to prove them wrong!
 
Yup, definite improvement. Seriously, only 10 days?

There is a very obvious new, correct, angle growing down from the coronet, so just let him get on with doing the good work.
I know it can be scary to start, but I think sometimes people make out 'barefoot' to be more complicated than it needs to be. Most of the time it's just a case of keeping the diet as high in fibre and low in sugar as possible, and keeping the horse exercised. The only really complicated thing is seeing through the manufacturers BS on feed packaging!
 
Hi and thanks for replying. Actually its 10 days since all four were taken off 3 weeks since the fronts came off, so maybe that was a bit unfair as I should have explained. Fronts came off a bit before due to x rays and then mri, hence the delay before finally comitting to going barefoot. I know what you mean about feed. I have already had this problem and of course getting them to actually eat the hoof suplement with a sugar free diet is challenging in itself! I am happy to do whatever is needed and put in the time. My biggest concern is knowing whether he should be on box rest or not! I know he needs to move to stimulate the hoof, but Im afraid this may further harm his collateral ligmanets. Sometimes they think they know best and decide to run around in the field a bit. To my absolute horror. I really believe box rest will be detrimental to his general wellbeing as he has gastric ulcers too.
 
He has a fairly small paddock usually for him and my other horse. Generally they are really chilled out together. Its just on the odd occasion they might have a little run. Unfortunately YO decided to move them to a big grassy paddock in a new area and they obviously had a hoolie. They are back in their old paddock now, needless to say!
 
They look fine for the amount of time the shoes have been off. They look flat, which will have caused soreness. They also look bullnosed which with the flatness is a clear sign of problems handling carbohydrates.

I would be concerned with two things about your trimmer. They look like they have been very knife happy on the frog. And when you say they 'tested' for soreness, what did they do? I hope you are not going to say that they used hoof testers.
 
Thank you guys. Yes the feed is challenging but a work in progress. The exercise is the big concern for me. Obviously my vets advice is NO exercise and box rest, so I am kind of trashing his advice and going it alone. The big question for me is is it safe to exercise with his injury? I mean just in hand walking, of course, but for how long and when do I increase? I walk in pea gravel for 15 mins a day at the moment. Should I increase yet or add some walking on concrete yet?

The trim is courtesy of my farrier cptrayes! I had a barefoot trimmer who I was recommended come out but he didnt trim at all, said he didnt need trimming yet as not long been done. Yes the frogs are nicely carved and that wont happen again! Trimmer tested to see how sore he was and he used some testers with a pressure guage which told him how much pressure was comfortable. The back came out quite well considering they had only been of a few days but the fronts were indeed quite sore Farrier didnt test at all, or do anything other than trim as he thinks Im mad going barefoot! Barefoot trimmer also mentioned bullnosed and said hopefully this can be put right in time. Why did you ask about hoof testers may I ask?
 
jessieblue said:
barefoot trimmer also mentioned bullnosed and said hopefully this can be put right in time. Why did you ask about hoof testers may I ask?
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Bullnose feet are put right by diet and time.

Hoof testers? If you had sore feet, would you like someone to pinch them with a giant pair of pliars :) ??
 
Oh yes I see lol! Even less would I want someone to hammer some nice sharp shiny nails into my sore feet! Trimmer did test them but he was extremely cautious and gentle and sensitive to his soreness. Its funny because lots of people have warned me not to use a barefoot trimmer as they will come and hack loads of foot away! So far he hasnt taken anything off the hooves at all, jut assessed the WHOLE horse, his movement his hoof conformation and quality. Given me lots of info on stimulation etc and contacted me to see how he is doing.
 
Looks like your horses feet are very definitely telling you what they need :) It's fascinating, eh? If you think about it this is progress after 3 weeks, wait until 3 months.

:)
 
We went barefoot in late last year. The reason being is that my horse had very flat splayed feet in front and was short shot so after two weeks his feet would sag over the back of the shoe. Thus then making his underrun heels worse and a very long toe.

It's been a hard journey at times and a choice which alot of people can't seem to understand. I get a lot of questions and odd looks....eek he has no shoes?!

I think if I'm truthful I went down the barefoot route thinking it was a short term thing and then back to shoes. I've had many wobbles on the way, but I've leant so much in a very short time that going back to shoes isn't an option.
I do boot him out hacking in front as a compromise but have built up walking round fields now and will start to get braver in going bootless in time.

Feet do change v quickly and adapt barefoot so any initial footiness will get better the more you do and are stimulating the feet. Diet and exercise is everything though.

I recently had a forage analysis done of the grass and hay and it's high in calcium and iron amongst other things which would explain why went his feet were getting concavity moved yards and then they splatted a bit. I was advised to come off Fast Fibre(high in calcium) and try Coolstance Copra (is low starch, sugar, horses with insulin, ems problems). You only need a small amount plus then the minerals and vits balancer plus grass and what he gets in hay.
I'm starting to see some improvements since changing vits/min balance which in line with a good trimmer (your trimmer sounds like a diamond) will help stimulate growth and in a few weeks time you will see positive change.

Try to keep the faith despite how cheesy that sounds and good luck in your journey. Take lots of pictures to compare.
 
Thank you guys for comments above. You really are giving me support to see this through. So much to learn but fascinating! Can I take a degree in hooves?? Am I the only person who looks at every damn horses hooves I come across now? I really wish I had known all this years ago!
 
LittleBlackMule said:
That's the thing, once you start to find all this out, you notice the hooves on every other horse you come across and see how damaged they are.
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^ Exactly this and it is very frustrating as the owners of these horses will sometimes make negative comments about you not shoeing your horse. I always hold my tongue and never comment back by criticising their farrier's work (which is sometimes truly awful). I just say that so far she hasn't needed to have them back on.
 
Faracat said:
^ Exactly this and it is very frustrating as the owners of these horses will sometimes make negative comments about you not shoeing your horse. I always hold my tongue and never comment back by criticising their farrier's work (which is sometimes truly awful). I just say that so far she hasn't needed to have them back on.
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I am envious of your self control Faracat!! I just raise my eyebrows and say 'really???'!!!!! I am amazed how many high heels there are in this country!!
 
If he's sore you need to provide pain relief, be that a soft bed or bute. Don't accept it as 'because he's barefoot' as he doesn't know that. To add-just seen that he has ligament issues. If it is the leg he has the ligament injury the lameness may well be due to excess exercise so do keep him restricted until he is sound again or you could end up doing more damage. It's hard to know what is best but I wouldn't be plesed if my yo moved an injured horse to a new paddock with friendS!
 
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