Road hacking & no shoes

[only_me]

I'm currently hacking Bill getting him back into work. All our hacking is on road, so started off 20mins - 40min - 60mins. Now he's up to the 1hr we'll be out everyday.
As he's unshod will his feet wear down too much? I'm not sure as have never hacked him out with no shoes. Hopefully farrier will be out to shoe in 3-4 weeks but until then he will be Hacking everyday on road.

He has good feet, which are standing up well & not flaking off. He's also on a low starch feed & lives out.
Is it worth starting him on farriers formula? Or is there something else that I can do to help protect his feet?

 

[HufflyPuffly]

I would think with your slow and steady approach his feet will respond and grow according to the work. If his feet look good then I'd not rush to buy anything else, but I supplement mine with the Progressive Earth supplements (ebay shop).

 

[pansymouse]

I road hack barefoot; I have hoof boots just in case but rarely need to use them.

 

[_HP_]

There are many, many many horses and ponies hacking unshod all their lives with no problems at all.

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I am astounded, OP has been on here for years, and has not realised that barefoot is the way forward, and as for the hooves "wearing out" ................ no they dont, provided the horse is managed properly there will be no need to shoe, and its much safer on the road.

 

[only_me]

Thanks Alexhyde, will continue to work slowly to build up strength then

I know there are many horses that work without shoes.
Mine has always been shod, therefore I was asking about newly unshod horses working on roads only. A lot of people I know who have horses without shoes - But they have usually been without shoes for a long period and have little to no road hacking. My horse is coming back from injury and I do not want to cause further delay in his recovery. Hence I asked about how much wearing a hoof will occur if only hacking on roads. He has had no "transition time" apart from walking on his concrete yard occasionally.

I am astounded, OP has been on here for years, and has not realised that barefoot is the way forward, and as for the hooves "wearing out" ................ no they dont, provided the horse is managed properly there will be no need to shoe, and its much safer on the road.

LOL and you think that you know everything, right? I know a lot about the theoretical knowledge about hacking unshod horses, but the majority of information available does not focus on road only hacking. Your opinion is just that, your opinion.

I don't agree that having a horse unshod is the way forward - when my horse is back into full work he will be shod. He is being shod as soon as farrier is available. He is only unshod until then.
Because he is new to hacking without shoes I wanted to know if the hoof will wear down excessively, what I should I look out for or if there is anything I can do to help prevent the hoof breaking. Or if I need to limit road hacking.

I don't know everything about horses, and I will never profess to know everything. I'm always learning and I love learning new things. I may know a great deal about certain topics but only surface knowledge about other topics. Hence why I ask on a forum for advice from others who know a great deal about my "weaker" areas. Isn't that the point of a forum??

This arrogant and all-assuming attitude that you appear to have bonkers is what puts people off from asking questions. Maybe you should consider that when you reply to threads, friendly advice is taken on board a lot better than arrogant condescending advice.

 

[Casey76]

My old horse would go hours (and miles) on roads with no shoes on. His feet didn't always look pretty, but he was never sore - even after a 4 day/ 60km per day randonnee.

 

[FfionWinnie]

As long as you do it gradually so the hoof has time to keep up with the work and increase its growth to match it, you'll be fine.

Yes you can "wear the feet out" I've done it with several of mine, but it's not a given and it's only happened when work has increased too quickly for their feet to keep up. The fact yours is coming back from injury probably means you will have a very good transition. Smooth tarmac is the best surface for good foot health.

I have the opposite problem at the moment. My main horse has for the last 18 months covered up to 140kms a week on roads BF. She is also kept on a hardcore surface. Her feet are growing for that level of work, however I had an accident 2 months ago and I haven't been able to give her that level of work so her feet are now growing too fast. She's been self trimming until now but I've had to really increase the road work to get her feet trimmed up! Interestingly this does prove that the hoof does adjust to the amount it needs to grow, because she is one of the horses who's feet I did wear out when she first moved onto the hardcore turnout.

Also if you've got him sound and in full work, perhaps you won't bother with shoes anyway

 

[Charlie007]

Only me, no advice, just glad to hear the beautiful Billy is up and running again x

 

[Fiona]

Is it all roads op or stony tracks too?

Fiona

 

[Procrastination]

My personal experience has been that with increased riding on the roads, my mare who has always been barefoot got to the point where I needed to shoe. I really didn't want to have to do it, I'm hoping it will only be temporary and that one day we will reach the goal of being able to grow enough hoof to match what she is wearing down. I'm not sure where I went wrong as she was on a good diet, getting all the stimulation she should need, building it up gradually etc but for some reason her hooves just wouldn't grow and she was getting sore. I tried using boots but we have quite a nasty stoney section to come along when bringing in and turning out and it got to the point where she was unhappy coming across it. Unfortunately in the middle of winter booting up to bring in wasn't as option as we were knee deep in mud, although it's something I could do now if I decide to take her fronts off again.

 

[only_me]

Thanks ffionwinnie, that's reassuring good to know that Tarmac is good for hoof health! He normally has good growth, would get shod every 6 weeks rather than 8. If he's coping well with no shoes then we may well continue unshod if we stick to hacking, but hopefully we will be doing some eventing at at end of season so will be shod for that.

Fiona, it's a mixture of both - the Tarmac isn't smooth (country roads lol) and there is a mix of gravelly Tarmac & smooth. With the gravelly bit I try to stick to the edges where there's less gravel. No stoney tracks though

 

[FfionWinnie]

My personal experience has been that with increased riding on the roads, my mare who has always been barefoot got to the point where I needed to shoe. I really didn't want to have to do it, I'm hoping it will only be temporary and that one day we will reach the goal of being able to grow enough hoof to match what she is wearing down. I'm not sure where I went wrong as she was on a good diet, getting all the stimulation she should need, building it up gradually etc but for some reason her hooves just wouldn't grow and she was getting sore. I tried using boots but we have quite a nasty stoney section to come along when bringing in and turning out and it got to the point where she was unhappy coming across it. Unfortunately in the middle of winter booting up to bring in wasn't as option as we were knee deep in mud, although it's something I could do now if I decide to take her fronts off again.

Next time use the boots for more of the hacking before she gets sore then she won't have a problem with the track and you should crack it I think.

I don't use boots at all now and I don't think I would need them for anything I transitioned in the future but if you only have one horse or its in a lot of work, it's harder to match the work to the feet.

With my second horse, she was rehabbing for other reasons and it was a lot easier because I had my main one to ride if I felt the second one was doing too much wearing out work, if that makes sense. Second horse is the 9th I've taken barefoot and it does get less worrying the more you do it.

 

[supsup]

Just listen to your horse. The reason you can't "ride the hoof off the horse" is because horses are sensible, and will stop working (aka "reduce the workload") when they start getting uncomfortable. So long as your horse is happily moving forward, just keep on carrying on. If you start feeling a reluctance to trot, wanting to go to the verge all the time, or the walk starts feeling "short", then you either need to reduce your hacking, change the surface or add some protection.
My experience has been that it depends entirely on the individual horse if they will eventually adapt and grow enough hoof to make up for the wear on roads. Mine grows hoof ridiculously slowly, and even though I spent weeks bringing him slowly back into work with increasing walk work on tarmac, he never got to a point where he was happy to cope with the amount of work I wanted to do with him without boots/shoes.

 

[Fiona]

Hopefully he will be ok then

Our pony has white feet and I've noticed they are wearing much more now he does a bit of hacking.

Have warned farrier to alert me if ge thinks we do need shoes.

Fiona

 

[Sheep]

I am sure he will be fine. You'll notice if he becomes uncomfortable - glad to hear he's back in work

I'm lucky, my old unshod boy is sort of out of work at the minute, but our road has been resurfaced, and it's so beautiful and smooth and lovely, going to start working him in hand on it soon

 

[Kylara]

You can wear out the feet (happened with our driving ponies) when you up the workload faster than the hooves can keep up. If you go slowly and up it gradually they generally do ok. But like you, ours were barefoot until they needed shoes as we event with them and have tiny studs and road nails for grip around obstacles etc and on grass and road.

Shoe for the workload, so keep going until your workload increases too much for the feet to remain unshod, or until the work you are doing requires shoes (eventing for eg)

 

[eggs]

I finally had to give in and put shoes on my five year old (who had been unshod all his life) as his feet were not coping with the amount of road hacking we were doing. However two of the others who were kept the same way are now 11 and have never been shod.

 

[Makemineacob]

I am astounded, OP has been on here for years, and has not realised that barefoot is the way forward, and as for the hooves "wearing out" ................ no they dont, provided the horse is managed properly there will be no need to shoe, and its much safer on the road.

Totally agree. Hoof boots are useful as a back up too.

 

[Makemineacob]

Hopefully he will be ok then

Our pony has white feet and I've noticed they are wearing much more now

Fiona

It's an absolute fallacy that white feet aren't as strong as black feet.

 

[only_me]

Totally agree. Hoof boots are useful as a back up too.

You are Also otally astounded that I "should know better" because I've been on here longer, just like bonkers?

If so, my reply to bonkers also applies to you.

 

[Enfys]

It's an absolute fallacy that white feet aren't as strong as black feet.

It would be damn awkward if a horse had a mis-matched set, or worse, stripy hooves wouldn't it ?

 

[sarcasm_queen]

All I know is that it didn't work for our mare at all, she's got her shoes back on now and seems a lot happier. So maybe be prepared that it might not be the best for your horse and you may have to go back (ours is a wimp who's been shod for years, might have worked out fine for something more 'robust').

 

[serenityjane]

I am astounded, OP has been on here for years, and has not realised that barefoot is the way forward, and as for the hooves "wearing out" ................ no they dont, provided the horse is managed properly there will be no need to shoe, and its much safer on the road.

Utter rubbish Bonkers- Barefoot is ONE way, Hoofboots are another way, as is Shoeing. And yes, a lot of hooves do wear excessively, which is why all barefooters (that ride their horses) have hoof boots in their tack room!

OP if your horse is not footsore (slows down, short striding, does the occasional 'ouch' over stones) then you would need to just keep an eye on the hoof wear- my young mare wore her feet excessively, she was not sore, but had quite excessive wear -so I shod her as we too are limited to roads. However this was in the winter when their feet are not growing so well. She is still on a 6 week shoeing cycle, so her feet grow well, just not enough for our roads and every day hacking.

 

[ycbm]

Utter rubbish Bonkers- Barefoot is ONE way, Hoofboots are another way, as is Shoeing. And yes, a lot of hooves do wear excessively, which is why all barefooters (that ride their horses) have hoof boots in their tack room

Errrr, no we don't

No hoof boots in my tack room; haven't used a boot for about seven years. I match work to wear and if the horse isn't ready for the work unbooted, I don't do it.

Which is not to say that boots aren't very useful for some people and some horses, but you really can't generalise that all barefooters whose horses are ridden will have boots.

 

[EQUIDAE]

Utter rubbish Bonkers- Barefoot is ONE way, Hoofboots are another way, as is Shoeing. And yes, a lot of hooves do wear excessively, which is why all barefooters (that ride their horses) have hoof boots in their tack room!

Utter rubbish! I have 7 horses, all barefoot and don't own hoof boots

We do a fair bit of road work to get to this off-road hacking - none of mine have ever been foot sore or worn down too quickly.

 

[paddy555]

to answer OP's original question I suspect that an hour a day on the roads, 7 days a week for the next month and the feet will wear down badly. Some horses at this stage may be able to cope especially if the roads are smooth and non abrasive. However IMHO it will take a fair while to transition a horse to work up to 7 hours road work on more abrasive tarmac. it can take some feet quite a while to get the message that they have to put out sufficient quality growth to keep up with wear.

OP, rather than wear the feet too much, which may make it difficult for the farrier or the horse footsore, could you not shoe a little earlier?

 

[SusieT]

Why is it rather than answer the question there has been a massive defensive reaction from barefoot?

 

[FfionWinnie]

Depends what the op is doing for the hour. As the horse has been off work I would have assumed it was walking. Walking does not wear the feet anywhere as much as faster paces.

No one can say whether it will or it will not be too much for the feet since no one is in possession of a crystal ball. People can only share their own experiences. So SusieT I am unsure what you expect people to say.

My cob would have been fine doing an hour a day from the moment her shoes came off. It was only when she was on stoney surfaces 24/7 I ran into a problem and even then it was only for a few weeks.

No foot is made equal so it will be a case of try it and see.

 

[Makemineacob]

You are Also otally astounded that I "should know better" because I've been on here longer, just like bonkers?

If so, my reply to bonkers also applies to you.

I was referring to the point about hooves not wearing out actually. I don't know you and am intelligent enough not to make a decision about someone I don't know. I suggest you take a breath!