Self trimming, rockley farm, supported by my vet

[ester]

Frank used to wear out his shoes in 6-7 weeks.
His hoof growth is more than his wear hence me having to run the rasp round every 2-3 weeks!

That is working 5-6 days a week, only in the school twice a week - rubber so no wear in there sadly! The other days hacking minimum 1 hour up to 3, hunting when they come close enough to hack there, so usually 2 hours hack and 4 ish hours hunting and they still need trimming after that!
I rarely get the nippers on them but when I do I rather wish they were hydraulic .

 

[PorkChop]

They will grow more feet. Did you see the pic I put up earlier?

Yes I did, great hoof

 

[PorkChop]

absolutely!!

what stimulus to improve their quality do your feet have in shoes? all they can do is put out inferior growth. Give them some stimulus and they put out quality growth and then they get the message that they have to put out sufficient growth to keep up with the level of work they are doing.

Frank used to wear out his shoes in 6-7 weeks.
His hoof growth is more than his wear hence me having to run the rasp round every 2-3 weeks!

That is working 5-6 days a week, only in the school twice a week - rubber so no wear in there sadly! The other days hacking minimum 1 hour up to 3, hunting when they come close enough to hack there, so usually 2 hours hack and 4 ish hours hunting and they still need trimming after that!
I rarely get the nippers on them but when I do I rather wish they were hydraulic .

Impressive - how long would you give a horse to acclimatise before going back to shoes if their hooves didn't stand up to the work?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

I wouldn't expect a horse to be able to cope with the same level of work right from the start. They might be fine, but it is more likely that you will need to build back up to that level of work over time, just like any normal fitness programme. The aim here is for fit, healthy hooves and you need to put the work in. I started leading mine out in hand, but once she was going well I couldn't do enough roadwork to get her self trimming however hard I tried.

 

[FfionWinnie]

Impressive - how long would you give a horse to acclimatise before going back to shoes if their hooves didn't stand up to the work?

It depends. I have a horse that I've been rehabbing since June. She is doing roughly 6-8 hours of work on rough stony tracks and some tarmac per week. I don't have anything else, no school. If I had a school she would be doing a lot more work. I'm happy with how she is coming on tho as she had plenty of problems.

My other horse stepped out her shoes and was in full work without looking back.

You can get boots if necessary. Now I prefer doing the amount of work the feet are up to, because I can't be bothered with boots, but they are an option.

 

[ycbm]

Impressive - how long would you give a horse to acclimatise before going back to shoes if their hooves didn't stand up to the work?

In all the ones I've done, it's never been an issue. One I had to remove from grass completely, he was metabolically very challenged. Several have needed precise mineral balancing. Many have needed yeast. One current one needs an epsm diet. The worst case was sore on concrete and stones for a few weeks. I keep them off surfaces they are sore on. All need work. I've done all sizes and types from racing TB to heavy.

I've never had a horse in the heaviest work wear its feet too fast, provided I did not suddenly increase the amount it was doing too much. If I do ever come across one, then knowing what I know now about shoes and barefoot, I would change what I want the horse to do before I would nail steel to its feet.