Shocked at amount of bad feet seen at dressage yesterday!

ycbm said:
That's very interesting. Is that the age of the horse, do you think, or is the higher level work also corrupting the feet as well as increasing years of shoeing?
Click to expand...

If you look at the posts by princesssparkle about Pea/CS his feet were fascinating, she kept him bare but his feet changed as he advanced through the dressage grades.
 
lindsay1993 said:
Don't shoot me down here but..... my Welsh pony hasn't had his feet done in over 6 months. He is barefoot and only does hacking over very varied terrain. His feet have not become long, overgrown or even have any cracks. He is on a low sugar/starch diet and is in decent work. My farrier says he's just got good strong proper pony feet and is wearing them down himself. Obviously the farrier has seen him and is very happy with foot balance etc and says he won't take any hoof off as the hooves will then be too short.
In all my years I have never had a pony not need the farrier like this one does. Our tb's have been seen to many, many times and the pony never needs anything doing. Is this normal for a Welsh pony? His feet look exactly the same as they did the day the farrier trimmed them 6 months ago.
Click to expand...

The difference here is your pony is not shod. Many many un-shod horses go a long time between trims, that's normal. He's self trimming :)

Nailing a lump of metal to a horses foot & then leaving it nailed there for 3 months is very different & what people are talking about :)
 
The problem is that shoes can never really fix a problem (like long toes or underrun heels) but they can alleviate the issues caused by them.

So horses with terrible feet can go on at a high level for a few years despite the issues.

It is really our duty as carers of these animals to do the best we can to make sure they are comfortable in their bodies before asking them to work for us.

My biggest issue is the number of horses i see with tiny weedy frogs, contracted heels with no ground contact, usually with huge central sulcus infections.

Yes the horse may be fine now, but i guarantee that continuing to work a horse in that condition with leave it predisposed to arthritis due to the boney column of the limb becoming a shock absorber.

Depends what you want out of your horse i guess ... if you want to make marks of the competition seen and make a name for yourself and churn over horses every few years ... that approach will work... however if you want your horse to be competing into their teens and 20's you have to make sure you look after them ... and unfortunately that isn't just buying them the nicest rug.

I have no idea why people are oblivious to hoof issues ... is it that we have become too accustomed to issues that now they look normal? Why do farriers and vets not highlight these issues ... and offer information or a rehab plan as opposed to a different type of shoe ...
 
Goldenstar said:
Like many people I learnt the hard way you need to educate yourself to keep your horse safe and sound .
You should be able to have the farrier pay his bill and leave him to the job and some farriers are like this but it's too big a risk you must must educate yourself .
The horses that taught me this paid with shortened lives . With what they taught me I strive to do better for the ones I have now .
Click to expand...

It's bad that the horses have to pay though isn't it that we have the knowledge readily available. The problem with trusting professionals is that you don't do the research yourself, and until you encounter problems you don't have the incentive to look. My sisters horse has horrendous feet, shod permanently since 4yo, he's now 25. But of all of them he's the one that's always sound!

I remember brucea making a derogatory remark about my horses frogs 3 years ago, I thought what's his problem, they look fine. How little I knew! Still cuts me deep that ;)
 
I really struggled with one of my boys - took him on barefoot as my first ever horse but his feet were overgrown and awful, and a 2 poor trimmers made him worse to the point that eventually he was crippled. I was trusting the trimmers, but as they were patently failing to keep him sound, eventually I had to resort to remedial farriery and Imprint shoes - glue on, fantastically expensive, but they probably saved his life. After 3 sets the money ran out and I had to use a general farrier, for the first time in my life. I watched with increasing dismay over several shoeing cycles as the heels and toes migrated forwards, the toes were dubbed back by the farrier, and my horse ground to a halt again. Then, thank the lord I managed to get an excellent barefoot trimmer, the shoes came off, and she transformed him - he's a crock in many ways due to past injuries, but he's field sound and happy in his retirement.
It wasn't so much ignorance - I could see that the trimmers and then farrier were making a pigs ear of it, but I just couldn't find the help I needed, and to this day I couldn't trim a horse as complicated as this one myself. I've educated myself along the way and have successfully trimmed my very sound regularly competed second horse myself for the last few years. But for most people this isn't an option or something they'd be comfortable with, and obviously shoing is a whole other thing. IMO there just are NOT the good farriers (and trimmers out there - it's they who need to educate themselves and be educated, as well as the owners.
 
Thorwood said:
I have no idea why people are oblivious to hoof issues ... is it that we have become too accustomed to issues that now they look normal? Why do farriers and vets not highlight these issues ... and offer information or a rehab plan as opposed to a different type of shoe ...
Click to expand...

many are oblivious as it is nothing to do with them. The farrier takes care of the feet. If there is a problem they ring him and he sorts it. He is the qualified professional, many feel they are employing the best farrier in their area so why on earth should they be involved. Much the same probably with the dentist and for many with the vet. When the horse gets lame they have insurance and the horse moves onto horse hospital. No reason for many to question the farrier, it is the horse who has got whatever lameness it is. They clean it's feet, they look a bit narrow at the back, hoof pick goes in quite deep but they have always been like that. Bit smelly but it is stabled, wet in the fields, bound to be smelly really and the farrier would have told them if there was anything wrong.

For the farriers no one has really picked them up on rubbish work in the past. Few owners have known enough to challenge. Owner believes what they are told. Their job after all is tea and cake and laugh at the rubbish jokes! Vet is keen to delegate to the farrier. The farrier is the expert after all and many don't know enough to question the farrier in depth.

As for the vet if they see things so many times they become normal. They are called out to problems. Lame horses probably have thrush and rubbish feet. That is what they are used to seeing. The horse they are looking at probably looks quite good compared to many that they see. Few people could afford the call out to get a vet to come and look at sound healthy feet so many don't recognise them. I watched a vet looking at feet on an endurance horse. They were absolutely cracking feet. Vet thought they should be trimmed. He had absolutely no idea he was seeing something close to perfection.

Also for some vets they do as they are told by the partners. They are the juniors, they may think it is wrong but they cannot rock the boat so they give the usual treatments, bar shoes, wedges etc, it is their job. For farriers rehab is a shoe. For vets they defer to the farrier.

As for some of the owners they may have doubts, may feel confident to post their views on here but they are not up to challenging the vet and farrier. So standards stay poor.
 
I stopped using a high profile farrier after he pricked my horse ( I saw it happen) then denied any responsibility when horse un-level post shoeing. Told me horse was taking the piss!!! Have 3 horses shod by different farriers and I am happy with all of their work (they are in different places) and the next appointment is always made that day. 1 is shod every 5 weeks, 1is shod every 6 weeks and 1 is shod every 7 as is a field ornament has classic TB feet but needs fronts on as seems to be more comfortable with than without. 2 of the farriers i use are well respected training farriers and one is a master farrier. All used for what they can do for my horses rather than names.
 
I must be lucky and have a good relationship with my farrier. My horses are shod every 6 weeks, sometimes 5 in the summer as their feet seem to grow faster. But my older retired boy who is shod in front and barefoot behind sometimes skips a trim behind if that's what my farrier advises - I leave it to him.

Its a bit odd if people spend their money competing but can't afford to have their horses shod as often as they should?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top