Shoes just taken off - Now walking "funny"!!!!

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pennypots

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Has anybody experienced this? I had my mares shoes removed, and when i went to bring her in that evening she was standing in the stable moving from one foot to the other on her hinds. I put it down to the shoe removal, but the next day she was still the same. On turnout she walked fine on the grass, but on the drive was very sensitive. In the field i noticed that she was still "hopping" from one foot to the other, and walking with "raised" legs, similar to the way they walk when boots are first put on them. It has been two days now and she is still walking funny. She appears to be in no distress, is certainly not off her food, and seems happy to graze in the field. Just keeps favouring her back legs.
I am suspecting that the frog, which will not have had any contact with the ground whilst being shod, is perhaps feeling a bit funny to her, but i would of thought that she would of got used to it by now??? Any ideas???
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hi my horse was lame for first 2.5years of going barefoot. cant say she favoured a particular foot tho. but she walked really slowly, especially on firm or stony ground. i did it as a last resort, loads of tried and tested. but after that period her feet have really hardend up. she was 100% sound even on firm stony ground after about 5 or 6 months barefoot. and 100% in school after that initial lame period. just remember if a horse has laminitas coming on it will favour back feet. hope this helps
 
you let your horse be lame for 2.5yrs.......
Ring your farrier and ask him what he thinks, he might advise to give bute to give her relief.
 
Depending on the breed of horse and the structure that it already has, I think it is realistic to expect several weeks, if not more, for the horse to feel its feet having had shoes removed. Two and a half years though is well excessive. If your horse continues in any discomfort you should consider boots and possibly pads inside the boots while the hoof is transitioning.

In most cases a break from shoes will be a big favour to your horse but your farrier is the best person to advise on that.
 
Thanks for your comments. I have come to the conclussion that my mare is a real whimp!! She is TB and i am now convinced that it is the removal of the shoes which is causing her perculiar behaviour. I have spoken to my farrier and he seems to think that i should leave her until the end of the week. As the weather is sooooo bad, l have also left her in today, and hopefully this will help her feet to dry out a bit and then i can apply somethining to try and keep the moisture out???
She seemed a bit better this morning. So fingers crossed that she gets used to being barfoot, otherwise i will have to have her shoes put back on, which seems such a waste as she is just in a field until my daughter gets back from Uni!!
Thanks again for your comments.
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A previous horse of mine had to be box rested for some six weeks but could be walked out in hand twice a day. The farrier was due to come out and suggested removing his shoes to give his feet a rest whilst on box rest so I agreed. On taking him out of his stable to be walked in hand the next day he was quite lame and I got a phone call from the yard owner later that day to say he was laid prone in his stable sweating and groaning in pain because his feet were so sore. Promptly gave him 3 sachets of bute, rang the farrier and explained the situation but unfortunately he couldn't come out for a week so poor horse was on bute for another day till another liveries farrier agreed to put the shoes back on. Never again! He was a big bruiser of a 17hh warmblood but obviously was very foot sensitive. It was a shame as we were only trying to do right by him by taking his shoes off in the first place!
 
I took my boys shoes off two years ago whilst on box rest. He came out of his box everyday for a brief walk to be tied outside his stable. He was somewhat footy but I put it down to being footsore and used keratex to harden his hooves. As he was walking about 5 steps a day it didn't seem too bad. After his box rest his shoes were put back on and he was brought back into work.

A year and a half later, following an operation he came down with stress lammi. He was very footsore and hobbling, but did not favour his back legs as someone mentioned. He found hard stony ground awful to walk on but was much comfier in the lunge pen. Originally though he was footsore again as shoes had been taken off and he was hardly overweight/on starchy food so got farrier out to put shoes on. Farrier had a look and said looks like lammie, vet came and did x-rays and low and behold his last episode of being 'footy' two years ago had actually been a small bout of laminitus. Vet totally understood how it had appeared to simply be because of his shoes coming off as he was on box rest and wasn't being walked enough to really notice anything, but now as soon as my boy gets footy the vet is called straight away. In your position I would call the vet out just to check, it may be your horse is a wimp as I thought mine was, but it's not worth the risk of it being something more serious and not being picked up like mine was.
 
Just to update..... It is now a week since the shoes where taken off, and my mare has shown considerable improvement in this week. She walks a little "tottery" when on hard ground, but as soon as she is on spongy grass she is fine. I am convinced now that it was the strange feeling of not having the shoes on which prompted the strange leg/foot movements. She just seems lost without her shoes!! However, in view of ecconomics and in an atempt to aid her hoof growth i am going to persever with her being shoesless. I just wonder if i will have to go through all this in reverse when i decide to put the shoes back on??
Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. All really appreciated.
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