Shoes on hind feet for hock arthiritis- lateral extensions

[Caol Ila]

It's difficult, isn't it? Gypsum was never uncomfortable barefoot on the roads, even when I first pulled the shoes. She is sometimes footy on rougher ground and moves carefully over or if she can, avoids rocks. Boots seemed like the great panacea for that but now I'm having doubts. Thinking about it, she was starting to move less straight while hacking out. I was having to use leg and rein to keep her from shifting her head and neck over her right shoulder. But yesterday on my 1.5 hour barefoot ride, she was quite straight without much input at my end.

I think the boots changed the biomechanics of movement, as well as fitting less well when the feet grew, and that's not ideal for an older horse or one of any age with arthritic changes in its hocks. I know pro endurance riders use them, but I should add that when I interviewed pro endurance riders for an HHO feature I wrote a couple years ago, they did say that they did a lot of their own trimming or worked very closely with their farriers to make sure the horse had the perfect trim for its boots and for its conformation/movement at all times. Punters like me certainly don't have the capacity to do that.

 

[bouncing_ball]

It's difficult, isn't it? Gypsum was never uncomfortable barefoot on the roads, even when I first pulled the shoes. She is sometimes footy on rougher ground and moves carefully over or if she can, avoids rocks. Boots seemed like the great panacea for that but now I'm having doubts. Thinking about it, she was starting to move less straight while hacking out. I was having to use leg and rein to keep her from shifting her head and neck over her right shoulder. But yesterday on my 1.5 hour barefoot ride, she was quite straight without much input at my end.

I think the boots changed the biomechanics of movement, as well as fitting less well when the feet grew, and that's not ideal for an older horse or one of any age with arthritic changes in its hocks. I know pro endurance riders use them, but I should add that when I interviewed pro endurance riders for an HHO feature I wrote a couple years ago, they did say that they did a lot of their own trimming or worked very closely with their farriers to make sure the horse had the perfect trim for its boots and for its conformation/movement at all times. Punters like me certainly don't have the capacity to do that.

 

[bouncing_ball]

I use boots in front. But I have three makes of boots and I reassess how well my horse is landing in each set of boots / pads / barefoot using slow motion footage about every three weeks and make tweaks accordingly. I use whatever boot / pad / bare combination he’s landing best in

My horse’s feet do progressively change size, and are getting shorter in length. I’ve changed some boot sizes too.

Maybe you need a different size boot?

I do also self trim a bit to keep feet a good fit for boots. I did two day training courses where we learnt how to trim and practised on cadaver legs!

I have a slow motion option on my phone and I sit on floor and video walk landings to work out what works best.

 

[Caol Ila]

Yeah, I now totally see that if you use boots, you have to do that.

She's doing fine barefoot at the moment. Went for a gentle trot up the track with my hacking buddies today, one of whom was on a hot horse and didn't want to push it. Gypsum missed the memo and launched like a rocket ship into an enthusiastic, brisk canter. Hacking buddies not impressed. Once I managed to pull up, I had to use the words "t-word" and "c-word" because her command of English is good enough that if I said "trot" or "canter," we were off again.

 

[HashRouge]

Thanks. I'm wary of doing this as he typically doesn't grow to the same level he wears and sometimes becomes footy. There isn't really a slow way of building up the roadwork where I am without turning around, which tends to "set him off", when I'm trying to keep him chilled.


Tricky...

Maybe I am mollycoddling his feet too much though. I'll get some photos tomorrow and see what people think of them!

I've always been pretty chilled about hind feet as I've never had a horse who got footy behind. My Arab (now 27) used to have her back shoes off every winter and we just used to crack on as normal once they came off.

That said, if you've had issues before and there is no other way to build your road work up slowly, why not try alternating days? I.e. hack one day with boots off, then boots on the next day? Then you could see how he's doing and build up gradually if he's comfortable.