shoes vs hoof boots

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bikina

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Hi all, I am having a vetting done tomorrow on a lovely horse (fingers crossed he passes!) and he has very hard feet which are currently unshod. Where I live there will be a fair amount of roadwork so the owner has said he will get him shod for me. However, I know that in a year my circumstances will have changed and there will be very little roadwork, so I was thinking of going back to unshod and carrying hoofboots for when there is roadwork. My questions are:

is it ok to have shoes off/on/off like this or will it damage the horses feet?

if nessecary can hoofboots be used for a long period of time? (thinking that could use them, in theory, now, instead of getting him shod - that way minimises any damage to feet)

what do you think?

Thanks!
 
hoof boots canbe used for as long a period as you like.

Obviously when his shoes are removed he may become footy as the hoof will have been cut back alot lower than if he was to remain bare foot.

Only down side to hoof boots are rubbing to the pasterns and they are time consuming. If you are only hacking once or twice a week does he need either? you say he has hard feet so he may be able to compe with this and this is another option.
Lou x
 
I have used Old Macs on my TB when he has not been able to have shoes on due to poor hoof quality. He was great to ride in them, but was still footsore in the field when I took them off. As this horse has good feet, it may be worth giving them a go. They really are a very good product.
 
You can use hoofboots for the life of the horse - there are a number of barefoot endurance horses who use them all the time - but do remember that you HAVE TO TAKE THEM OFF when you're not riding (! apologies for shouting) - they're not for 24/7 use, or even 12/7....

E
 
how hard are they to put on and take off? are we talking a 15 minute struggle every day or a 2 minute miracle?! do they wear out easily? so if you were out for a really long hack - say 6 hours - they would be ok? they sound very good!!
 
I can only comment on the Old Macs. If you find their website, they will give you an indication of how long they last - suffice to say much longer than shoes. They are a doddle to put on. You open them out completely, put horses hoof into the sole, velcro down the sides & buckle at the back.
 
I've got the Easy boot Epics which are what I was recommended - easy to get on, wear well and good grip on the roads



they took me about 5 minutes to get on the first time, but now we've got the hang of it, they're dead easy. Not tried with wet/muddy feet yet mind you, think that woudl be less easy

Easy boots

good luck

E
 
I use the Easyboot Bares on my lad's front feet, and they are fab. Yes they take a bit of getting used to, but now only takes about a minute each, if that. They are great, fit really well, no rubbing and really flex with the horse's foot to mimic his natural unshod hoof.

If you potential horse is barefoot and doing well no way would I nail shoes on him! Roadwork actually stimulates the hoof to grow, so don't worry about that either. There is far far less concussion on a horse's foot being barefoot than having shoes nailed on and working on hard surfaces.

Good luck, hope things work out well for both of you.
 
Charlton - but horse is down in Kent - lucky boy!
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I have just started using marquis boots and getting on well with them now that I have got the hang of pumping up the air chamber full enough. They are really easy to take off just let the air out and undo
 
To be honest id stuck with him barefoot and see how he goes before nailing on shoes as this can ruin even the best feet. My boy has been barefoot for 2 years now and i only used boots for the first month or so. Now we do everything including 3 - 4 hour hacks mostly on the roads, cross country, showjumping and i ride on the local beach at least once a week and to get to the sand i have to cross 10 meters of cobbles and he has no problem with any of this. Walking on hard ground actually stimulates hoof growth so its a bit of a myth that horses who do road work have to ware shoes.
 
I wouldn't have the owner get him shod, I would take him as he is and see how he gets on. If he has been barefoot a long time, he should be fine with road work. Road work is even a part of the conditioning programme for horses going barefoot.

I use Old Macs and they are very quick to put on and take off. My horse has been barefoot a year now. I didn't use boots over the winter when the ground was soft. I'm using them a bit again now that the ground has baked like concrete, but only for certain hacks on hard or stony ground, and I slip the fronts on for the long walk to the field. When they are nice and worn in, they take about 30 seconds to put on and 10 seconds to take off, certainly not 15 minutes!

With a barefoot horse, you never have that problem of your horse coming in from the field on three legs because he's lost a shoe, or got his shoe caught in a wire fence, or his hoof walls cracking and crumbling from being continually nailed.

I would give it a go, but if you have to shoe him for now it doesn't mean you can't take the shoes off again later. He will have to build up again to his present conditioned state but it shouldn't take long.
 
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your talking 15 to 20 mins every time you want to use them.. more til you and the horse are used to them.

Lou x

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It takes me less than 5 minutes to put all 4 Old Mac boots on my girlie, they are dead easy to use and 'touch wood' she is getting on with then reallty well
 
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I wouldn't have the owner get him shod, I would take him as he is and see how he gets on. If he has been barefoot a long time, he should be fine with road work.

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I agree that you should leave him barefoot for now, it is much better for him and he is used to it so should have good hard feet from it. If you find he starts to get footsore one at his new home then maybe put shoes on or use some of the bootsalready suggested. But if you do go for shoes then beware, once you move and want to go back to barefoot it can take a long time, (i am told between a few months to a year), probably a few months for this horse as he sounds like he has good feet; to adapt to being barefoot again. Shoeing causes lots of changes in horses feet, they get smaller, frogs retract, horn weakened and softened etc etc, so you wouldn't be able to work him for long on hard ground for quite awhile.

Do you plan to just hack him or is there a school at the yard too? If so he'll be fine in school with no shoes as its a soft surface and so long as you avoid loads of troting on the roads he should cope fine unshod here too.

Hope this helps, I'm doing a degree in horses at the mo so have studied loads on hooves, how they work and how shoes affect them. My own horse is shod but only cos he has been all his life (since long before i got him) and so it would take his feet ages, probably at least six months to a year to recover if i took his shoes off as they are so adapted to being shod. And i can't wait this long! (I'm addicted to riding and must ride every day or else i will die!) Though i do feel slightly guilty now i know how much healthier he could be if barefoot. If he ever injures himself and needs months off work i will use this as an excuse to take his shoes off but for now i can't as i know he'd go lame. So make the most of this horses good feet (hope he passes the vetting!), and try to stay unshod if you can.

Sorry if this sounds like ahorror story against shoes, in all fairness if he had a good farrier and only wore them for a year they probably wouldn't do him any harm, I just think you should avoid long term shoe wearing whenever possible.
 
We had Toff's rear shoes taken off when we got the youngster, and she started to get footsore on all the gravel round here. Troggy has just got her some Old Macs for her back feet, and they are brilliant! Pony loves them and they are quick to put on. It is worth putting some vetwrap round the fetlocks if doing a long hack, in case they rub. I would definitely wait and see how the horse goes without shoes. maybe the owner is offering to have it done because he is a b*gger to shoe and needs sedating...
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