Short back feet?

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dodgers89

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I've had my horse for two months now and when I got him he was only shod on the front. His owners told me he would be fine provided he wasn't doing loads of roadwork. However my farrier came today and thinks he might need back shoes as his feet are short. What does that mean exactly? And is there something I can go or give him that would combat this?
 
Afaik, a shod foot is kept longer than an unshod one, often unshod hooves can look too short. If the horse is still sound with the level of work and not footy or bruised I would leave as is :)
 
Of course, the presence of a shoe will prevent the hoof being trimmed and a horse being re-shod every 6 weeks will tend to grow a longer and longer toe as it is "impractical" to remove enough toe in one trim.

Barefoot hooves tend to be trimmed little and often in order to retain 100% attachment and therefore will appear shorter in the toe and have less capsule height.

Farriers are in the business of selling shoes.
 
dodgers89 said:
... His owners told me he would be fine provided he wasn't doing loads of roadwork.
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Just re-reading OP. Worth saying that (in my opinion) barefoot hooves thrive on roadwork provided they are conditioned gradually and have a very low sugar diet.

Once they are ready to go, their rate of growth will exceed their wear rate.
 
Ronalda said:
Just re-reading OP. Worth saying that (in my opinion) barefoot hooves thrive on roadwork provided they are conditioned gradually and have a very low sugar diet.

Once they are ready to go, their rate of growth will exceed their wear rate.
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This used to be my mantra!!! And I too used to ignore all the 'too short' comments, then I listened to my horse who was telling me that actually, trim and balance as much as you like but 5 mins on our local lanes and all trimming/balancing has worn anyway and actually so has a lot of the wall, and those soles aint ever going to get concave if you keep riding me on the road, and this was only for short one hour hacks. So I shod her, we haven't looked back.......
 
serenityjane said:
... has worn anyway and actually so has a lot of the wall, and those soles aint ever going to get concave if you keep riding me on the road,
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Pleased to hear that you are listening to your horse and doing what you feel is best.

The load on the hoof should be taken by the sole, frog, wall and bars, so any wall below the sole will be worn away quite quickly otherwise the hoof would be loaded peripherally.

In my experience the stimulation provided by the road surface will optimise pedal bone height within the capsule and consequently build in sole concavity.
 
You condition the hooves by working the horse on surfaces that it is comfortable on. Then you slowly increase the time they are worked. If you introduce a more challenging surface, you should start with only a small amount of work on it and then increase slowly.
 
HTML: 
The load on the hoof should be taken by the sole, frog, wall and bars, so any wall below the sole will be worn away quite quickly otherwise the hoof would be loaded peripherally.

In my experience the stimulation provided by the road surface will optimise pedal bone height within the capsule and consequently build in sole concavity.

Having had barefoot horses for some 8 years, I also used to believe this............until after 8 years of feeding all the right stuff including every recommended mineral and supplement, building a track with a variety of surfaces for hoof conditioning, limiting turnout on the 'green enemy' and starting off in hand and working up very slowly to riding out, only being able to ride the horses occasionally, on a school surface, or in boots.
Oh yes, they fit all the definitions of 'rockcrunching', but my conditioning surface and the roads locally (which lead to all hacking routes-including a small number of 'off road' stone tracks) meant that wear ALWAYS exceeded growth-especially in winter when only on the track with no turnout. I have just taken my youngster out this morning-we walked and trotted approx 2.5 miles on the roads and her feet have never looked so good-she has lovely wide healthy frogs, big strong digital cushion and a fantasticly concave sole- we still feed the low sugar food and minerals, we still have the track, we still have the healthy feet. They are just shod to prevent excessive wear.
Something that I have noticed since shoeing our horses is just how much the shoes wear too! My sons horse has to be shod every 6 weeks at the very longest, and each time the shoes are removed they have worn to the depth of tin foil - and he is at uni so the horse is only actually ridden at weekends and in the holidays!
 
I have 2 endurance clients horse's that grow new wall from top to bottom in just over 5 months when they are competing; when I was shoeing the average was 10 months.
There is no right or wrong way, an owner must do what they feel is right, but having made the decision, the person managing the feet must realise that there are 2 totally different sciences at work, both in hoof landing and wear.
 
I am very lucky, my farrier is excellent-this is not by any means always the case with ANY hoof care professional. With the hoof protection in place ie the shoe to reduce wear, the (heel first -As always!!!) hoof landing is now spot on! As I have said many times, my horse was not footsore, would have continued to work without shoes with no complaints, but it was very much changing her hoof landing (the wear was very uneven) and ultimately her movement and use of her body. I cannot believe the change in her in the last 3 or so months, now she is shod. More topline, straight and correct movement again- not the 'barefoot shuffle' that she had taken to doing! She is using her whole body well, as she should, and seems full of life. If our facilities were soft ground only and we had bridleways galore to ride on she would have stayed barefoot, but we haven't.
As an owner I feel, that regardless of hoofwear, all horses should move freely and have regular excercise especially when young and learning new things, which ultimately became the decision maker for me with regard to shoes.
 
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