Sole question - puzzled & worried

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Nari

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My horse was shod yesterday & my farrier was worried by his soles. This horse has awful feet - they're flat, tend to flare, growth is slow & what there is is poor quality, his soles are low & have virtually no concavity but he does have big strong frogs. He's a big heavyweight on the worst type of TB feet & managing them is a nightmare. I have a good farrier who does him as often as he needs to keep the flare under control.

This shoeing he was concerned that in places his sole looked like it was starting to bulge & now I'm panicing! I've had him on 24/7 turnout for the last month but it's been in a field that my friend uses to keep her ponies into keep their weight under control. He gets a small feed of soaked Lucienuts & a few high fibre cubes to get his supplements (U-Gard, Cortaflex & Benevit) down him but despite this has lost a bit of weight. He could do with losing more but I can't cut his rations too much more as I'll end up with stomach & behaviour problems so the only option is exercise which im his case is in a sand & rubber school BUT if there are real problems brewing I'm worried this will do more harm than good
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. I've started standing him in on a deep bed in the day, partly to rest his feet (we're on horrid ground - chalk & lots of flint) & partly to get him off the grass though I do have to leave him with some hay or he'll just stand & crib.

The irony is although he's showing the odd iffy step on one fore generally he's happily marching over stoney ground that he'd normally refuse to walk on - surely if the sole (& god forbid the pedal bone!) was dropping this wouldn't be the case?

Farrier said to try & get some weight off him & keep a close eye on him but the more I think about it the more stressed I'm getting. I just see problems with any approach - more work means more strain on his feet, keeping him in means he's standing still rather than using some calories pottering around, leave him without feed & he cribs more becaus ehis stomach hurts, muzzle him & he can't go out in company cos we're scared he'll kick (he's very dominant in the field but tends to use teeth & threatening expressions rather than heels but a muzzle would stop that method of pony control working), keep him on his own & he gets stressed even with company next door & last year I had a lot of problems with what we think were stress related colics. And to top it all he started coughing today!

Any thoughts anyone? Or have I sent you all to sleep
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God Nari - sounds a nightmare! He's so lucky to have such a well informed mum who is so determined to help him. Your farrier sounds great too but has he suggested remedial shoeing? I know amazing things can be done with different shaped shoes and pads and stick ons and even hoof wall resection. If you could get his feet safe and comfortable to be exercised on, then it sounds as though the weight problem would be manageable? If your farrier is out of his depth he might be able to refer you to an expert remedial farrier? Not easy and I wish you every success. Do let us know how it pans out x
 
Farrier does do remedial work for vets & we already have him in Fitzwygram shoes to help control the flare & keep his toe back. Pads have been tried in the past but for some peculiar reason he seemed uncomfortable in them despite trying several different types.

Exercise is definately the way to go to get his weight off, plus it improves his carriage even when he isn't ridden & so makes him less heavy into his feet. I'm just worried that riding him is going to put too much strain on his feet as they are at the moment, but then getting the weight off may help - not totally convinced it's the complete answer though because he's been heavier than this in the past without these problems.

Thanks for the good wishes, I've got a feeling I'm going to need them.
 
What a bundle of nightmares you have there, however don't forget that more exercise also means far better blood circulation in the legs and feet, hence good healthy horn growth and helps lower the risk of laminitis. I would try him out 24/7 still, but would put a muzzle on him during the day when the grass is at it's deadliest, then leave it off him overnight when the risk is lesser. I personally would stop all hard feed. Overweight and underworked horses do not need hard feed when out at grass 24/7 or when being fed good quality hay.

Have you considered barefoot? No I don't mean it in the fanatical sense, just in the not shoeing sense. None of my many horses are shod and their feet are all fantastic. With trimming every 6 weeks, every horse who lives with me, has great feet and these horses range from Arabians to WBs, from racehorses to my good old Quarter Horses. Worth considering as shoeing can cause concussion and trauma to feet which are not in the best of shape to start with.

Good luck.
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Hi, I have a horse with similar problems, she is currently in heartbar shoes to give her feet more support, gets cornucresine rubbed into her feet once per day and is getting formula 4 feet in her feet. It's early days yet and our next remedial shoeing is scheduled for 16th July but might be worth a try with the supplements in the meantime.
 
Sounds like a bit of a nightmare, personally before doing anything else I would have some xrays taken just to see what is going on inside, then base your decision on that.
 
Tia you're not oking when you say it's a bundle of nightmares - Ive just got in and I'm siting with a pounding tension headache unable to eat my dinner cos I'm literally worried sick.

By this morning the slight cough had turned into a bad cough that sounded very chesty & he'd got heave lines showing. He also seemed a little cautious on his feet over rough ground. Needless to say he was put in the stable & the vet was called! He was very dull all day (most out of character) although the coughing did seem a little better inside. Vet came late afternoon & thinks it's some sort of allergic reaction so gave me Ventapulmin & was mentioning steroids but I said there was no way I'd consider those as I'm worred sick about his feet. So she looked at those & agreed no steroids as she thinks he's verging on laminitis. So the combination of the two means he's on box rest with some soaked hay - if I can't ride him then there's no way I'm risking any grass whatsoever. I've brought his companion in too in the hope that he won't stress out (it won't hurt him to lose a bit of weight too) but needless to say I'm worrying about colic as well as laminitis. At least he perked up a bit a few hours after the first dose of Ventapulmin!

Tomorrow we're going to put him & his friend in my friend's indoor wood fibre school so he can at least have a mooch around. How easy he is to lead up there & how he behaves towards Little Un will govern whether he stays there - if he's feeling better in himself then leading him after 24hrs box rest could be fun (not) but if he gets stroppy with LU then he can't stay there.

I really feel that a muzzle really isn't a safe option for any other horse or pony he's out with. With the field he's on I can't understand how he's got enough grass to cause a problem, he's actually lost nearly 50kg in the last month despite only being in light work.

Barefoot in any sense just isn't going to happen unless he needs a prolonged period of box rest. He really wouldn't cope & that opinion is backed by my farrier & vet. I'm not sure he'd manage on any ground but where he is isn't kind to feet as it's mostly chalk & flint. If it was an option I think I'd try it, I'm certainly not anti - Little Un is unshod & will continue to be unless he can't cope when his workload increases - but I'm sure in his case it would be verging on abuse
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What's really really depressing is it's the first time in the eight years that I've had him that he's been happy to be out 24/7 & act like a horse instead of gate hanging & demanding to be in after a few hours out & now it seems his feet just can't cope - I'm on the point of tears because it was so nice seeing him relaxed & just mooching around in a group.

Thanks for the reply & the good luck, hopefully we'll get through this.
 
Thanks for the reply scotsmare.

Unfortunately every hoof supplement I've tried seems to upset his stomach to some degree &, possibly for that reason, don't seem to have any better effect on his hoof growth than a good general supplement does. We've never tried heartbars but if my farrier thinka they're needed I'd go with itn- he's shod him for 6 years & has a pretty good idea of what we can & can't do with his feet, also what he'll just pull off the first time he's allowed out of the box
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Ben_&_Jerrys x-rays may be the next step if we don't see an improvement quite quickly. He's so difficult to manage I don't want to mess around & waste valuable time. Luckily we had x-rays taken last spring for a totally different reason so provided they're still on his records we should have something to compare them to. However he'd probably need a sedation to get x-rays & I'm not sure how good an idea that would be while he's still coughing badly.
 
Well I got x-rays done & now everyone's puzzled because they didn't show any problems we weren't already aware of. Yes his soles are thin but that's not news & they haven't got worse than before so they shouldn't account for the problem. So at least I can start riding him again in the school - & that's going to be an "interesting" experience, if there're no more posts from me you'll know it didn't go well - which will help with his weight & I'll see how things go from thee. My wonderful farrier has a few back up ideas but sound expensive, won't be easy to do or maintain & there's no guarantee they'll work. At least knowing that there are a few possibilities if he doesn't cope gives me some hope though.

Incidentally his sore feet didn't stop him going totally ape in the school yesterday. The silly fool was tearing around like a lunatic, bucking, leaping, spinning, leaving skid marks down to the base of the arena & at one point managed to tip himself over when the surface shifted out as he tried to corner at speed while bucking. Anyone in Wiltshire fancy volunteering to be a crash dummy tomorrow? Please??
 
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