Sore feet

dotty1

dotty1

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Is anyone elses horses suffering with the hard nobbly ground?My 3 year old (no shoes) has sore feet so is confined to her stable for the time being. Her feet are slightly flat, and I think she may have thinner soles than the others.
 
It because the ground is both wet and hard.
The wet weather makes the feet absorb moisture, making them softer and the frozen hoof holes in the field, make for very hard and very rough going.

Lou x
 
That makes sense. Hopefully a few days on a straw bed will make her feel better and maybe the ground will soften up...a bit
 
dotty1 it might be advisable to look at your horse's diet. Have you got a complete snow covering or is she eating frosted grass? - if so she quite likely has an early touch of laminitis, because frosted grass is very high in fructans (bad sugars). It shows first in sole sensitivity. If she normally has thin soles then she might be one of the very high proportion of horses that are sensitive to sugars in their diet. Feeds with molasses, wheat syrup and corn syrup in them can all cause problems with foot quality and sensitivity (many "for laminitics" feeds have up to 10% sugar in them so you need to check the white label on the bottom)

If you want to know more then the book Feet First, (on Amazon) will help you a lot. It's all about foot health.
 
cptrayes I have that book its fantastic. Santa bought it for me
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I agree, my shettie is in with a touch of laminitis, I would get a vet to check her out if possible
As cptrayes says, often barefoot horses who have a higher sugar/cereal diet have sensitive feet
 
You'll have you seen me on the front cover then? That's Jetset George and the thing on my arm is an Eskadron boot which I'm using as a spint to protect it - it was broken about six weeks earlier
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They are getting a lot of positive feedback about the book and a farrier who reviewed it for some Farriery magazine said it should be read by all farriers. As you'll know, it's far more about the horse's health than it is about not having shoes on.
 
Yes watch out with the frozen grass! My lad is laminitic and is not allowed fresh grass if it is snow covered or frosty...as a consequence he has not had grass for nearly 2 months !
I suspect it is the hard rutted ground causing the problem, so a few days in won't hurt until things thaw out.
 
Ideally, it shouldn't really be a case of having to wait until the ground thaws, those hard ruts shouldn't be causing a problem. My barefoots jump onto stone landings - as in the cover of the book, only the designer cropped it - but I can show you the full picture and the landing is limestone chippings. They couldn't care a fig about hard ruts frozen in the mud. It's very likely this 3 year old has something else going on that makes her sore on the ruts. I don't know if the owner wants to keep her barefoot, but if she does then she needs to find out what's causing it.

Good luck Coolrunnings. Do log on to UKNHCP.myfastforum.org if you'd like a bit of handholding. Well done on doing your research before taking off the shoes.
 
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thanks, I will look on the link!
I can only think my shettie has it because of too much grass really, my own fault
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he has fantastic feet, never been footy on any ground until now!
My other pony has taken nearly a year to be comfortable on harder ground, so I know I'm going to have to be patient.

Been looking at the hoof boots, as Bens feet are quite big, Old Mac G2 are looking like the best ( he will be I think a size 9)
?
I changed his diet a couple of months ago, he was getting a mix ( he had been on this since before I bought him)So now he has Dengie Alfalfa pellets, Lucie Stalks and Kwikbeet, plus
total eclipse.

I have been reading non stop, hoof rehab site amongst others. They are already on a Paddock Paradise system too

I will soon have three ponies all shoeless
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Thanks for all your comments
I had the vet out at lunchtime as better ot be safe than sorry. Her hind legs had filled after standing in since 7.30am so she thought possible lymphangitis. 'Couldn't take her temp as she wouldn't let her do it and got really cross but as she doesn't seem poorly decided that she hopefully hasn't got an infection. Her front feet are hottish and she does have a bit of a pulse and she does present as laminitic so shes being treated as such just to be sure.
Shes not bad, looks ok in straight line but pottery to turn so she is on metacam, sedalin and aspirin and if no better in 24 hrs will be having imprint shoes fitted.
She is not overweight so maybe she has been finding frozen grass through the snow. She gets a handful of molichop and sprinkle of pony nuts and very dry haylege (not ad lib) She lives out 24/7.
Hopefully have caught it in time and she will be a bit better tomorrow
 
Sounds exactly like my shetland; he's been in for 12 days now and I took him out the stable for the first time yesterday to give his stable a good muck out; he is still a little pottery on the turn, so back in for a few more weeks.

If your horse has got laminitis she will be in for a few weeks, the slower the recovery the better, it takes quite a while for them to get better. My shetland was in for over 6 weeks when he got an attack 8 years ago.

You could swap the hayledge for soaked hay, thenyou should be able to give ad lib, especially if she's stabled. Also look at the sugar content of the chaff and pony nuts, you can get totally sugar free diets now for horses
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