Taking back shoes off

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maxapple

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For anyone who has taken back shoes off - what could I expect during the 'transition' period.

How much work can my horse do & is he likely to be foot sore / for how long?

I'm going to talk to my farrier today about taking the back's off. My horse is pretty naughty to shoe - he'll tolerate the first 2, sometimes 3 then gets fed up and starts playing up.) Also - i've just moved to a yard where we have off road hacking, and have acquired a trailer so if i want to do longer hacks can box him there - so the road work we do from now on will be minimal (if any)

Seems like the perfect time to give it a go??
 
If you leave back shoes off tell the farrier to leave a little growth so your horse won't be foot sore.
Our horse has had back shoes taken off in winter as ground not so hard, but will have them put back on in summer if there is any problems
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Horses do vary - Farra - no difference when we took all her shoes off, but she had only worn them for about 18 months. Cairo - again didn't seem much different but the ground was soft and he only was in light work. Jemima - little tender for a few weeks on stoney ground. Chancer has never had shoes. My TB and WB again were fine but ground was soft. I was able to take Fleur's fronts off, but Delia needed fronts - she had slightly brittle feet.

Now is a great time to do it as ground is soft. As others have said, ask farrier not to trim too short. Get them walking on flat concrete to toughen the feet. Accept that long hacks made have to be worked towards.

I found feeding black sunflower seeds also really helped to encourage hard feet though it will take 6 - 9 months before you really get the full effect. Keretex at this time of year is also good to harden feet.

My two are barefoot and unless I encounter problems will stay that way. We don't do lots of road work, tracks are grassy and their feet are like iron now. I have them trimmed every 7 - 9 weeks depending on the growth.
 
My TB had his back shoes taken off last May.
I didn't do a lot of road work with him until July and i have never had a problem.
I also haven't had his back feet trimmed since last
May either, he seems to wear them nicely and naturally himself.
Farrier always checks them and no trimming or balancing has been required
 
one of our horses has had his taken of for the winter and he is a little footsore at times, but minimal. He will have them put on in summer. Generally fine though
 
I had no problems at all when my horse's back shoes came off, even with quite a lot of road work.

Just take it steady the first few days and if his feet are good he should be fine
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Scroogie was in hard work (90% of the time on roads/gravel estate trakes as a driving horse) with no backs and it didn't faze him one bit. He has them on now just in case, but I'd take them off again if he were mine. He had them off because we had new horses and he can be agressive in the field!
 
Took pony's of three weeks ago and so far everything has been fine and the added benefit has been he slips a lot less on the roads!
 
One of my horses has never had back shoes and has never had a problem. The other has them off for the winter as I don't ride very often and usually I put them back on for the summer. She is fine without them, just seems to be habit putting them on in the summer, maybe I will leave them off this summer too.
 
When I took my cob's shoes off he had 2 or 3 months off work, out in the field, anyway so I guess I didn't see too much of the transistion. When he came back into work I never had any trouble with the backs (had to have fronts back on though) and he did pretty much everything he had done before.

I had his feet trimmed and balanced by my usual farrier but he didn't need it as often as he needed shoeing before. I only put them back on because I took him hunting and he wore away too much foot for my liking, so shoes went back on for me to be able to carry on hunting.

Good luck with it
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