Taking hind shoes off....

[L&M]

I have a youngster that needs concentrating on this summer, so decided to take my other horses back shoes off as only will be in light work until hunting next season.

He has had them off for a week now and has been hacked out twice since - today I noticed he has already chipped off two large chunks of the hoof wall.

He has very good strong hooves when shod, with healthy hoof walls, so am worried that I may being doing damage, or is this normal when you take shoes off initially?

Thanks in advance!

 

[LucyPriory]

Hi Sidney

Hooves are very rarely damaged in any significant way when they chip the outer hoof wall. Usually they are simply reflecting the fact that they are too long and the horse is bringing back their breakover. Also many shod hooves have the outer hoof wall rasped and this can weaken it making chipping when deshod inevitable, but again rarely if ever will any significant harm be done.

You could post photos - side on and solar - so that we can have a better idea.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Shod hooves are generally taller than BF/unshod hooves. As long as the horse is sound I wouldn't worry.