Taking shoes off oldster

badgerdog

badgerdog

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I had the farrier take the shoes off my oldster last saturday as I hardly ride him and it was proving too expensive to keep two horses shod. His feet look in good condition and he's been flying around the field but he does look a bit foot sore. I must be the only person in Britain pleased about the rain as it's made the ground nice and soft for him!
How long is it likely to take him to adapt? He's ok in the field, he's just a bit tentative on the hard ground when I bring him in for his feed. Has anyone any tips who have done this. I've heard of people whose horses have gone barefoot and it's taken months. If he's going to be sore for that length of time I would rather have his shoes put back on.
All advice welcome!
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I had my old mares taken off and she was quite sore, I bought some Keratex hoof hardener and applied that and after a while it made a huge difference, she still is a little pottery after a trim but only on the concrete to and from field. She has been shoeless for 5 yrs now. Goodluck
 
Hi

I had my old mares shoes taken off 8 weeks ago as I hardly rode her. She was ok in the field but I did occasionally ride her and she was foot sore on the front so my compromise was just shoes on the front.

You could try that and it at least halves the cost of shoeing for now and in the mean time try a hoof hardener to prepare for when the final 2 come off.
 
if he's not working and goes a little foot sore i wuldnt worry.
probably take a few months and to be honest the more rain we have the longer it will take.

just make sure you have him pair up regular as the worst thing you can do is let the feet get too long as this is when they start to crack.

Lou x
 
Thanks, I'll get some Keratex tomorrow. If he continues to be sore I'll get the front two put back on because I would like to take him for the occasional hack as he still likes to go for a little jaunt.
 
Give it a while longer than a week! Four out of my five are shoeless and they range from eight to 28- shoeless for over twelve months and no problems. Our 14.2 won her section of a One Day Event last weekend, without any problem. My flat-footed TB has fronts on as I do ride him a lot and we don't have the luxury of wait and see if he is OK without! He's 13.
 
Ted has none on at the min, thats because he is off work on box rest with a tendon injury but when he comes back into work he will need all 4 back on as he goes lame in a matter of hours.

Lou x
 
I know I need to be more patient, a week isn't very long!
I have thought about hoof boots, they would work out cheaper than shoes, especially when I would only want to use them occasionally. Going to do some research on them now!
 
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