Three wheels on my waggon [well feet anyway]

[Miss L Toe]

I am starting on the barefoot diet, except the grass is as green as, well grass, and the farrier will insist on trimming his frog down the sides, so I am going to sandpaper off his hooves every week or if chipped to extend time between trims.
The hind feet look great, the soles are "hard" , firm and where the wall comes into contact with the road, it is "rounded", sole is concave.
One of the front feet looks quite good, but the other, the wall has chipped a bit, and the sole is "softer" ie sort of white and almost flakey, just not as good as the other one. He is sound, and no conformational issues, but a little bit footy [on grass 20 hours per day]
Should I do any more at this stage, he is not in work as yet [starts next week], is led up roads and tracks for forty minutes every day and will only be doing an hour on the roads and tracks at most, if he can.
The periople is brilliant, I wondered how long it took before people noticed the periople health, is it days or weeks for example.
The back of the heel is dry, so I am rubbing Effol on there, round the periople, and over the hoof wall.

 

[cptrayes]

MrsD123 you may find the white flakey sole rubs off to reveal a lovely hard shiny sole underneath. Chalkiness is very often a sign that they want to shed that part of the sole. When you get him into work it will disappear. (and sometimes leaves much greater concavity behind). Do not worry if some fairly big bits flake away as long as the sole looks solid underneath.

Your "barefoot diet" is ??? Magnesium oxide is a must. Seaweed is an "only if you are sure you are not high in iron, manganese and/or iodine already. Yeast appears to be very helpful to horses on a lot of grass (live yea-sacc 15g or dead brewers yeast 50g for a 600kg horse), it acts in two ways to stop inflammation in the gut.

I hope you have one of the many who manage 20 hours a day on grass fine. I have one, but I also have two who can't do it and still walk over stones without boots.

Have fun watching his feet change, it's fascating!

 

[Miss L Toe]

MrsD123 you may find the white flakey sole rubs off to reveal a lovely hard shiny sole underneath. Chalkiness is very often a sign that they want to shed that part of the sole. When you get him into work it will disappear. (and sometimes leaves much greater concavity behind). Do not worry if some fairly big bits flake away as long as the sole looks solid underneath.

Your "barefoot diet" is ??? Magnesium oxide is a must. Seaweed is an "only if you are sure you are not high in iron, manganese and/or iodine already. Yeast appears to be very helpful to horses on a lot of grass (live yea-sacc 15g or dead brewers yeast 50g for a 600kg horse), it acts in two ways to stop inflammation in the gut.

I hope you have one of the many who manage 20 hours a day on grass fine. I have one, but I also have two who can't do it and still walk over stones without boots.

Have fun watching his feet change, it's fascating!

Yes thanks, the magnesium calmer [steady up by FEEDMARK{Mg. Ca, yeast sac and other things, ie has a lot of the ingredients required and as I know he can take it, AND I have a large bucketful , I am going with it.
at the moment, he is not in work, just starting him , he seems to be getting less footy by the day, I don;t need to have him in work , I can wait till the weather dictates.
I will watch this foot, I am worried as he is not the same in both front feet, but time will tell, no rush. Interesting that it could be "in transition"

 

[Oberon]

If he is out for 20 hours a day, he shouldn't need lotions putting on.

Even the driest summer in UK will have enough moisture in the early morning dew to keep hooves moist enough.

It's often better to adopt a 'less is more approach' with hooves.

Micro managing will come back and bite you on the ass.

 

[Miss L Toe]

Thanks, but I just put the stuff on one day because it was so dry at the back, generally no lotions.
Today's update, I have had my boy in for 4-6 hours per day, to get him off the grass, and on a soaked hay diet, one third of a net, but went in to pay for three nets, over a week, turned out YO decided I was starving him , so has been topping his haynet up! :lol:

 

[Miss L Toe]

Update: two months down the line and I have seen the feet change for the better, he is out at grass during the day, the soil is acid, wet and the mud is .... err muddy, his skin is glossy, and general condition good.
Frogs are looking good, sole is looking good, I have a small rasp which I run round the edges regularly. I am a bit more confident about the whole thing, and able to "read " the feet a bit better. He gets 40 mins walking on a tarmac road with grass verges, which I allow him to use as it suits him.
I had another farrier look at him yesterday, I explained about the barefoot diet, but that I had been rasping the edges weekly and I wanted him to check and book him in if needed, he tells me the feet are perfect [third farrier to use those exact words], and when I showed him the "crack", he just laughed,and said it was NOT a crack, and I was panicking unnecessarily!

 

[Miss L Toe]

His daily diet:
Split in to two feeds:
One pet scoop of dried non molassed sugar beet [fully soaked in three kettles of water]
One pet scoop of Mare and Youngstock
100gm linseed meal
10 gm seaweed meal
20gm Feedmark Steady up [Mg and herbs and yeast]
10gm biotin
10 gm limestone flour
A pinch of Flexamine HA [free sample]
If I had more horses, I would go for a full analysis [soil and forage], but this seems to be working, so I am quite happy, i am sure the area is low in Mg, and I suspect pasture management is a matter of winter fields, summer fields.
If he was in hard work, I would add some Benefit Advance, but he seems fine, and is not getting anything other than a good walk.
He has put on some weight through general strengthening this year, and must be about 475kg, compared to 465 last year.

 

[Oberon]

I'd drop limestone flour and seaweed, they're rarely required in our country's forage.

 

[Miss L Toe]

I'd drop limestone flour and seaweed, they're rarely required in our country's forage.

I bought the limestone flour just in case, it is pretty cheap, I am in a clay area not limestone, the seaweed was originally recommended in Feet First, in future I will just use Benefit Advance, but have a lot of seaweed meal left!