Time to try barefoot?

little_critter

little_critter

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I've thought for a while that I might like to try my mare barefoot. She has good strong feet, has never lost a shoe so I'm not convinced she 'needs' shoes.
The thing that has put me off before us the transition period.
She is currently on box rest due to a check ligament strain so I was wondering if now might be the time to try taking her shoes off, she is off work so riding is disrupted anyway.
My main queries are:
Is it a bad idea to take shoes off while her check ligament is recovering? Is it throwing too many variables into the mix?
As she is on box rest I assume the transition will take longer as she is not 'using' her hooves much. (In hand walking starts in a weeks' time) Could taking shoes off while on box rest cause more harm than good?
Her hooves tend to grow slowly, she currently gets shod every 7-8 weeks and her shoes are never loose at that point. Her hooves grow down rather than out if you see what I mean (ie she doesn't splay or get long toes, the whole hoof just gets uniformly longer). At the point that she is shod her feet still don't look long.
A lot of our hacking is roadwork, will I have an issue with hoof being worn faster than it grows, or do they tend to speed growth up to compensate?
Thanks in advance.
 
Mine have always just had them taken off, not trimmed that day and have gone straight back to normal work. If she has normal feet you shouldnt have a problem
 
I got an injury to my knee, which was aggravated by wearing walking boots, that is to say my proprioreceptors were not able to react, , I started to wear my thin soled Ariats , and my proprioreceptors kicked in automatically, so for this reason I think that barefoot might be best, I did this on reading about barefoot, no one in the medical profession gave me ANY advice, it was "take 2 paracetomol" [thinks] "just because you are on crutches does not make this a life changing event"
 
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little_critter said:
I've thought for a while that I might like to try my mare barefoot. She has good strong feet, has never lost a shoe so I'm not convinced she 'needs' shoes.
The thing that has put me off before us the transition period.
She is currently on box rest due to a check ligament strain so I was wondering if now might be the time to try taking her shoes off, she is off work so riding is disrupted anyway.
My main queries are:
Is it a bad idea to take shoes off while her check ligament is recovering? Is it throwing too many variables into the mix?
As she is on box rest I assume the transition will take longer as she is not 'using' her hooves much. (In hand walking starts in a weeks' time) Could taking shoes off while on box rest cause more harm than good?
Her hooves tend to grow slowly, she currently gets shod every 7-8 weeks and her shoes are never loose at that point. Her hooves grow down rather than out if you see what I mean (ie she doesn't splay or get long toes, the whole hoof just gets uniformly longer). At the point that she is shod her feet still don't look long.
A lot of our hacking is roadwork, will I have an issue with hoof being worn faster than it grows, or do they tend to speed growth up to compensate?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Yes, the feet grow at a rate which compensates the work/wear, so gradual walking in hand on a road is ideal, You also need to feed minerals to ensure that the feet have enough nutrients to allow them to develop, some people manage without, but I found that my horse improved overall on the minerals, and he had always had a small branded feed for years before, , except in summer.
Once barefoot, he got fed minerals all year round: 25gms minerals, 50gms micronised linseed and a handful of non molassed chaff was fine if he was in light work/no work.
I don't think you can say anything definitive about transition times, there are too many variables.
I prefered my boys to wear no shoes , but as I find it tiring standing on concrete, I put down rubber EVA mats , parts of the box had concrete, parts mats, and the walls and bed were shavings.
The feet tend to look smaller than when they have shoes on by the way, it is an illusion, but think of it this way, they are the correct length every day.
Make sure farrier does not carve the sole! The sole will change a lot in the first few weeks but they need to toughen up and thicken up, also none of that business with the knife on the frog. The frog is going to be in contact with the road, the briefest tidy is all that you need.
Another benefit is that they are very safe on the road when barefoot.

In time the feet will change, look on Rockley farm for blogs search for "celery"......... less is more .......... feed and management is the key.
 
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Thank you MrsD. Think I might give it a go. I suppose my next question would be do I need to find a barefoot trimmer, continue with my current farrier or suck it and see?
 
I am perfectly happy with a farrier who trims sympathetically, a good farrier is worthwhile, shod or unshod, but I think you are best to learn all you can, as things can be straightforward but not always: usually it's feeding ....... hi sugars=>footyness, insufficient minerals can lead to feet which are subject to thrush and thin soles.
Phone up forageplus or pro earth for recommendations.
I feed 25 - 35 gms of hi magnesium minerals and 50+gms of micronised linseed all year round.
Non molassed s/beet and non molassed chaff for feed. A scoop of oats if in hard work, but in general I feed no cereals and definitely no pony cubes.
I rarely used a farrier, preferring to manage for self trimming, pony had good feet.
If shod , farrier will remove shoes and balance, then you may need him back in 4/5 weeks, to check how things are going. In the long run you can get your own rasp and round off the edges.
 
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I always remove the shoes of horses off work with an injury as soon as the vet is happy at first it may make it difficult for the vet to assess the horses lameness as it will adjust the gait and in some injuries the vet not want to adjust the foot balance in the early stages .
I have always removed the shoes of horses with check sprains but check with the vet.
You need to start to think about thrush management as if a BF horse has even minor thrush it can make it very sore and if your horse is on box rest it will be susceptible to thrush .
Diet , there's lots of threads on here about BF diet have a search you will need a good supplement forage plus website is worth a look .
ATM on box rest the horse will be having lots of hay and not a lot else but spend time sorting the feeding as that's what makes BF successful.
Buy NIc Barkers Book Feet First it's a great overview on what you're trying to achieve .
When you you start work again it's work gradual and in hand at first that's the key I use a trimmer when my horses are BF I have learnt lots from him his wife completes endurance BF with her horse so he really walks the talk my horses live in and out of shoes normally spending not quite half of each year unshod .
If you use the farrier don't let him trim the soles and only minimal frog trimming while on box rest ( because it can be hard to keep frogs right on box rest ) and aim for non when the horse is back for normal if the farrier does not get this it's unlikely bf will work well .
I have been very successful with BF with my horses and that's down to the trimmer I choose be sure to research and choose the right one.
If the horse is on box rest it will feel it's feet when it first comes out of the box this is normal so don't worry if that's the case .
 
Thanks for all of the advice. Feed shouldn't be too much of an issue, she is a good doer so is on a fairly minimal diet anyway. She has a handful of unmollassed chaff (dengie healthy tummy, but would happily switch to dengie healthy hooves molasses free) and a top up of vitamins and minerals.
She currently has a very small handful of pony nuts but I only introduced them to make dinner more tempting when I was feeding her in the lorry to improve her loading. So they can easily be removed.
She is on hay at 1.5% of body weight.
If she wasn't on box rest at the moment she would be turned out 24/7 and strip grazed to control weight.
Her diet doesn't change much in winter as she holds her weight well. The main change will be she is brought in at night and may have a day or 2 per week where she can't be turned out.
 
Have you seen the paddock paradise idea where a track is laid out out ensure horse has to walk round the field to exercise itself, strip grazing MAY stress the grass, and stressed grass has elevated sugars!
I would prefer the track system.
The sugar levels in grass vary during the day, in spring and autumn they will usually be higher and the magnesium lower, I know I used to prefer to stable a few hours in the morning when pony got a bit fat, and also i kept horse off frosted grass in autumn.
You may wonder why this is so relevant to the barefoot horse, but not the shod horse ...... well shoeing a horse will make it less apparent, but a barefoot horse will let you know if he is not comfortable.
 
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I've seen paddock paradise and it looks great if you have 'interesting' land.
How does it work if you are on livery and allocated your 1acre (or whatever it is) of boring, flat pasture. I could make a track round the outside but how do you deal with moving the fence etc as they graze the grass down? Surely then you are in the same situation as strip grazing?
 
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