To re shoe or not?

[only_me]

Had Billys hind shoes taken off at start of summer as I was going away, continued to hack him out until left and hacked him when came home in August. He’s not footy and has good feet but he lives out and his winter field gets quite muddy, so not sure whether to re shoe him again. He has fronts on. He has grown good Hinds and frogs seem good. Farrier is coming on Tuesday, so he needs a trim anyway!

He can have shoes taken off as needed/theres no real transition time for his feet. What do you think?

 

[ester]

they look fine, not sure why you'd want to reshoe due to muddy field or am I reading it wrong?

 

[only_me]

There’s less dry area to stand on and field gets wet and it’s deep mud. Horse doesn’t help self as he likes to stand in the deepest parts. Might be too wet for hoof to dry out and I want to keep frogs as healthy as possible.
There’s also more stones in the field

 

[ester]

Mine has genuinely never struggled with wet muddy fields but ours are too bad to leave out all the time, I would wait and see if me though. I don't think shoeing helps frogs be healthier other than keeping them trimmed up. Field paste would probably be doable too.

 

[Gloi]

I can't think of any good reason to shoe in this case. There's always the risk then of them getting pulled off in the mud and damaging the feet. Shoes won't keep frogs healthy.

 

[Abbeygale]

If he's not struggling with not having the shoes on, then leave them off! Just over 12 months ago I was umming and ahhing about whether to take my mares fronts off (only ever been shod in front), then while my farrier was away on holiday for 3 weeks, she helpfully removed one of her shoes. With no farrier to come and put it back on, I took the other one off, and we have just carried out from there. She was like your boy that she didn't really seem to notice that the shoes weren't there and her feet look so much stronger and better now she's had a full 12 months without the shoes