Took the plunge-barefoot pony

shannonandtay

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So today we decided to take the ponies front shoes off with the help and advice of our farrier we decided to give it a go. I feel a bit worried now that we have done it but determind to give it a go. Pony has previously been barefoot before but farrier that we used to have advised he needed shoes so we went with fronts, I felt a bit under pressure both from farrier and the yard we were on, but decided to go with it as didn't want the pony to be suffering. Have since moved yards and have a farrier who thought it would be worth trying as have had some issues with shoeing him since the last farrier and pony very much disliked having the nails put in, I didnt like to see him stressed so decided to have another try barefoot. Just wanted a bit of advice as to whether we just carrying on as normal now work wise. He isn't being hacked out much now that we have dark evenings so is mostly working in the school with hacking maybe once a week. Do I need to do anything differently? I have made some adjustments to his diet, so it's now the work that I'm unsure about. Thanks for reading.
 
Work him on surfaces that he is comfortable on. Normally school surfaces and smooth tarmac are fine. If you have stony areas and he is footy on them, you might need to let the pony walk on the verge (if there is one) or get hoof boots. After some time has gone by he should be able to progress onto more challenging surfaces. Don't go on long hacks to start with, build up the distance gradually. Some horses go slightly footy after a couple of weeks and then improve again.
 
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