Un shod brood mares, diet advice please

ribbons: all i can tell you is that my youngster has been footy on stoney ground/school surface since she was very young (i bred her so i know)

i recently changed her diet (while she was on rough grazing) to fast fibre, speedi beet and pro balance + minerals. i have noticed a big difference in how she moves on other surfaces, and i believe her soles look more concave than ever before. the only change has been her diet, and limited sugar intake.

i would suggest you TRY and limit the mare's access to grass and make sure her feeds are non molassed and fibre based, adding minerals, (basically as cptrayes had suggested) and see if it makes a difference over a few months. if not then fine, you tried. what have you got to loose? ;)

my youngster has now gone into a field which was cut for hay... i am worried that she will become footy again, so am going to try and keep her in for a few hours every day to limit her grass intake! i have been pleasantly surprised by the change in her feeds.
 
ribbons said:
Thank you twostroke, that is the sort of response I hoped for. Yes it's obvious she has different needs to the others, it's why I posted.
Pasture is far from just grass, it is old fashioned pasture with many other plants but there is lots of it.
It's ridge and furrow in the main but with little change in the actual surface other than hardcore in gateways of which there are several. She comes up a very stoney track every day to the yard but otherwise has little surface variation.
Thanks for your thoughts, I will investigate offering a greater variety of surfaces.
Just to throw something else out there to consider. When in work racing or hunting she had virtually no grass although I can't guarantee her diet was low sugar. Since coming home but before breeding she had very limited grazing on very poor land due to my location at the time. I have always fed high fibre low cereal diets. She has always been footy on stoney ground without shoes. Since being a brood mare on good grass she is no better, no worse. Hence my request for advice from all camps, whatever the opinion. From those that consider its the way she is to those that believe it can be changed with diet and environment. Mostly it's been
given generously and politely and
has been much appreciated.
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No probs :)

Some horses are simply more sensitive than others, so it could just be that she's a delicate flower. Something to bear in mind if she's raced, however, is ulcers. I think the figure is 90% of racehorses have ulcers, and these can affect the horse's ability to absorb the nutrients they need. It's something I'm currently investigating with my TB.
 
badgermyers said:
Thats interesting! May inbox you when it comes to my dissertation as dont know anyone else jumping to the level I need. As for correlating injuries, its a long shot but I wanted a bit more of a medical aspect to my project not sure my findings will be useful and may all be coincidence but its interesting at least. Thanks for your input I enjoyed it and much more open minded than my past experiences!

Thanks again
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Not sure if it would be relevant to what you need, but there was a showjumper at Rockley fairly recently. I'm not sure what level he jumped at before, but his injuries are documented on the Rockley blog.

http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/bryan-jumping-at-hickstead.html
 
Whisp&willow, I have never fed anything mollassed. She has for many years been in either day or night and out the other depending on time of year. She has a diet of hay or haylage chaff and a feed balancer, increased with oil and stud cubes at necessary times. I am happy to feed the balancer for vits and minerals to a brood mare. I am wary about throwing in xgrammes of this and that to try and improve her feet without knowing the effect it may have on her unborn foal. I was hoping for opinions from other breeders maybe. I realise restricting her grass intake will reduce her sugar intake, all good for her feet. Again I need to investigate what else it will reduce in her diet that is not so advisable for her pregnancy. Maybe nothing but without knowing you see my dilemma. It would be so easy to do everything for her foot health but I need more than one forum opinion on a friends brood mare to be sure it's not going to compromise her nutritional needs as a mother.
I do intend to investigate this further and do all I can to improve her feet, when I have confirmation it is safe to do so. But I will be looking elsewhere perhaps. I have more than enough bullet holes for now.
Again thanks for your input.
 
I would second your intention to make further investigations in other places. Who needs supercilious, condescending, pedantic, evangelical and just plain rude correspondence which assumes absolute superiority and treats any querying of statements as if it was offered by someone with subnormal intelligence? If people want to promote 'barefoot' as the way forward, then being more polite and acquiring some basic manners would be of great help.
 
ribbons said:
Whisp&willow, I have never fed anything mollassed. She has for many years been in either day or night and out the other depending on time of year. She has a diet of hay or haylage chaff and a feed balancer, increased with oil and stud cubes at necessary times. I am happy to feed the balancer for vits and minerals to a brood mare. I am wary about throwing in xgrammes of this and that to try and improve her feet without knowing the effect it may have on her unborn foal. I was hoping for opinions from other breeders maybe. I realise restricting her grass intake will reduce her sugar intake, all good for her feet. Again I need to investigate what else it will reduce in her diet that is not so advisable for her pregnancy. Maybe nothing but without knowing you see my dilemma. It would be so easy to do everything for her foot health but I need more than one forum opinion on a friends brood mare to be sure it's not going to compromise her nutritional needs as a mother.
I do intend to investigate this further and do all I can to improve her feet, when I have confirmation it is safe to do so. But I will be looking elsewhere perhaps. I have more than enough bullet holes for now.
Again thanks for your input.
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no probs- like i say, all can tell you is what i have experienced with my wee one. i hope you can find something that works. ;)
 
Ha ha Cortez, I must admit to being a bit shocked by the onslaught. Especially as the timing of my comments within the thread were so inacurately reproduced. However everyone else has been very kind with their help and advice whatever their thoughts were on the barefoot/diet debate. I do like to weigh different opinions on something without much actual documented research.
Luckily the bullet holes are in thick skin so no damage done, but still so unnecessary. Like I said I think it had more to do with ego than helping my horse.
 
badgermyers said:
I would be interested in the science behind it. I am doing a dissertation on foot balance in competing showjumpers and the shoes they wear and correlating this to lower limb injuries. Trying to find a link between footbalance and the shoes they have to suit this and injuries.
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You could contact Steve Leigh.
http://www.natureswaynhc.co.uk/

I've heard he's doing a research project on centrifugal force to the hoof from the weight of the shoes?

He has a big cake problem so I imagine he'd spill the beans if you promised him cake.....
 
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