Why did you first go barefoot / what do you do with your horse?

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Charlie31

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I know barefoot can get done to death a bit on here sometimes but I'm reading through the various posts with interest as it's something that I'm contemplating doing myself. This is not something you would have heard me say a year or two ago but I'm really beginning to see now why shoeing isn't helping my horse, especially after several months of bad farriery which I was too slow to realise (I've changed farrier now)! I've also seen a few success stories on my yard now with horses that have either had poor feet that improved once the shoes came off, or those that were actually lame who came sound once the shoes were removed. So I'm nearly there but haven't quite plucked up the courage to go for it just yet!

Where I grew up all horses wore shoes and that was that. It was only when I moved to South Wales that I realised that horse in ridden work could actually have no shoes on and not just those who are retired. I probably still wouldn't have contemplated taking shoes off if my horse didn't have crap hooves then and at first his crap hooves were the precise reason why I definitely couldn't take his shoes off! It's only as time as gone on and I've read more widely about the whole topic, and as I've noticed that pretty much all of the horses without shoes have better feet than those with shoes, that I've started to embrace the idea more fully. But still I'm scared and I worry will I be able to do everything if I take his shoes off that I do with his shoes on. I know I probably wouldn't at fist but I mean eventually.

So it just got me wondering about other people's experiences really. What was it that prompted you to very first takes shoes off (if you ever had them on in the first place) and how does what you do with your horse now compare to what you did beforehand?
 
Horse was lame, remedial shoeing made them look better and injecting helped short term but still lame. Guessed if he was retiring he was going unshod anyway so worth a try to do it properly.

In almost full work 6 months later and done most things since 4.5 years down line now, was hunting up to last season, has finally had to slow down now at 23 due to an unrelated issue (hind not front). Nothing at all to see in front which given he had a coffin joint djd diagnosis is fair going ;). Never managed enough miles to keep up with hoof growth and did some fair miles! Do boot in front if going to be doing miles on stones tracks i.e. When we went to the newforest in very wet June wouldn't want to do a sj jump off on grass probably.
 
Well we had two unshod as they just didn't need them, but the one that went 'barefoot' was a failed lameness case where the remedial shoes made things worse.

I'd found the more I'd read on the subject I didn't have any good reasons (studs for jumping on grass for example) to carry on shoeing .

This means I now have all three in work :eek:, but it's meant the oldie is back in work instead of being retired :).
 
AlexHyde said:
I'd found the more I'd read on the subject I didn't have any good reasons (studs for jumping on grass for example) to carry on shoeing .
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Thanks both. This is how I'm beginning to see things really. I lost interest in competing meaning that we mainly do hacking and fun rides now, and where I live we have very few stony tracks - it's mostly grass or sand and the roads and generally in good condition. I do still like to do a bit of cross country for fun nowadays but never bother to stud anyway. But I guess it's at the back of my mind would I have to be careful with things like cross country with all the boinging around and the impact on his front feet particularly?
 
I took f xc a few times :) the only poss issue for some is If they stone take offs nand landings. I have always been happier bonging around on those feet with essentially built in nikes (aka digital cushion) than how they were shod ;)
 
Less the impact more the risk of slipping from jumping at speed on grass, Topaz manages really well but we don't do any competitive jumping on grass these days (we did one unaff ODE this year but I was conscious to take corners and downhill approaches carefully).

Doodle still has her boots for hacking but thankfully using them less and less these days (11 months bare!),
 
Unless on rough track where he still struggles a bit as feet still a bit flat when he is careful himself (except hunting) I carry on as normal. We were last out one day last winter when everyone else had lost a shoe and we still had a hack home ;). He will be a bit footy day after hunting so is rested or booted but that is mostly because of the fact that he stops being careful where he would be normally. Absolutely fine the following day :)
 
ester said:
Unless on rough track where he still struggles a bit as feet still a bit flat when he is careful himself (except hunting) I carry on as normal. We were last out one day last winter when everyone else had lost a shoe and we still had a hack home ;). He will be a bit footy day after hunting so is rested or booted but that is mostly because of the fact that he stops being careful where he would be normally. Absolutely fine the following day :)
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The thought of not having to get the farrier out for lost shoes or worry about damage from forging and over-reaching is very attractive! Sounds like I would need to think on about the XC side of things and possibly be careful there then. Is doing XC in hoof boots an option or would they go flying? I do know what you mean about feeling safer without shoes than with though, you can't beat sliding around on shiny shoes after fresh rainfall can you?!
 
ester said:
I took f xc a few times :) the only poss issue for some is If they stone take offs nand landings. I have always been happier bonging around on those feet with essentially built in nikes (aka digital cushion) than how they were shod ;)
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Nah, stone landings no problem :)


george080110-2.jpg
 
I had a horse with a very imbalanced foot which a very experienced farrier told me he could do nothing about. The horse has such thin and collapsed feet that he could only be shod one foot at a time. My other horse was limping on stones even though he was wearing shoes, and the beautiful feet i had bought him with a year before were moving forward out from under him.

The shoes came off in September ten years ago. The second horse went affiliated Novice eventing (these days that's level four not novice in size!) in the April, the first horse in July. In later years I hunted several horses barefoot and evented several as well.

You lose marks in the dressage phase on slippy or baked hard ground, but other than that there was no issue.
 
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Psd diagnosis in a hind along with other soft tissue injuries made me take his shoes off, hinds first. Psd was in 2011, shoes came off August 2013. We had some time off due to baby and footiness. June 2015 lame, I assumed bruised/footy as had upped his work. September 2015 ddft damage found in both fronts.
January 2016 went to rockley for 3months. Back home, still intermittently lame. Brilliant trimmer picked up on wonkiness behind in July. Had new saddke fitted (went from medium/medium wide to an extra wide = red face :o ) had lessons with classical instructor to work on straightness. Now sound, in work, hacking 1-2 times a week, schooling same including jumping. He's only lame if allowed to slide into laziness.

Only snag is I'm now 21 weeks pregnant so no doubt will lose some fitness again!
 
ycbm said:
I had a horse with a very imbalanced foot which a very experienced farrier told me he could do nothing about. The horse has such thin and collapsed feet that he could only be shod one foot at a time. My other horse was limping on stones even though he was wearing shoes, and the beautiful feet i had bought him with a year before were moving forward out from under him.

The shoes came off in September ten years ago. The second horse went affiliated Novice eventing (these days that's level four not novice in size!) in the April, the first horse in July. In later years I hunted several horses barefoot and evented several as well.

You lose marks in the dressage phase on slippy or baked hard ground, but other than that there was no issue.
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That's a seriously impressive jump, there's no danger of me jumping that big with or without shoes! No problems with the dressage either, on the very rare occasion we do a ODE our dressage is crap anyway so again shoes or not wouldn't really be an issue.

stencilface said:
Psd diagnosis in a hind along with other soft tissue injuries made me take his shoes off, hinds first. Psd was in 2011, shoes came off August 2013. We had some time off due to baby and footiness. June 2015 lame, I assumed bruised/footy as had upped his work. September 2015 ddft damage found in both fronts.
January 2016 went to rockley for 3months. Back home, still intermittently lame. Brilliant trimmer picked up on wonkiness behind in July. Had new saddke fitted (went from medium/medium wide to an extra wide = red face :o ) had lessons with classical instructor to work on straightness. Now sound, in work, hacking 1-2 times a week, schooling same including jumping. He's only lame if allowed to slide into laziness.

Only snag is I'm now 21 weeks pregnant so no doubt will lose some fitness again!
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I'm glad you finally seem to have gotten there. Goes to show how important it is to consider the whole package really doesn't it? My horse is a bit lazy behind and tends to drag his toes a bit so I'd definitely have to watch for that.
 
Tbh I'd sort that alongside it! He had a flare on his bad hind leg which I just accepted, when in fact it was a clear signal of his incorrect movement that I should have addressed before. Obviously it existed with shoes too, but the signs only appeared when the shoes came off.

I'm now at a point that after controlling his weight/grass intake in the summer for the first time I no longer have a horse who will winter on minimal hard feed shedding his summer fat. He needs more topline and is at the bare minimum weight wise that I'd like. He's getting speedibeet, high fibre nuts and oats and I'm not sure what bf friendly stuff I can feed without detrimentally affecting his feet. For the first time in 11 years I'm having to consider putting weight on, it's very odd!
 
Can you add fat SF, that should be safe. I use supermarket rapeseed oil when I want oil. 80p a litre if you have a cash and carry card. Linseed is another way to do it, but much more expensive.
 
He gets micronised linseed, but yes oil is the only thing I thought I could add safely. It's so odd to have this issue with this horse!
 
stencilface said:
He gets micronised linseed, but yes oil is the only thing I thought I could add safely. It's so odd to have this issue with this horse!
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If you are worried I might run some bloods. I had trouble keeping weight on a horse with kidney failure, but it's very rare in horses. He's the only one I've ever heard of.
 
I think it's just because he came into September on an end of winter weight for him normally. Then for once in his life he's actually in real work a few times a week and not just meandering around on the roads at his own lazy wonky pace. I'll add some oil and see if it works. He's not a neglect case or anything, just that if I want him to build, he's got to have something to build on. It was only when the physio was put yesterday that I thought he looked a bit slim. (Him, slim?! Unheard of! :D )
 
I'm taking my 11th and 12th horses BF now. Actually no 11 is still shod to be fair and he's doing a great job of reminding me why I don't like shoes. No 12 is my daughter's new 18yr old competition pony who has been shod all his life and needs sedated for a farrier to get within 3 metres of him. I've just taken his shoes off this week (no trimming done at all and his feet are quite long). No 11 is a warmblood who will also have been shod all his life. I've kept his shoes on simply because I want to be able to keep riding him at the same level he's at just now while I get used to him. I initially planned to get him shod twice, however having hacked him out twice in frozen conditions where he's slipped on ice, frost, and plain old tarmac, I'm starting to think next time he's due they will be coming off at least behind.

This pair will probably be my most challenging ones yet but I don't feel too worried about doing it.

The pros for me are thus:

Long term soundness.
They have their own shock absorbing system that no other man made product can come close to.
No lost shoes.
Cheaper.
No waiting for the farrier to not show.
You can ride in snow, ice and on any tarmac without slipping, balling up or any boring issue like that.
I don't have an issue with riding on grass or landing on stones xc.
We do 70-100km per week on rough stone and tarmac. My main horse lives on a stone turnout so spends her entire life on abrasive surfaces. She grows a new foot in about 8 weeks.
 
Young (7 years) horse diagnosed with navicular syndrome and DDFT tear in August this year, treatment plan was the usual remedial shoes and box rest and a prognosis of light hacking if I was lucky :( I was pretty devastated tbh, but did lots of research, read the Rockley blog, talked to lots of people and decided to try and rehabilitate her barefoot myself. Now she's living out 24/7 on a track with her friends and getting walked out for an hour on the roads five days out of seven, definitely not the 6/10 lame she was at diagnosis now, but not yet sound (been 2.5 months of walking). I'm of the opinion that even if it doesn't work for us and she doesn't come sound, at least she has a decent quality of life and this way seems to have decent success rate, unlike remedial shoeing! I video her regularly to check for heel first landing. As I was doing this for her, I also videoed my older mare (18 years) out of interest and saw she was landing awfully toe first in shoes, so I took the plunge and took her barefoot too, the change in her foot shape after about 8 weeks is incredible. One really interesting thing with my older horse is that over the past few months she had been a bit unlevel when starting off trotting, the physio said it was just likely to be age related changes/arthritis starting and not to worry too much as after 5 mins or so she was level again (obviously get her vet checked if it became worse). But since taking her shoes off she's sound right from the off. Could be coincidence, but the way her feet have changed it could be because the shoes were forcing her feet into a shape that they weren't meant to be and I know that feet adapt to give the support the horse needs. I wish I had more time to walk the older horse out on the roads, but it's not going to be possible very frequently over the winter. After lots and lots of research I now understand the damage shoes do to hooves and probably wouldn't have shoes on my horses again, but I'd never say never to anything to do with horses :)
 
Horse at the age of 7 had literally broken down. Eventually turned out to be hock spavins but it was never straightforward. Various attempts at being turned away, always had loads of remedial work as wonky feet. Total foot imbalance. Ended up with farriers coming from other counties to try help him. Gave up in the end. Took his shoes off as to be retired. Turned away. Was due to be pts as loves his work.
Then a newly qualified farrier who had come out to trim him said to me (first professional to ever suggest it) I would never put shoes on those feet. You would be better leaving his feet to sort themselves..... the penny dropped. I was intrigued...
That was nearly 2 years ago and we haven't looked back. He is in full hacking work. I am very careful with him but we can walk/trot/canter anywhere. Hacked out 4-6 times a week inc a couple of hours on the road. Stoney tracks aren't an issue. Do the odd fun ride etc. Miracle really.
His feet are much less wonky and they look odd at times but they seem to have developed a way of working that keeps my boy sound! The same newly qualified farrier pops over every few months but his feet are mainly self trimming!
My only regret was I didn't do this the day he broke down
 
Pc2003 you might find this picture interesting. It shows two moulds taken from the collateral grooves of a horse with hock spavins and no shoes. This is during cold wet weather, when he would create a much deeper collateral groove on one side than the other. In warm dry spells, these would even up. It was this week by week change that convinced me that a horse with arthritis is better off without shoes so that it can change its feet according to how things feel at the time.


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ycbm said:
Pc2003 you might find this picture interesting. It shows two moulds taken from the collateral grooves of a horse with hock spavins and no shoes. This is during cold wet weather, when he would create a much deeper collateral groove on one side than the other. In warm dry spells, these would even up. It was this week by week change that convinced me that a horse with arthritis is better off without shoes so that it can change its feet according to how things feel at the time.


0017_zpstflnrpvc.jpg
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And this is why I feel he is better left to his own devices. He is the best judge on what his feet should be doing to keep him comfortable. No fancy shoeing can do that. I am amazed sometimes the odd shapes his feet grow or bits that break off etc but that's fine as he is sounder than he has ever been
 
Welll mine is back in shoes now. I first took his shoes off because I could see that he wasn't walking correctly. I know now that he was landing flat/toe first, the first sign of the route towards navicular and he was such a clumsy thing, tripping and stumbling. He also developed a lump under his knee, which I now think was due to the way he was shod was torquing the knee joint (his feet looked very pretty). After removing the shoes the lump disappeared and his feet improved massively, changed shape, strengthened at the heels, but I was a terrible worrier and I worried about it ALL the time. I also used boots which he loved on the roads, but not so great on the mud and across country. I got to he could do cross country without shoes, and stoney car parks.

I was still showing, so I decided to have his shoes back on as I had nightmares about slipping up in a grass arena. Then a couple of years ago I had shoes off again. Once more his feet looked great, and he was sound and happy, but not quite enough to go without boots in difficult terrain. So this summer I had his shoes put back, due to personal reasons and amount of time Ihave to ride and my constant problem with inconsistent work. My trimmer totally agreed with my reasons and I admit that since his shoes have been back on I have ridden him more.

But I think that had he NOT had time out of shoes, and working without shoes, then he would now at 18 be lame with foot problems.
 
I took my cob barefoot because he was tripping a lot. The final straw was when he tripped in a fast canter and threw me over his head, it was starting to really impact on my confidence riding him. Vet couldn't find anything wrong, and we had a good farrier (who helped me take him barefoot). His feet looked fine and he was landing heel first. He stopped tripping immediately the shoes came off. I also loved the extra grip on the roads as we do a lot of road riding, so I was an immediate convert. Also, he dishes in front (more on one side than the other) and this seems to have got much better since taking him out of shoes.

Mine was sound in shoes and came out of them with no problems, but we did have a major blip the following spring when he broke into a cattle field and stuffed himself on lush grass. He was very sore-footed for weeks. I came close to re-shoeing but managed (eventually) to find some boots that fit his odd shaped hooves.

Taking his shoes off made no difference to what we do. He doesn't do as much now, but that is down to me (young child etc). We never did anything too strenuous.
 
The extra grip on the road is a huge plus for me too. Most of our roads are ones with worn surfaces that become ice rinks when damp/wet.
I can walk or trot along the at will. Most others have to wait till it's dry or stick to the over grown verges as metal shoes are a nightmare on these roads
 
Re barefoot friendly feeds for weight gain have you tried Copra? Was a bit of a lifesaver for me last year trying to put weight and muscle back on mine after his cushings diagnosis. Depending on how much you're giving atm you can probably up your linseed amount as well. (I know someone who has fed up to half a stubbs scoop per feed) I also know someone who swears by Omega rice for weight gain (I know a couple of barefoot people who use it and seem to get on ok with it)
 
Oh and the reason I went barefoot in 1st place was down to lameness. Don't think horse would be in work if I hadn't done it (jury's out on whether he'd be here at all as he didn't exactly have a winning personality at the time everything started going wrong).
 
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