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

NZJenny

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I have a bit of a mixed story. I started barefooting 11 or 12 years ago as we went through a major farrier drought in my area. I was endurance riding at the time, and the gelding in my avatar went on to complete over 2,500 km barefoot, including CEI 3* 160 km and we finished fourth on the NZ horse and rider rankings in 2009 (I think). He was retired from endurance due to a stifle issue, but went on to compete in dressage for a few years before the stifle forced his retirement from all riding a couple of years ago. He's 18 now and has a comfortable middle aged spread and remains happily paddock sound.

I then competed another part-bred Arabian mare in endurance and competitive trail riding bare foot, for several years (she did around 1,000 km I think) before the same stifle problem as my gelding (they are by the same stallion) also forced her retirement.

Then came along Maggie. She is a 3/4 TB x 1/4 Clydesdale and I purchased her at 18 months old. She is in the same paddock, gets the same feed and was trimmed by the same trimmer. The only difference is she is not (and never will be) an endurance horse, so she doesn't do anywhere near the same mileage the other two did. I battled for nearly 18 months when she was started under saddle to keep her barefoot, but it just wasn't working. She was either sore or her walls were cracking - and in the end, in the interests of the horse, I gave it up and she is now shod and we have no more problems.

The lesson from all of this for me was no one size fits all and in the end you have to do what is going to work for the horse.

Good luck with your journey.
 

ann-jen

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I have 2 horses, both barefoot.
Dee has been barefoot for about 2 years. She had very neglected feet when I got her. Very underrun, thin soles, poor frogs, white line disease and a crack in the toe of the right fore. I took her barefoot because she never kept shoes on for >4wks anyway and kept getting solar bruises and corns. She was more comfortable from the outset but it has been a long slow process to get her feet to what I would now consider healthy. Initially my farrier trimmed her and did a good job at maintaining her feet. He had an interest in barefoot horses and I never had any issues. Unfortunately he retired about 6 months ago and his apprentice that took over made a bit of a mess of her feet.... so I changed to a barefoot trimmer and her feet have improved so much ever since. The right fore still has a little area where the crack used to be where the WL hasn't fully closed but I expect this to have gone by her next trim. I do a bit of everything with her. She hacks on all surfaces without feeling footy and we do a mixture of BD and BS competition-wise. The only thing I am careful with is jumping on grass on hard ground, mainly because she hasn't got much concavity on the sole of the right fore and I worry a little about the concussion landing on this foot.... she would perhaps be ok but I don't risk it.... a shame as she qualified for the club finals at the national festival of show-jumping but the final was on grass in august and I didn't want to risk it....
Jenny has been barefoot behind for 2 years and in front for a year. Jen is 22 and had been shod all her life. I took the hinds off because she's mildly arthritic behind and sometimes her legs fill when she's stabled and I thought it might help with that. I had no issues when the hinds came off. The fronts came off a year ago and to be fair she really struggled initially on stony ground to the point that I wondered if I'd done the right thing. She had very weak frogs from being shod and her soles were very thin.... all coupled with a nice thrush infection. BUT she has got there and her feet are a lot more healthy than they were this time last year. Other than standing on the odd big stone, she hacks on all surfaces now without issue. She does a small amount in the school and will go hunting over this winter and I don't anticipate there being any issues. She is a million % better than she was a year ago. She already had good foot balance but had been shod a long time.... I'd say with her, she struggled a lot more than Dee at the outset, but her feet improved a lot quicker than Dee's.
I guess they are all individual in the way that they respond to it. I still find maintaining Dee's feet a bit high maintenance but worth it for the results we have finally achieved. And what I save in shoeing costs is swallowed up by dietary supplements! But for me has been worth all the effort for the results finally achieved.... I don't think I would have kept Dee sound in shoes!
 

Antw23uk

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I took my 10yr old ISH shoes off about 13 weeks ago and it hasnt been plain sailing but he has surpassed my expectations with how well he is doing and how great they are looking. Thanks to a great job of my farrier his feet have been well looked after but when he came back off a years loan in July (same farrier luckily) his feet, due to the weather this year, were very cracked and flaky. I had spoken to my farrier and agreed a rest period from about the end of October but when he came out for his last shoeing of the year he was dreading trying to put shoes on him so we brought the plans forward and off they came.

He spent about 2-3 weeks tuned out with no real ill affects before the BF trimmer turned up. She has always had lots of praise for my farrier. His frogs were good from the start and his digital cushion was very good so everything else was just about time, diet and getting those feet working. Oh he was also about 2/10th lame on a right circle but we are thinking its the crack and white line disease he is currently growing out which certainly got worse before now its finally getting better. I started long reining and riding bareback in the field just in walk and kept questioning if I was doing the right thing. I then came on here and got a kick up the butt so started more regular walking out in hand and riding and long reining round the field and this was the real turning point. It seemed the more work he did the better everything got. By about week 6-7 I would say i was back in the saddle hacking out but having to get off a fair bit to walk over stones, but this has become less and less and now we go for nice long hacks over all terrains with the odd 'ouchy' moment but I think I'm past the getting boots stage although wont rule it out when we are tearing round next year doing everything and anything we can get out to :)

BF trimmer came out the other day, she is amazed at how tight his white lines are now. He has big juicy frogs, lots of digital cushion and his heels are really starting to take shape so all in all a very positive experience and if I get this 2nd riding horse I'm currently looking at she will also transition to BF.

The reason I went BF was because we brought a house with land and he came home. I dont think I would have attempted it on livery, the turnout was too dictated and so was the feed so I think I would have struggled ... well I dont think I would have attempted it really but its definitely the best decision I've ever made for him :)
 

Charlie31

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Thank you to everybody who has replied to this thread, I've found it fascinating to read all of your accounts. It's remarkable how many horses might well have ended up on the scrap heap had they not had their shoes off. This is what I'm seeing on my yard - those horses who have had their shoes off have improved whereas the ones with remedial shoes either continue to have problems or get worse.

I thank those who it didn't work out for who posted their stories too. I definitely think it's important to be aware of doing what's right for the horse and if I do do this I will go into it with an open mind and won't be naive enough to think all of our problems will be solved overnight.

My main worry about taking his shoes off at the moment is that the previous farrier trimmed way too much off his feet and he really needs to grow them out a bit now. So it concerns me that if I do it now he might get sore or wear the feet quicker than they can grow. So maybe we need to have a few cycles with the new farrier before I brave it. Reading all of your accounts has definitely made me think more that it's worth a go though.
 

Antw23uk

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Thank you to everybody who has replied to this thread, I've found it fascinating to read all of your accounts. It's remarkable how many horses might well have ended up on the scrap heap had they not had their shoes off. This is what I'm seeing on my yard - those horses who have had their shoes off have improved whereas the ones with remedial shoes either continue to have problems or get worse.

I thank those who it didn't work out for who posted their stories too. I definitely think it's important to be aware of doing what's right for the horse and if I do do this I will go into it with an open mind and won't be naive enough to think all of our problems will be solved overnight.

My main worry about taking his shoes off at the moment is that the previous farrier trimmed way too much off his feet and he really needs to grow them out a bit now. So it concerns me that if I do it now he might get sore or wear the feet quicker than they can grow. So maybe we need to have a few cycles with the new farrier before I brave it. Reading all of your accounts has definitely made me think more that it's worth a go though.

Without knowing the horse I would spend the next few weeks concentrating on his diet and when it comes to shoeing him again I would take them off and just see how it goes. There is never a right time in the majority of cases so just take the plunge, get them off and see how he is. Good luck :)
 

FlashyP

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Thank you to everybody who has replied to this thread, I've found it fascinating to read all of your accounts. It's remarkable how many horses might well have ended up on the scrap heap had they not had their shoes off. This is what I'm seeing on my yard - those horses who have had their shoes off have improved whereas the ones with remedial shoes either continue to have problems or get worse.

I thank those who it didn't work out for who posted their stories too. I definitely think it's important to be aware of doing what's right for the horse and if I do do this I will go into it with an open mind and won't be naive enough to think all of our problems will be solved overnight.

My main worry about taking his shoes off at the moment is that the previous farrier trimmed way too much off his feet and he really needs to grow them out a bit now. So it concerns me that if I do it now he might get sore or wear the feet quicker than they can grow. So maybe we need to have a few cycles with the new farrier before I brave it. Reading all of your accounts has definitely made me think more that it's worth a go though.


The trimmer who took my girls shoes off said to wait until she was due to be shod or maybe a bit longer to give the hooves as much growth time as possible and then take the shoes off, but there was no point in waiting more than one shoeing cycle. I think I went 7 weeks before my older girls shoes came off instead of the usual 6 weeks. There is no point going more than one shoeing cycle because if your farrier is doing a good job and shoeing well, he/she will be trying to keep the frog in contact with the ground. To do this he/she will have to pare off hoof wall and sole to account for the thickness of the shoe going on. So if you shoe again, you’re in effect resetting the growth cycle. This is also a reason that many people say ‘my horse wouldn’t be able to go barefoot as it is crippled when it loses a shoe’, because a hoof prepared for a shoe necessarily has to have higher walls/sole than would be natural for good physiological function barefoot, otherwise the frog won’t be in contact with the ground. This doesn’t mean that that horse wouldn’t be able to cope well barefoot if the hoof was allowed to regain its ‘natural’ structure and was conditioned correctly.

I second what Antw23uk says about getting the diet sorted, I changed my girl to a forageplus balancer/linseed/salt for the last 6 weeks she had shoes on. She had a couple of days of being quite sore when they first came off, feeling her feet I guess, but was soon back to charging around the field and walk/trot/cantering in the school under saddle.
 

ponypatters

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I am the same as you Charlie31, always been shod since I was age 8 and my mum is a hardened shoe supporter and it is very hard to look beyond this, when this is all you have known ! BUT when I had two horses out of four lame and off work with hoof related problems (and I had exhausted all veterinary routes, all scans etc done to no avail) , I decided I had nothing to lose at this point, I bit the bullet and whipped the shoes off.

I found an excellent barefoot trimmer, took all her advice, changed diet, proper feed balancer, bought hoof boots, exercised accordingly and I am slowly getting there. My mare is actually in foal now but is absolutely sound with no shoes but in limited hacking work - 100% improvement from having shoes on but does wear hoof boots (equine fusion or Cavallo) when out hacking. My gelding (ISH with a lot of TB) who I would love to one day hunt, is a little more problematic. He is definitely better without shoes and I think his journey is just destined to be slower, it will take a very long time to grow in the new hooves (about 9 months ish) from the new diet and new trimming method. Each has only been barefoot since early August 2016. A long way to go but I am a convert that's for sure!

I am hoping by next winter I can take him hunting, fingers crossed !
 

Puddleduck

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I am planning to take my warmblood's front shoes off next week. He's been barefoot behind since I've had him (18 months). In September he suddenly went lame and diagnosis through nerve blocks, X-rays and MRI is a tear in the DDFT by the navicular in his right fore. There are also signs of navicular deterioration of the bone and collateral ligament issues starting along with navicular bursitis and granulated scar tissue affecting the tendon healing.
he lands laterally on the outside wall so his hoof is flaring to the inside. Currently has a bar shoe on and is still lame to trot up for the vet after 10 weeks box rest. My farrier has remarked on his foot changing shape and has said there's only so much he can do to adjust the balance, vet has also told me we will always be fighting the lateral landing issue which leads me to conclude that I will be unlikely to keep him sound (assuming I can get him sound first of all).
I've discussed sending him to Rockley and my vet has said he will support if that's my chosen route. I have pretty much the right set up at home with diet and access to different surfaces so I've decided to crack on and start the transition myself and keep Rockley as a back up plan. My head, heart & gut are all telling me it's the right thing to do to try and fix him.
 

ohmissbrittany

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Why I first went barefoot - repeated issues with negative palmar angle, "no heel growth" (which was actually mad wicked bad crushed heels), and compounding soft tissue injuries. In retrospect, both times my horse went lame were in September and she grows too much foot for the farrier to say "well, I'm going on holiday so she will just have to wait 7 weeks." My horse is a 4-week horse. Here are the x-rays and MRI over two years. After the MRI, the farrier copped a ****** attitude with me when I offered to pay a really big name podiatrist to come teach him how to shoe my horse, so I left the shoes off...and off we went. You can see how sucked in the heel bulbs are, there was almost an inch of retained sole after a year in packing and pads, and I don't care what a farrier tells you or how much copper sulphate they put in there, that makes the foot mushy and rotten- I had so many random stocked up legs and cellulitis that year, and never had that before pads or after they came off.

Here is the foot about 8 months after the shoes came off: http://imgur.com/a/MgSrw. Still a bit flat, but soles are rock hard and horse is jumping 3'6" once or twice a week on baked Texas dirt and grass just fine.

I really should take more pictures- she had a setback during quarantine when I could not control her diet and she got next to zero exercise, then got shipping fever and had lots of antibiotics and more stall time. But now at one year out of shoes, she's finally getting concavity and sole depth in the front left "bad" foot. And she's a BETTER MOVER now too- she used to trot like a lame orangutan, and now I get all sorts of people randomly asking if she's a dressage horse when they see her toe flicking trot.

It's a lot of work in some ways (adjusting the diet, making sure they get as much exercise as possible, and doing it in a slow buildup of controlled activity in the beginning) and less in others (because unless it's raining now I just chuck my horse in the field and poo picking that takes less time than mucking out) but it's totally worth it and I would never go back. :)

Edit to add- she jumps better now too, although I haven't taken her up to 1.20m since the shoes came off yet. Before Pic with the legs barely picked up due to sore shoulders from sore feet. After Pic- actually lifting the shoulders and extending her legs over the fence.
 
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FfionWinnie

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Feet don't grow much in shoes because they aren't stimulated to grow. They grow faster when needed to, it just takes a few weeks for the wear rate and the growth rate to match. That is why ideally you start walking on smooth tarmac for a very short length of time to begin with. This stimulates the foot, and offers the optimum trim with only tiny adjustments each day yet needed by the horse. Win win. Consistency, gradual increase in work load, is the key to success with this, along with diet.
 

nikkimariet

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We prefer barefoot.

Fig arrived in his racing plates. We whipped them off, left foot alone. Gave him a fortnight. Then started his retraining.
 
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