Why does your horse have to change diet when shoes come off? makes no sense.

ENGLUND BAREFOOT IS A LOT OF POO
right now you are listening, this was my view about a year ago until my lad became so lame in shoes I had to alter my ways and be perpaired to have a open mind, 1st time round I failed due to diet being wrong ( which I now now) how do I know?? Cause I listened to the likes of cpytrayes and Oberon and changed his diet and he stopped being pottery in days. I have altered his diet a bit and have found that diet IS a bit part for my lad for barefoot to work. No science no proff needed just watching my lad showed me all I needed to know.
Please listen but if not than I will buy your horse cheap :) and show you what diet can do.
Open mind is a great thing.
 
I dont get why a horses diet should change either...

Ive got two ponies who are barefoot trimmed, one unshod (trimmed by farrier) and one shod. None of them are on specific-hoof type diets... they're fed whatever I would normally feed regardless of if they have shoes on or not. They all look good and all their hooves are sturdy enough.

I totally understand if a horse has BAD hooves, then it would benefit from a specific supplement etc. but then that would be the same with a horse who was shod as if his hooves are bad, he wont hold shoes on, so its nothing to do with barefoot. You dont have to feed an entirely different diet IMO.

Personally Id have all mine barefoot, however it depends on their workload - I just dont see how you can event (safely) a barefoot / unshod horse, I need studs to try to give my horse as much grip as possible. Thats the only reason I shoe, when someone invents a hoof boot that is legal for BE / BSJA etc. then I'll be first in line.
 
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Well that was feisty. OP succeeded in getting my human hackles to rise. Must try and book a lesson with him/her, bet it would be great.

FWIW I have two horses, one barefoot, one shod. I find all advice on here useful, and thanks to everyone who gives it. It's all relevant and useful, and I find people who ask for advice and then blatantly don't wish to take it, or even ridicule it, completely ignorant.

This one just took the biscuit!
 
Magicmelon, I think on here a lot of the time people go bf as the last option, when they've got vets muttering about pts or chronic lameness etc and obviously at that point diet is key to turning the whole of the horses health around.

I know 3 people who event bf and usually do better than shod with studs on sloppy ground as the horse is able to utilise its whole hoof and flex it to grip as its designed to :)
 
Whether you would need to change the horse diet when it goes BF would depend of course on what you where feeding it begin with.
I had one horses shoes removed on Friday and it's already stabled during the day eats chopped straw oats and speedibeet and haylage lite it won't need any diet change .
I chose not to feed my horse anything in the way of mixes as I am very committed to keeping them all on a very low sugar hi fibre diet if OP chooses to feed her horses sugar coated coarse mixes its her choice not sure what she was trying to get at she asked a question and then shouted at everyone who answered just plain strange .
My horse is walking out happily today with out his shoes and was sound and full of fun when lunged for ten minutes in the school OP's horses are lame in the school without shoes but her mind seems closed to trying to explore the different reasons that might be.
 
The big feed companies will develop feeds to fit the current trends for feeding as they want to sell as much feed as possible. Balancers were very popular and so all the companies invested in producing them, now high fibre low sugar and starch is becoming more popular so companies will make more of these sorts of feeds.

The companies will provide what we want not necessarily what we need! If lots of people wanted to start feeding their horses smarties and mashmellows I am sure feed companies would make something that included these items!

galaxy said:
Many big feed companies are actually now developing molasses free feeds and specifically marketing them that way. (Dengie, Equilibrium) Why do you think they would be doing that is if there is no science behind it?
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asommerville said:
can someone tell.me.please why alfalfa is not recommended?
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There's no issue with feeding alfalfa to BF horses it is an excellent source of calcium and protein in a fibrous form I feed it to all mine when they are working hard .
However it does makes some horses itch and therefore you need to avoid it with them.
It is a high energy feed so it can cause issues when feed to horses who are in too light work to need it.
Also you need to buy it in a molasses free form as its usually coated in oil and mollasses to stop it clumping and to make it taste sweet as naturally it's quite bitter tasting.
 
I did wonder if OP had got her CAPS key stuck...............

Once knew an (ex) ILPH person who was also BHS Instructor - they exhibited similar behaviours.

Knew naff all about how to feed horses.
 
TwoStroke said:
I think everything that needs to be said has been said :rolleyes:.

Curious about this, though:



They do have pedal bones...

Ergo they have feet?
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They have chestnuts too, but they're not part nut, part animal *rolls eyes*.

Horses have hooves. Humans have feet. Dogs have paws.
 
Cedars said:
They have chestnuts too, but they're not part nut, part animal *rolls eyes*.

Horses have hooves. Humans have feet. Dogs have paws.
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I would have said the hoof was part of the foot. Isn't there an old saying "no foot, no horse?"

Surely the hoof's just the hard "nail" part, and the bones inside are the bones of the foot, not the bones of the hoof?
 
FionaM12 said:
I would have said the hoof was part of the foot. Isn't there an old saying "no foot, no horse?"

Surely the hoof's just the hard "nail" part, and the bones inside are the bones of the foot, not the bones of the hoof?
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No, thats the hoof wall.

Whatever - point is, if your horse does not wear shoes, it is unshod. It is not barefoot. Barefoot is the fashionable name given to this new trend. It makes people like Cptrayes seem faddy and unknowledgeable when it couldn't be further from the truth.

Barefoot in my mind is linked in with parelli, carrot sticks and people who use homeopathy. Unshod is a perfectly acceptable way to keep your horse!
 
Cedars said:
No, thats the hoof wall.

Whatever - point is, if your horse does not wear shoes, it is unshod. It is not barefoot. Barefoot is the fashionable name given to this new trend. It makes people like Cptrayes seem faddy and unknowledgeable when it couldn't be further from the truth.

Barefoot in my mind is linked in with parelli, carrot sticks and people who use homeopathy. Unshod is a perfectly acceptable way to keep your horse!
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I returned to horses after a break of 34 years and was amazed how many were now unshod. In the 1970s everyone believed we had to had our horses shod to do road work.

I never thought of it as faddy tbh. Sometimes I hear people use the term barefoot, sometimes they use unshod. I didn't think there was a difference! :o:D
 
well hoof capsule really.. I don't think the internal structures are really 'hoof'

barehoof just doesn't really seem to roll off the tongue... barefoot is in now in frequent use and is therefore part of the nomenaculture. and I am certainly happy to use it, I believe unshod is not preferred because it implies that the default would be shod..
 
Enfys said:
........so, hoof quality improves given a better diet, so if a shod horse was fed the same diet as a 'barefoot' horse it stands to reason his feet should also improve, yes?

So if it is as simple as that why not feed him that diet in the first place?

I have often wondered about the 'barefoot' diet :o

My unshod, never shod, therefore barefoot, horses don't have a special, all singing, all dancing diet and they have great hooves, guess I am just very, very lucky in that then. I also don't go a whole heap on the various snake oils sold to rub on their hooves either :( I once did an experiment, I had horses with good hooves that both I and my farrier were familiar with.
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I think the general concept is preferable or any horse shod or unshod.
Too many 'top quality' feeds are packed with sugar... look at Hi-Fi Lite (recommended for Laminitics :eek:).

I also think that people without the all singing dancing diets are often the ones doing alright purely for that reason... because they aren't being pumped full of un-natural feed.

For what it's worth I have no objection to shod/unshod and my horses are on grass.... and dried grass ;)

Pan
 
englund said:
The problem is on this forum its all brown rice and sandals the fact is i say it like it is take it or leave it i dont care. Information on this site is taken seriously by novice owners and therefore needs to be justified.

Once again whats the actual science behind changing the diet? so far all weve gained is that if its a crappy diet it should be changed. That does not explain the science.

Polite notice I am very aware how blunt I am maybe I will get the answers im looking for now.
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if you take your blinkers off and read the answers properly you will see that it has been answered

englund said:
What has insulin resistance got to do with removing the shoes. You are not reading my question properly. I KNOW feeding a crap diet will effect horses with or with out shoes. I want to know specifically why it has to change when you go barefoot and none of you can answer this.
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see the above comment.

moandben said:
Because a lot of shod horses have low grade lamintus, by removing the shoes you will see the full extent of what the shoes have been hiding. By reducing sugar intake as it lowers the lamintus and sensitivity in the foot.
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in a nutshell ^^

ETA - surely it makes sense because so many people have tried adjusting the diet in this way, and it has worked?!
 
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Cedars said:
No, thats the hoof wall.

Whatever - point is, if your horse does not wear shoes, it is unshod. It is not barefoot. Barefoot is the fashionable name given to this new trend. It makes people like Cptrayes seem faddy and unknowledgeable when it couldn't be further from the truth.

Barefoot in my mind is linked in with parelli, carrot sticks and people who use homeopathy. Unshod is a perfectly acceptable way to keep your horse!
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I don't care what anyone else calls it as long as I understand what they mean. But for me, my horses are barefoot precisely as Ester says. The term "unshod" implies that shod is the default position, and since they aren't born with shoes on, that expression to describe my horses just does not cut the mustard. On the other hand, a person's horse is not barefoot if they have left its shoes off while it is resting and intend to put them back on when it is working, it's definitely unshod.

The term barefoot is not new. The first use I am aware of is in the original True Grit, where the heroin says "you'd better put some shoes on it I ain't riding no barefoot horse".

The reason she needs shoes on it is because she is about to ride a horse whose feet are totally unused to work of any kind, newly backed, for many miles a day in pursuit of the man who killed her father.

No-one would say "I got out of bed this morning and wandered down to the kitchen shoeless". They would say barefoot. It baffles me that people get bent out of shape about using the same expression for our horses.

Lastly. Me? Parelli? Homeopathy? :D :D :D
 
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