Yet Another Barefoot Thread!

[be positive]

A question or two which I have not found answers to by looking elsewhere.
I have a racehorse in for box rest 4- 6 weeks following tendon injury, he will then be turned away until next summer to hopefully come back into slow work.

He arrived Wednesday, unshod, behind he is ok, not great but his front feet are poor his heels are very underrun, the walls at the heel area have turned in and he is walking on them, this will be addressed very soon by my farrier. He also has hardly any frog, I have just the time he is in to try and improve as much as I can, once he goes out I want to leave him there to prevent damage to the leg, so bringing in each day is not ideal.

Any suggestions to help as much as I can in such a short time? Obviously he will continue to have the feet trimmed regularly and will be fed daily.

He is on Fast Fibre, linseed, magnitude as a calmer and adlib haylage, he gets 2x 10 mins walking each day on concrete yard and if he is ok can do this on sand, not if he gets too lit up.

 

[tallyho!]

Yay barefoot thread!!

Best advice, if on box rest... Leave the feet be. They will sort themselves out. Just make sure there is good hay, a good mineral lick. I doubt you will be feeding high energy foods to a resting horse so just keep it simple and fibrous.

A tb at our yard just finishing box rest. In the three months her feet ar looking from typical flat, no frog to flipping awesome!!! Rasp off the rough stuff but don't worry about them too much. Certainly do not go chop chopping off chunks of frog or sole of rasping the hoof wall until you can see through it.

Leave nature to do her stuff

 

[be positive]

I was just worried that the feet look so bad after 2 months of box rest elsewhere, he has just moved to my yard to finish his time, poor boy, I have no idea what he was feed previously so that may be the key, thanks I will continue what I am doing and hope the improve.

 

[tallyho!]

That is definitely an indicator of diet. This mare gets all the hay she can eat. Hay, not haylage. A handful of soaked speedibeet with chaff with a cupful of linseed twice a day and good lick. She has been walked in hand for the last few weeks and hasn't felt a stone around our farm. She marches on like a dartmoor pony.

 

[Oberon]

Without movement, progress will be very slow.

Don't expect some of the rapid transformations you see on the internet when other horses go BF .

Please, please be cautious about trimming at this stage.

It may look horrible....but I would rather have too much tissue on a weak hoof rather than a pretty one with too little.

If she has under run heels and a wimpy frog - then that excess tissue on the wall will be protecting the horse at present. To trim it all off 'text book style' will dump the horse on the weak areas that aren't ready for it yet.....Hence the horse will be sore and brace.....and cause tightness higher up in the body.

Obviously you can be guided by your farrier and it's impossible to be definite without seeing the hoof....but I would hesitate to trim unless absolutely necessary......

 

[be positive]

Thank you Oberon, I am lucky my farrier will leave the foot alone, he recently did one that has self trimmed for 10 months all that was touched was the slight wing developing, he is very supportive and with this horse will only do what is required, probably just some of the horn that is bending the wrong way as he will not get enough walking to remove it himself .
I can walk him over rougher areas of yard, he seems to be fairly comfy, I just dare not take him off the yard as he is explosive at times and the legs are more precious than the feet for now. I will be patient and hope that when he comes back next summer they are good enough to help rather than hinder his return to work.

Thanks for the pms, I will go through all the info when I am more awake